OK, a bit more than an oil change but.....

60,000 mile service (based on time, not mileage - 52,000) - it's an oil plus filter change with plug change and cabin air filter added

Materials:

Castro Edge $57.68
Oil filter 18.99
Cabin air filter 80.33
Spark plugs 87.61

With the possible exception of the oil, the above are charged at about 2X the quoted retail price from most outlets (had I known that they were going to install the very expensive "multi filter" in the HVAC system, I would certainly have questioned the value)

Labor $371.20 (guessing the labor rate to be ~ $100/hour, this suggests a rate of activity best seen with time lapse photography)

Shop supplies $23.54 (pure silk wiping cloths?)

10% coupon

$595.65

And, to top it off, my complaint about the back light on the drivers side window control was denied as being not covered - to be taken up directly with Volvo HQ

Unbridled greed!

 

I'd bet the labor rate is over $100 an hour. And yes, labor costs money.

 

And why in the world (regardless of time) would you be replacing your spark plugs at 52k miles. 100k is the recommended interval.

 

per schedule

 

Recommended by who? Not Volvo.

 

you can go to https://www.volvocars.com/us/own/own...owners-manuals and download the maintenance schedule to see what Volvo publishes as the maintenance intervals for your car. no mention of the year/model but 60K miles for plugs seems the norm.

 

Yes, I see that Volvo recommends spark plug replacements sooner then I've seen with other manufacturers. Did a quick check on my wife's S60 T6 and it calls for replacement at 75k. Getting close to that now.

 

Interesting....I wonder why the T6 (turbo/supercharged?) would have a longer plug life than the turbo T5? I forgot to ask the service dept to keep the old plugs for me. "Reading" the plugs can tell you a lot about the engine's operation. (Did some wrenching on a FIII Cooper with a 500cc Norton - 2 plugs, start on one and warm up then pull it and fit the (colder) plug to run.)

 

maybe its because the T6 plugs fire 20% less per RPM than the T5 or maybe they are a different plug design?? On a 60K mile engine with FI and direct coils, there's probably not a lot to read from the plugs unless your car is consuming oil...

 

Good point - had not thought of that - would correspond to predicted electrode erosion