has almost 100K…had comprehensive service at 60K…what needs to be done next?been ripped off by dealerships in rhode island. planning to have jim from dublin motors do the maintenance
Do what your owner’s manual says. That’s what it’s for.
“Had comprehensive service at 60K.”
That was nearly 40K miles ago. It’s time to pull the owner’s manual out of the glove box and read it. The manual will tell you what type of maintenance is required, and at what intervals.
Tell Jim I said hello.
Dealers and often independents have their ideas of what is proper maintenance, often based on their profit.
The owner’s manual list maintenance that needs to be done to provide you with cheap, reliable and safe driving. Follow what is in that owner’s manual.
That said, I would add a change of transmission fluid about every 40,000 miles for an automatic and about 100,000 miles for a manual. I would also suggest new plug wires (OEM) about every 100,000. Neither of these are expensive.
Make this one more vote for simply doing what is mentioned for the 90k service in your Owner’s Manual. Why reinvent the wheel?
And, as Mr. Meehan noted, the transmission fluid should be changed, even if that procedure is not listed in the Volvo maintenance schedule. I would also add a change of the brake fluid.
You didn’t mention year of the Volvo. Is this the 5 cyc turbo motor? Most Volvos 5 cylinders need complete tune ups every 30K miles, plugs, rotor, cap, and wires. All kinds of filter replacements, including fuel filter if it has one. Likely time to change all the fluids, trans, coolant, brakes, perhaps even power steering at 100K.
I go over my owner’s manual, and the old service records before heading to the shop. I want to compare what the owner’s manual says needs to be done against the records to see what has been done and when in miles and date. This way I can say no when something is thrown at me. Most anything the has the word “flush” in it should get a “no”. Most flushes do more for the shop’s profit and damage to your wallet with little positive impact on the car. Flushes may be useful in dealing with problems, but good and timely maintenance in general makes flushes unnecessary.
If your motor has a timing BELT, it is either due for replacement or should have been done already. I think the 5 cylinder motor has a timing belt and the change interval is every 70K miles.
I just got the oil change done on my '03 Civic. It was due for a brake fluid flush which is a worthwhile service. I have 86K miles on the car so they tried to sell me the 90K service. It was a “major” and involved lots of stuff I’ve either done on my own or was over and above the Honda owner’s manual recommendations. Said no, and just got the services I wanted. If I’d said yes the bill was going to be over $500 and the car won’t be any better for it.
“I go over my owner’s manual, and the old service records before heading to the shop. I want to compare what the owner’s manual says needs to be done against the records to see what has been done and when in miles and date.”
Yes, that is exactly what a conscientious car owner should do, but I have a suggestion to make it easier:
Shortly after I buy a car, I construct a grid/chart on which I list all required maintenance procedures vertically on the left side of the chart. Horizontally, I make boxes in which I can list the date and the odometer mileage of each maintenance event.
Just by putting a check-mark in the box where the maintenance procedure and the date/mileage coincide, I have a graphic device that shows me what was done and when it was done without the need to go through a bunch of service invoices at a later date.
I construct the grid/chart on the inside of a legal-size file folder, and all of my maintenance invoices go into that folder. I can even place reminders in the form of post-it notes on the chart, in order to make sure that I remember some more obscure issues like when to rotate tires after factoring in when the tires were demounted and remounted in order to switch from my 3-season tires to my winter tires.
By spending about 30 minutes to construct this chart initially, and then by spending an additional minute or two after each service to update my chart, I can see at a glance what services have been done. This avoids both the duplication of services and the skipping of services, and as a result, it can save a car owner lots of money in the long-term.
My independent shop can go to a data base on the computer for any automobile and bring up what needs to be done at different time/mileage intervals. This was true for our 2003 Toyota 4Runner at the 60,000 mile checkpoint and for our 2006 Chevrolet Uplander at the 50,000 mile point. In both cases, the printout of maintenance items corresponded exactly with the owner’s manuals.
I don’t know whether or not my independent shop charges a whole lot less than the dealer, but they have done good work for me for almost 20 years. I had a bad experience with the Toyota dealer on warranty work, so when the problem was finally corrected, I never went back–had my independent do all the servicing. On the Uplander, my Chevrolet dealer’s service department is very good and its a toss-up where I should take this vehicle for service.