V70 Air Con: Air Quality Sensor

[Dancake]

[QUOTE=rk770114;2186403My local Volvo dealer charged me just £185.22 for it. (Part number - 31369324)[/QUOTE]

£185.22 is approximately £130 more expensive than the genuine part as supplied by a few sellers online. It is also £110 more expensive than the exact same part supplied by the VW parts department.

[rk770114]

Originally Posted by Dancake

£185.22 is approximately £130 more expensive than the genuine part as supplied by a few sellers online. It is also £110 more expensive than the exact same part supplied by the VW parts department.

It is your right, sadly i couldn't find it for sale online at the time so i had to pay Volvo for one. Discovered the VW part 2 months after buying mine from Volvo.
Lucky for me replacing the AQS sensor along with a CCM reload and calibration fixed my Climate control problems.

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by rk770114

Lucky for me replacing the AQS sensor along with a CCM reload and calibration fixed my Climate control problems.

The AQS sensor wouldn't have been the cause of your issues as it's only there to automatically close the fresh air intake and has no bearing on anything else.
My sensor was dead for 3 years and it just meant that I had to press the recirculation button myself.
Everything else climate related was spot on.

[rogereld]

Originally Posted by rk770114

I am very surprised that volvo quoted you £373.20 for a AQS sensor. I replaced the AQS sensor on my 07 plate S60 with a genuine Volvo part back in February. My local Volvo dealer charged me just £185.22 for it. (Part number - 31369324)

Your part number is the one which looks the same as various options currently available on internet auctions for prices ranging from £20 to £55. Further reading on this forum and others suggests that some of the cheapest VW branded items could cause interference later to other parts of the electronic climate controls in some cases, but the Hella part currently available for Volvos at £50-60 may not cause any problems.

As I have already mentioned, the part fitted in my 2001 V70 is not the same fitting, and I have found no cheaper alternatives or other manufacturers copies on internet sites. My main dealer parts department commented that with the age of the car some parts prices may now be increasing as it moves in to "classic vehicle" status. i.e. it is so old the parts support is different.

With no alternatives to offer competition Volvo have the market stitched up and can charge what they like. I anticipate they have very low volume sales at the price they are currently quoting but that may be to save them the trouble of having more manufactured.

[rk770114]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

The AQS sensor wouldn't have been the cause of your issues as it's only there to automatically close the fresh air intake and has no bearing on anything else.
My sensor was dead for 3 years and it just meant that I had to press the recirculation button myself.
Everything else climate related was spot on.

I only replaced the AQS sensor on advice from the local volvo specialist who had seen the same fault on a 05 V70. They fixed the V70 by replacing the AQS sensor and recalibrating the CCM. Sadly for me that didn't work so I asked them to try a CCM reload and calibration, that did work and my climate control has been fine ever since.

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by rk770114

I only replaced the AQS sensor on advice from the local volvo specialist who had seen the same fault on a 05 V70. They fixed the V70 by replacing the AQS sensor and recalibrating the CCM. Sadly for me that didn't work so I asked them to try a CCM reload and calibration, that did work and my climate control has been fine ever since.

It's totally understandable that you took their advice but it's a shame that they.....

a) didn't try the plug in fix first seeing as it's quick, much cheaper and there's no additional labour involved.

b) still charged you for a sensor and the labour that was an unnecessary extra job which didn't work.

The AQS data and easy test procedure is shown in Vida so if the specialist is going to rely on expensive guesses that don't work, they're not really worth their name or hourly rate.

[Jim314]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

The AQS sensor wouldn't have been the cause of your issues as it's only there to automatically close the fresh air intake and has no bearing on anything else.
My sensor was dead for 3 years and it just meant that I had to press the recirculation button myself.
Everything else climate related was spot on.

In Britain does one normally use the recirculation setting in midday summer heat or would one use fresh air intake?

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by Jim314

In Britain does one normally use the recirculation setting in midday summer heat or would one use fresh air intake?

It's really only for use when the fresh air quality is reduced by standing traffic, being in a tunnel etc. other than that, you just leave it on fresh intake all the time regardless of time of year or ambient temperature.

[rk770114]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

It's totally understandable that you took their advice but it's a shame that they.....

a) didn't try the plug in fix first seeing as it's quick, much cheaper and there's no additional labour involved.

b) still charged you for a sensor and the labour that was an unnecessary extra job which didn't work.

The AQS data and easy test procedure is shown in Vida so if the specialist is going to rely on expensive guesses that don't work, they're not really worth their name or hourly rate.

To be fair they had fixed a 05 V70 with the same problem by changing the AQS sensor and doing a calibration. And there was a code logged in my CCM for the AQS sensor which i bought and changed myself. All the garage charged me for was half hours labour for the calibration. Sadly it didn't work and i ended up paying for a CCM reload and calibration that did work. Looking back, i probably didn't need to replace the AQS sensor but ......

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by rk770114

To be fair they had fixed a 05 V70 with the same problem by changing the AQS sensor

With respect, that isn't how a professional mechanic should be trying to fix a car.
He shouldn't be thinking, "This worked the other week with something similar so we'll give that a go."

He has access to very specific data and that data would have told him that your fix was different despite the symptoms appearing similar.
He obviously didn't check the data and advised you based on an educated guess which I'm sure was well intentioned but.......

Not the end of the world if it's a £x part but on a £xxx part, to me at least, that's unacceptable.