Same question. Volvo appears to have a stranglehold on the market by controlling parts sales to licensed dealers and repair shops. I was amazed to discover that the shop at the Marina where I purchased my R-27 can only service and sell Volvo gas engine parts - they can't touch my D3-200 or even sell me a filter. Imagine my surprise.
By the way D.D., I am in Glen Mills, PA so we're almost neighbors. We will be on the Boehemia this summer.
Our boat is currently in Rock Hall at the Rock Hall Landing marina. There is a Volvo dealer Rapid Response in Cecilton. A lady named Rhonda seems to be in charge it's called Outstanding Marine. I waited a couple weeks for her to get around to giving me the required Pre Delivery Inspection. Must not pay much? I had conflicts with being able to get down to the boat on short notice till the end of the month so I stopped by to explain she should take me off the schedule. I bought a gallon of antifreeze she charged me 53 dollars!!!
I guess with the Memorial Day weekend coming up they were super busy. That whole thing scared me a little. I have now made an appointment with Monmouth Marine engines in Brielle New Jersey. I did an online service request and before they even gave me a date they whacked my credit card for 200 dollars.
I'll pulling the boat from Rock Hall at the end of the month so I can take to Monmouth Marine Engine for the P.D.I. and it's first real service. I have talked to someone from there named Ken who always returns phone calls and seems to know his business. I'll speak to that later. I first thing I'm going to ask him is what does the Volvo antifreeze cost? Our plans include doing the Trent Severn Waterway and the North Channel rendezvous. Then we hope to be back down on the Chesapeake at Tolchester Beach marina for September and Maybe October. The saga continues.
D.D.
Let me know how the PDI goes please. PM me anytime.
I am still searching for service up North - Bohemia Vista from June 1 to August - then in Ocean City, NJ for the month before heading back to the Chesapeake. Sounds like we have similar ideas for the Summer.
" I bought a gallon of antifreeze she charged me 53 dollars!!!"
I order all my parts from my dealer PortBoatHouse in Port Alberni, BC. If you buy your boat from them you get 15% off for life.
I was ordering parts today and asked about the Volvo antifreeze out of interest.
$32.81 for 5 litres, Canadian dollars, less my 15% discount. After discount and taxes is $31.24 CAD
Your US Gal is 3.89 litres and you paid in USD
That's pretty bad!
Port Boat House is a wonderful place to do business no matter where in Canada or the U.S. you are located. Here I am in the hinterland (that would be MN) and they put together a comfortable trade arrangement -- a Volvo powered Orca for my beautiful Yanmar powered R27. I was extremely happy with the entire transaction. Although unfortunately now due to family health issues I have had to put the Ranger up for sale, I continue to express my high regard for Port Boat House. Other marine dealers could learn a lot from them!
I knew at 53 dollars I was getting ripped. I'm going to do a short feature film for Volvo so I decided to roll with the punches to a certain extent. What is really stupid of me was why I needed the gallon of anti freeze in the first place. On our shake down cruise with the dealer. He fired up the boat and a low antifreeze message came on the Volvo message center at the helm. So we had the antifreeze that came with the boat. I had loaded some tools and a funnel in advance of taking the shake down cruise. So my wife and unscrewed the cap where it said anti freeze as instructed by the dealer and slowly kept putting antifreeze down the hole. We asked how much we should adding as we could see nothing. The engine hatch was closed. Not surprisingly it took the whole gallon. So we set out on the shake down cruise and after a while the dealer wanted to make sure the boat would hit max rpms we started motoring along and got up to about 20 mph. All that antifreeze had gone straight into the bilge now was getting whipped up on to the exhaust pipe by the spinning prop shaft creating a strange smell which caused us to come off flank speed to check out the situation. Opened the engine hatch, wow must have over filled the coolant reservoir. Hit the bilge pump (poor fish) and things were all better. We got back and loaded the boat on the trailer and had the dealer take care of a few last minute items and we headed for home 1100 miles away. On the way home we thought putting boat in Rock Hall Maryland would be a good idea. The local Volvo Penta dealer was only about a half hour away. I made arrangements by faxing them a service request for my PDI. In the mean time I was using some corrosion block and looking things over I decided to check out the coolant level issue a little better. With the engine hatch open I could clearly see you had to reach under the floor to remove the cap on the engine before stuffing the funnel down the hole marked antifreeze. So I waited a couple weeks for the Volvo Penta dealer to schedule me in. I called her back to inform her that I had figured out the antifreeze leak problem. I guess because it was getting close to Memorial Day they were swamped. After waiting two weeks my ability to be able to meet the dealer for the PDI became impossible. I had people at my work going on vacation. And I live 2.5 hours away from Rock Hall. So at the end of the month I will pull the boat and take it to the dealer in Brielle New Jersey. They have always returned my phones calls so we shall see what happens next. 😱
D.D.
Hello,
Just a note,.. I purchased all my filters, oil and coolant at www.volvopentastore.com. Purchased everything earlier this year, free shipping and quick service. You will need to know the model specifics of your diesel and reverse gear, but they have the parts. I believe a gallon of coolant (premix) was about $28.
