Bought our V70 '04 2.5T last summer. From 3000 miles I changed to Mobil-1 Synthetic oil and then for the scheduled 7500mile dealer service I took my own Mobil-1 in for them to fill the car with. Today my wife took the car in for its 15000mile scheduled service and I sent Mobil-1 oil with her. She got a loaner car for the day and when she picked the car up she just drove it home. When I got home and looked at the service record, the dealer has "GTX 10W30" as the oil used. Now I know that this is dyno, non-synthetic Casterol. If I call the dealer they are bound to tell me that if we took our own oil in they used it, but how can I be sure? Is there a way to take some oil off of the dip stick and check to see if it is synthetic or not? I've never trusted the dealer and have my doubts about how honest they are this time too as we have had numerous issues with work they've done in the past.
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Current owner of a '04 V70 2.5T. Previous owner of a '94 850 Turbo Wagon

Thanks everyone who answered this thread. I called the dealer and they told me that they have to invoice it out on paper as if they put the shop oil in it due to this work being warranty work. They assured me that they put my oil in the car. I hope so. I will watch next time or ask for the bottles back. Lesson learned...Maybe no harm done.
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Current owner of a '04 V70 2.5T. Previous owner of a '94 850 Turbo Wagon

I just bought my first Volvo a 2000 V70R and I plan to seafoam my crankcase and throttle body because it has some miles on it and I'm sure the previous owner only used dino oil from Volvo dealership services...I'd like to clean out some of the gunk that I'm sure has built up. In any event, in our case, one 3000 mile run on dino won't harm much.

I'd guess that turbo seals are the #1 beneficiary of synth oil...less prone to coking than dino oil if you don't let it idle down after spirited boosting. I am amazed to find that Volvo turbos last as long as they do, even if they are coolant cooled also.

Kevin

That's very possible as with '04s, the first services are indeed warranty, paid for by Volvo so shop oil then might need to be charged out on the RO.

First, I concur with the others who indicated that if they used the wrong oil, it was probably unintentional.

You could pull the dipstick and try to burn some of the oil. If it is indeed Mobil 1, it would probably take a blowtorch to get it hot enough to burn.

In all likelihood, they just generated a standard oil cahange invoice which included the Castrol. If you want to be sure that they use the oil you provide, and you "never trusted the dealer", why not take it to a shop you trust, wait, and watch them. An oil change shouldn't take more than 30 minutes, max, hardly worth the drive-loaner-drive-drive-pickup-drive hassle sequence. Quicker to wait and bring the newspaper. Plus, you know that they're doing the job you asked.

-BTC

I dissagree with those who say that a dealer tech probably stole your oil (hardly worth the risk of being fired over, yes...STEALING). It's more likely that you didn't supply an oil filter thus when the parts guy charged out the filter, he also included the oil as he normally would.
One needs to be sure that the RO says "USE CUSTOMERS OIL!!!" in bold print or a parts guy will normally charge out oil on any LOF.

Call the dealer as they probably just used your oil but also charged you for theirs. In the future, if you doubt their honestly, change the oil yourself or watch them put your oil in your engine. You could also ask to get the used bottles back and even go so far as to mark them too.

That all depends upon how the oil is charge out and dispensed. If the bulk oil is simply out in the shop and you can pump however much you like, then not using your oil would be no problem. However if you have to go to the parts department and get it in bottles or have it dialed up to a given pump station it would be a little tougher. But still the tech, like all of us, is a creature of habit and may have done all of the above and still not used your oil. It is not so much a thing as he STOLE my oil, typically he just screwed up and it is too big of a hassle to go back and make it right. You would be amazed at the amount of stuff that gets swept under the carpet in the day to day grind of an automotive repair facility. Your best bet is in the future to ask for the old bottles back.

Having worked in dealers myself for many years and still do, there's nothing that I havent seen or heard of yet I don't ever see techs stealing customers oil or other items that belong to customers. We make enough money to afford our own oil. Perhaps I work in more honest shops?

The only person who is going to have the answer to this one is the technician who did it. I worked in a Volvo dealer for many years and when a customer brought his own oil in the repair order always said "use customer's oil" and that was always the running joke. Use customer's oil in MY car that is. Truthfully it was never really an overtly dishonest thing it was just that you get in a routine when you are banging out oil changes and services and part of that routine does not include using the customer's oil. So on occassion you would forget to use their oil and as a creature of habit you would just stuff it full of whatever the shop oil was. When you backed the car out and realized that the guys oil was still sitting on the front seat or on your bench you simply stuffed it under your bench and went on about your business. I know it sucks, but that is reality and that is why I say that only the tech that did your oil change will know. Could be that he did in fact use your oil in your car and that the service advisor was a bone head and charged out the oil because he too is a creature of habit and closes out hundreds of tickets that have oil changes on them and a very very small percentage of them supply their own oil. I would think that at the very least they should refund you the price of the oil that they charged you for or redue your oil change with your synthetic oil. It's a bit of a shit sandwich for them but oh well they just have to deal with it.

This is a long shot but do you have a college or university near by? You could pull a small sample and see if the chemistry dept will run it for you. I'm guessing a mass spectrometer could tell and profs like to give students "unknows" to ID or at least they did when I was in college in the dark ages. Also, there are oil analysis labs that do just that and they surely could tell you. You just collect a small sample and mail it to them

bl

Forgot to mention that a chemistry lab would need a sample of Mobil 1 along with whatever is in you engine so they can compair readouts to tell if the two are the same. The mass spectrometers were the ticket when I was in college in the early 70's but am sure they have much better stuff today. Hopefully some chemists on the BB will know.

bl

Thanks for the suggestions but I think I'll approach the dealer first for their honesty. I found the 7500mile receipt from the dealer which only said "oil change," and not "GTX," etc. I took in 5W30 Mobil-1...they apparently filled the car with 10W30 Casterol. If the dealer wavers or seems to lie to me then I'll probably drain and re-do the oil change myself. Seems the lab, etc. approach is more trouble than its worth....anyway, thanks again.
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Current owner of a '04 V70 2.5T. Previous owner of a '94 850 Turbo Wagon