My dealer once read my codes for free, and then cleared them and sent me on my way. "Let us know if it happens again."

When it happened again, I left the car with them. They said they found a vacuum hose that had come loose, and they fixed it and sent me on my way. (This was in spite of the fact that I went over that engine compartment with a fine toothed comb, looking for loose or damaged vacuum hoses.) They billed their labor to Volvo North America as warranty work.

When the code returned again, they replaced an oxygen sensor. The car was at 47k miles, just under the 50k mile warranty. They got their money from Volvo NA.

When the code returned again, I was tired of dealing with them. I bought a code reader, checked the code, and found that it was consistent with the electronic throttle module failures that are so well documented about these cars. I brought the car back and had a nice chat with the service writer, service manager and shop steward. When I insisted that they replace the ETM, the shop steward looked at my findings and told me that he didn't understand why this wasn't done right from the start. They replaced the ETM, and the car has been fine ever since. That was at 48.5k miles. I'm at 95k now.

They wasted my time with repeat visits to the dealership and a few days without my car. And they continued to milk Volvo NA for labor on this one problem. Based on this and several similar incidents, I no longer trust any dealer service writer or mechanic to get it right the first time. So long as they can bill the manufacturer for their (deliberate?) mistakes, they have no incentive to get it right.

In your case, it sounds like your dealer is about to milk you in a similar manner: just keep throwing parts (and YOUR MONEY) at the car until we get it right.

Get a code reader and check it yourself. http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/backyard_mechanics_resources.html

If you can't find out what the code means, then ask online. Someone will know.

Knowledge is your only defense against these crooks. If they're not crooks, then they're honest idiots. But for $4500NZ for these parts, it sure sounds like they're crooks to me.

--
Jim Rothe, '99 S70 T5M,
http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/index.html