It has come around again to full service time where all of the belts need replacing as well as the annual service job of the oil, oil filter, fuel filters, crankcase filter, supercharger oil and trim ram fluids.
Now usually we just buy the genuine Volvo Penta service parts, but they do come with a hefty price tag, and as I'm sure we all know Volvo don't actually make most of the parts themselves anyway. So this year I set myself the task of matching up the part numbers and finding parts at a more reasonable price.
So far so good. I have matched up all of the belts with much cheaper vehicle derived parts from Gates. Total cost for the four belts £45 instead of the usual £130 for VP parts, quite a saving. The engine oil also has been matched and a 20 litre drum of oil which is the same spec as the VP oil bought again for £45. Now we never bought VP oil to begin with but still this is quite some saving over what we have previously paid. The oil filter Liam can order through work for £2.40 each rather then the £10 price tag for a VP part. As I'm sure you can already see the savings are starting to mount up already.
We already have 5 litre containers of the super charger oil and the trim ram fluid so these will be changed as a matter of course on a far more regular basis then Volvo specify.
The savings we have found so far do show that it is worth a little bit of time and effort to shop around and find quality parts at a much cheaper price then manufacturers own branded items.
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