Last year, I brought my car in for a routine service to the dealer (even though it's a 1987 240DL wagon Volvo, it's been maintained all these years by the dealer), and they told me that the "trip odometer button fell into the dash" during the service, but not to worry about it. Since the trip odometer had not been working for years, I didn't think much of it. Several months later, I noticed that the main odometer was not working either, and did not think back to this incident. So when I brought the car back for service just now, I noted that the mileage on the main odometer was EXACTLY the same as the mileage recorded on my last service call, indicating that the main odometer had not worked since that time! The service advisor first said that it was not their problem since I had not called about it for almost a year. When I pointed that that the evidence irrevocably proved that the odometer stopped working the day of that service, he agreed, but then claimed that it was all a coincidence. They want to charge me $988 just for the part (speedometer head), not including labor! Do you think this truly could be a coincidence? What would you suggest doing?
I understand that only the dealer can replace the speedo head according to law, but can't just the odometer be fixed? Where can I find the appropriate part and a decent mechanic to replace it? I'm in Baltimore, MD.