Suspension: New suspenders!

[Tannaton]

Will try and keep this brief, thought it might be helpful to some.

Long story short, you used to be able to buy new front wishbones for the XC90 from Volvo at circa £100 each (trade). Now I gather they are exchange only and £200+ each.

My own 2011 MY with 135K was knocking a bit, so decided to do a refresh.

Ingredients - 2 x genuine front bushes (£36 each from TMSAutoParts)
- 2 x genuine rear bushes (ditto...)
- 2 x genuine ball joints (£70 each from Volvopartstrade ebay)

So remove the old wishbones, with ball joint attached, easy just 5 bolts.



Not too bad, rear bush clearly deteriorated



Front bush looked okay



Here is the kit..... New bushes, ball joint, nuts and bolts



To get the old bushes out :

- If you don't have a press, drill and then cut the rubber, then cut and tap out the metal outer in a vice - taking great care not to damage the wishbone casting. You will need a big heavy vice to press the new ones in !

- If you have a press, great, if you don't have dies you will need the following size sockets (which you will need anyway to press the new ones in)





IMPORTANT : Note how the structure of the bushes aligns to the wishbone casting, both front and rear, this must be preserved when fitting the new ones.





Press the old ones out :



I didn't have a socket big enough to press the front bushes out so I knocked this up with old 8mm plate:



And then press away. The front and rears needed about 4 ton to get them moving, then around 1.5t to keep them moving.



As said, the alignment of the new bushes is critical :





I have a reputation for banging on about using genuine parts - this is why. The previous owner had fitted "Genuine OE Quality" Delphi ball joints 17k miles ago (at 118k). Utter sh1te. Notice also the new bushes are marked with the Volvo logo - you cannot buy OE any other way than from Volvo.

Video of ball joint : https://vimeo.com/935037748?share=copy

Refitting is reversal of removal, get the tracking checked.

Old bushes didn't look bad, but feels like a new car now :-)

[Phil Croxley]

Excellent detailed post!

[Carlosos]

Great work. When mine are ready (not far off) I’ll use this
Guide.

[Moose Test]

indeed, nice job. When mine need doing again I'll bring them over to you..

[Carlosos]

Originally Posted by Moose Test

indeed, nice job. When mine need doing again I'll bring them over to you..

Why didn’t I think of that. He’s only a hour and a half away. Sold!