Steering vagueness and wandering

[sholtby]

Its been some time now but I finally examined my mates car and the fault is clearly due to the front lower control arm bushes. I used a long screwdriver to check and the movement is massive, almost an MOT failure I would have thought.
Trouble is it looks as though Volvo have designed them like this! The cars only done 20k miles from new. They are a large bush for a wishbone (the ones on an 850 are tiny in comparison) and the rubber just seems too soft.
I dont want to replace them with the same rubbish again and am looking for some aftermarket poly items.

Simon

[sholtby]

These should fix the problem

http://www.partsforvolvosonline.com/...oducts_id=1150

Simon

[minuiteman]

>These should fix the problem
>
>http://www.partsforvolvosonline.com/...oducts_id=1150
>
>Simon

Hi Simon,
Re the above, I have read your email with Interest and I have placed an order for the Bushes that you recomended, GOD, I hope they work, its got to be worth a chance.

Now all I have to do is find a garage to fit them, IF THERE ARE ANY GARAGES IN THE BOURNEMOUTH, SOUTHAMPTON, SALISBURY areas or within easy reach, Any Garages, please email me as I need these bushes fitted please. Ta.

[sholtby]

If anyone would rather wait and see if these parts do actually fix the problem I'll report back here hopefully within a couple of weeks. ie dont all of you buy them or I'll feel bad if they are no good and you have wasted your money. I'll give you some tips on how to change them also.

Simon

[simmo]

I changed the same bushes on my old Saab 900 with fantastic results, I am now looking to do the same with my '51 S60 2.4T
I will keep looking over this forum to see how you get on with the new bushes and if you can let me know how easy it is to get the old bushes out! The saab bushes were a pig to get out.
Simmo

Any news yet? I've just looked at my strut brace and can see that the large bush is split. I'll wait till i've heard from you about the wishbone bushes before i replace the lot.

[sholtby]

I've got some news and its bad, really bad. To get straight to the point we have destroyed a driveshaft! My mate came round today to fit the new bushes. We were expecting the lower control arms (wishbones) to be easy to remove by just undoing the bottom ball joint and the bolts that hold the wishbone to the subframe. Removing the bolts is easy enough but pulling the rear mount out and unhooking the bottom ball joint was difficult. Some how when refitting the wishbone the inner cv joint on the drivers side must have become dislocated. The result being that when my mate drove off there was a large crack and it has destroyed the joint. On further examination ie removal of the boot the ball bearings had fallen out and the ball cage was cracked!
Fitting the new bushes into the wishbone was quite difficult. You need a blow lamp, a very large vice and some big sockets. First use a blow lamp to heat the center bar and then press it out. Then cut the remainder of the bush out the wishbone using a hacksaw. Clean everyting up and press the bar into the new bush and then both into the wishbone. It really was quite hard to do.
If anyone could advise how I can repair/replace the driveshaft I'd be most grateful. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have some news on how the car handles. At the moment though I've got my mates car in my garage and he's got my 850 T5!

Simon

[don kalmar union]

Problem here Simon, is that you have to be very carefull to keep the joint closed up when you are removing and manipulating it as you have clearly discovered, and if you have opened up the joint, the balls drop out of their locating cage and the one or two that are left in their proper place carry all the load and split the cage in half if you refit it in that condition.

Drivelink will sort it for you.

Don.Norchi.

www.kalmar-union.com

TME engineered software UK distributor.

[sholtby]

Thanks Don, When I get the driveshaft repaired and fitted I think I will slide the rubber boot down the shaft to check all the ball bearings are still in place. I've never had this problem on the many other cars I have worked on!

Thanks

Simon

[sholtby]

Guys, got the car back together tonight and steering tracked. The polly bushes have absolutely 100 % transformed the handling/steering of the car. My mate is over the moon about how good it is to drive now. He doesnt even care that it cost him £90 to get a driveshaft we damaged repaired.
If you want to try fitting these bushes yourself it is quite difficult but you can learn from my mistakes ie makesure the driveshaft is disconected from the hub and you dont exert any outward force on it.
There is clearly a fault with these bushes that Volvo is unwilling to accept unless you are a police authority in which case they fit uprated bushes.
I now accept that the ride/comfort and handling of an s60 is better than my 850 T5.

Simon