Suspension noise

[Laird Scooby]

Have you checked the bottom ball joints Jack?

[capt jack]

Hi Dave. Yes, bottom ball joints are good - they were replaced with the wishbones last November.

Jack

[360beast]

To check the bottom ball joints, jack one side up and put an axle stand under the suspension arm going to the hub and release the jack so there is some weight (not all) on the suspension arm. Now use some wood or a pry bar under the wheel and get someone to lift the wheel up and down with the bar/wood while you look and have you hand on the ball joint. Loading up the suspension helps to find if bottom ball joints are shot on RWD cars. Worked everytime at the garage I worked at, you would be amazed at how many times they were shot.

[Laird Scooby]

In addition to Lukes excellent advice there Jack, i wouldn't discount the possibility of the bottom ball joints being FUBAR as many ball joints these days have little or worse still, no grease in from the factory.

On my other car, the bottom ball joints are really the Achilles Heel of the front suspension as if they fail, they do it catastrophically with the pin snapping usually. This leaves the hub (and the wheel, driveshaft etc) with no bottom location - you can imagine the results!

Last ball joint i fitted to my Coupe, i checked the grease in it by popping the rubber boot off. Glad i did, there wasn't any! They were from a well-respected pattern parts supplier as well.

If yours were the same and you had it done in a garage, chances are they would simply have fitted the ball joints and not checked the grease - after all it's something you don't expect to have to check! I was only alerted to it by someone who had bought (on my recommendation sadly) the same ball joints for his car. After about 3 months they were knocking badly and when he changed them again, he pulled the boot back and found no evidence there had ever been grease inside them! Pulling the boots on the new pair of ball joints (from a different manufacturer) revealed the same!

As the Volvo ball joints bolt into the bottom of the McPherson struts which are essentially hollow tubes with shock absorber inserts inside and a spring platform on the outside, they can act as sounding tubes and give a hollow sound to the knock.

Worth double-checking the ball joints IMHO if only to eliminate them from the diagnostic process.

*** EDIT ***

In fact, thinking about it, i've changed the bottom ball joints on my 760 since i've had it as well. After my experience with the Rover ball joints, i pulled the boots on the new ones and one was dry, the other only had a spot of grease.
Needless to say i added some Molybdenum Sulphide grease and gave it a good working in then added some more, worked that in, finally another bit, squeezed the boot down flat to expel the excess and was finally happy.

[Ian21401]

Thanks for that precautionary tale Dave. As ever, good advice. I have to admit that I have never checked new joints although I have never yet encountered premature failure, but good advice never the less. I’ll remember that advice when I next need to replace any ball joints.

[capt jack]

Well we have what looks to be a diagnosis of the problem, and it's a bit of play in the nearside inner tie rod.

£15 for part and £50 to fit it is what I've been quoted, plus it will need to be tracked up too of course.

Jack

[capt jack]

Got the S90 in for the inner tie rod to be replaced, only to get a phone call from the garage to say that the part that had been ordered was wrong. 100% the fault of the supplying motor factor. The garage have drawn a blank at being able to order the correct tie rod from their usual suppliers, but I can see that the parts are available from partsforvolvo online. I can buy two new inner tie rods, both track rod ends (they're handed left and right), and two new boots all for around £60.

I'm reckoning that if one side is wearing the other won't be far behind, and at £5 each, then I might as well replace the boots too.

I'm tempted to do the work myself, just getting the garage to do the tracking alignment afterwards.

My question is, how easy is it? Am I likely to struggle or need the special removal tool to get at the inboard end of the inner tie rod?

As the cost at the garage is only about £50 labour I'm guessing that it's not a difficult job at all. Because they messed me about the garage have said that they'll do the tracking for me for free if I do want to do the repair work myself.

Thanks

Cheers

Jack

[Laird Scooby]

Not sure on the inner track rods Jack but the rest should be fairly easy as a DIY proposition.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by capt jack

Got the S90 in for the inner tie rod to be replaced, only to get a phone call from the garage to say that the part that had been ordered was wrong. 100% the fault of the supplying motor factor. The garage have drawn a blank at being able to order the correct tie rod from their usual suppliers, but I can see that the parts are available from partsforvolvo online. I can buy two new inner tie rods, both track rod ends (they're handed left and right), and two new boots all for around £60.

I'm reckoning that if one side is wearing the other won't be far behind, and at £5 each, then I might as well replace the boots too.

I'm tempted to do the work myself, just getting the garage to do the tracking alignment afterwards.

My question is, how easy is it? Am I likely to struggle or need the special removal tool to get at the inboard end of the inner tie rod?

As the cost at the garage is only about £50 labour I'm guessing that it's not a difficult job at all. Because they messed me about the garage have said that they'll do the tracking for me for free if I do want to do the repair work myself.

Thanks

Cheers

Jack

I'm not sure whether your particular car is the same, but on the 740's & 940's, there's a little tab that you bend back on the inner tie rod & it should come loose. I do think that's depending on what steering rack your car has though, so its worth checking.

In regards to the tab I'm referring to, watch the video below at around 3 minutes in. Its not the best video in the world, but it'll give you an idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zcoK9etIOE

Some cars do require a special tool/adaptor that slides over the inner tie rod to assist in removal. If you're lucky, you might be able to undo the nut with a big adjustable spanner, if there's room to do so.

[capt jack]

Well this afternoon I decided to tackle to ties rods. I haven't ordered the parts at all, but I thought I 'd start by taking it all to bits so that I could be sure of getting the right parts.

Although there is play in the inner tie rod, it is minuscule, and it's hard to believe that it would cause a noise.

But what I did notice is that if the NSF wheel is turned gently in either direction there's a definite clunk that can be felt throughout the suspension strut. It struck me that perhaps the noise is brake pad-related, so I whipped off the caliper - and bingo - the clunk is gone.

I decided that I'd clean up the caliper and pads, apply some brake grease and put it all back. With this done the little clunk was still there, so I had a closer look at the slider pins. The lower one was a tight fit, but the upper one was quite sloppy as it sat in its bore. I swapped them round to see if this made any difference, but still the upper one was quite loose. This I guess confirmed that it's the upper bore that's oversized, rather than a pin being undersized.

So I packed the upper bore with brake grease, carefully slid the pin back into place, dropped the caliper back and tightened and cleaned everything up. The result is a decided absence of a clunk when the wheel is gently rotated.

This pin being loose effectively means that the caliper isn't 100% tight, and will move a little. I've yet to try driving the car - tea and a nice drop of Merlot were waiting, and far too good to resist. But I do now wonder if all those fears for tie-rods and possibly even a new rack are groundless, and the real answer is a slightly sloppy pin?

The real question is, what do I do about it?

Do I swap out the caliper carrier? Do I get some new pins? Do I simply keep the pin well-greased?

One thing that right now I'm very happy about is the fact that I haven't spent any money on new tie-rods and track rod ends that quite possibly are not needed.

We'll see what a drive tomorrow brings!

Jack