XC60 suspension - common issues?

[MacV50]

Hi folks

My 2016 XC60 D4 AWD is at just over 80k miles and appears to have a click/light knock from the rear suspension. It's only noticable in town or twisty roads i.e. absolutely quiet on dual carriageways where direction changes are slight.

At my last service, they mentioned rear trailing arm bushes would need doing soon as they were starting to perish. Is there a common wear area on the rear suspension and while in there, is it worth renewing all bushes?

Same question for the front. Any common issues that I should look at.

I have noticed the ride quality isn't so good and it seems a little crashy over some bumps but I guess that's too be expected with that sort of mileage. Most of the miles have been A/B road and town.

I'm assuming shocks and springs could benefit from a refresh

Any experiences on rough cost for a full suspension overhaul?

[Kev0607]

Trailing arm bushes are a common item to perish. An independent Volvo Specialist (not dealership) would charge approximately £300 to replace these. Then you need an alignment afterwards, which is about £60-80. A dealership would be around double that for the same thing.

As for a full suspension refresh, what exactly do you mean? Is it just new shock absorbers, strut bearings? Or do you mean a full suspension overhaul, as in renewing everything like front/rear shock absorbers, springs (only really need replacing if they’re cracked), strut bearings for front, strut mounts for rear, control arms including ball joints (front), drop links (front & rear) & track rods (front)? There’s going to be a big difference in price if its the latter.

If you want to keep the ride original, then Volvo parts are the way to go. If you go down the aftermarket route, then prices probably will be cheaper, but they don’t offer the same level of comfort in my opinion. Brands like Bilstein or KYB are aftermarket options.

As for pricing, front/rear shock absorbers & strut bearings/mounts at a dealership would be £700-£800 for the parts, then the labour to fit them plus VAT. I’d say you’d be looking around £1,200/£1,300 plus VAT.

If you mean a full suspension overhaul including control arms etc, then you’d be looking around £1,750-£2,000 plus VAT at a dealership for the parts & labour. Bare in mind, I’ve seen dealerships charging people over £1,000 just to change the discs/pads on all wheels, so you could be talking even higher than the figure I’ve quoted. Brakes are easy, shock absorbers are more involved labour wise.

A Volvo Specialist would be much cheaper than a dealership in terms of labour & the parts price. If you are mechanically minded & have the tools to do so, then you’ll save a lot by doing the work yourself. If not, avoid the dealerships because you’re going to be paying double in labour per hour easily & paying for the extra retail margin that they add to parts. In that instance, if its not something you’ll be tackling yourself, then an independent garage would be far cheaper for you.

Best to get some quotes & a second opinion before doing a suspension overhaul. Avoid dealerships… Its a dear enough task without them adding their ridiculous labour figures to the Invoice!

[Adrian B]

Hi. Just my recent experience. Took my XC60 2012. 110k to the Volvo dealership for the safety belt recall and they did a free check of the vehicle and told me there was wear in the rear trailing arm bushes! I had the car MOT tested and asked the tester to check this as it would be a failure. He did and said they were ok in his opinion.!

I have very recently just had a similar noise on the front drivers side suspension and I replaced the drop link at a cost of £18 and two nut changes!
Anyhow try a pair of rear droplinks at £40 for the good ones off eBay and get the mechanic to do the job if necessary to check other bits whilst he changes them.
Buy these if you wish, make sure they are the correct part for your year item number 152797973032 on eBay and see if that eliminates the click etc. Not a mind bending job to do. Anyhow a relatively cheap elimination imo

[MacV50]

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply

I think I was quoted around £600 by Dundee Volvo for the trailing arm bushes which would fit with your estimates.

I was just thinking it may be worthwhile replacing all the wear parts in the suspension if it saves on labour through repeated dismantling of items. Plus, I assume it's correct practice to do an alignment after any suspension components are replaced and a Hunter alignment locally is around £80 but the place does charge on top of that for adjustments so if that only had to be done once, it'd probably save quite a bit.

I have a fair bit of mechanical ability and a reasonably well equipped tool box but I may put it into somewhere local as it'll be much quicker if all 4 corners are off the ground and with winter on the way, I don't want to be crawling around on my driveway for a couple of days!

MOT is booked for the 29th so will see what comes back from that. I can always split the front and rear work to spread the cost. Rear definitely needs attention so will be done first

[Kev0607]

I understand. See what comes back on the MOT, but doing a suspension overhaul isn’t going to be cheap. All suspension parts are wear items, so that means replacing the whole lot if you want to replace all wear items. Unless you mean just replacing the ones that are showing signs of wear at the moment?

Its common practice to get the car aligned after suspension work - If you fit new shock absorbers, control arms or track rods in particular. If you were just replacing drop links, then an alignment isn’t necessary.

I agree with doing the alignment just once too, as it makes sense to do it once after these parts have been replaced, but it depends on what you’ve replaced & whether you do decide to split the work into parts (rear first, then the front for example). If you did that, then you’d need two alignments. You wouldn’t want to refresh the rear suspension, don’t do an alignment for several months & then decide to renew the front suspension because your tyres could be well worn by that stage!

Doing the job in parts will be the cheaper way (spreading cost), but you’d need more than one alignment. Unless you were literally going to do the rear one week & then the front in another. I wouldn’t suggest fitting new parts & leaving the alignment until you start work on the other axle, if there’s a prolonged gap in between because then your tyres could start wearing & that’s another cost in itself. You can get the alignment as close as possible when doing suspension work, by counting the number of turns when disassembling the track rods for example, but its never going to be bang on just by the human touch/eye.

[Deck1ng]

Likewise, I was informed that all my rear bushes needed replacing after inspection following seatbelt recall. I also had two rear springs broken. For springs and bush replacement , volvo ( Stoneacre Stockton, ex Mill Volvo)wanted £980 incl VAT. Told bushes where a massive job needing specialist equipment. Springs where priced at £ 174 each. Had all work carried out for under £350, incl cost of genuine volvo parts. Work carried out by local multi marquee garage.

[Yorkshire2160]

Rear sway bar and bushes come as one unit , as far as I am aware you can not just change the bushes. Easy job to do though.