lower control arm PITA

[stevepaa]

So I decided to replace my lower control arms on the 2001 xc70. How hard could it be. I watched the videos and read several threads: three nuts and three bolts, pry it out, push in new, reconnect and tighten. 30 minutes and done.

What a PITA. Got old one off, and could not get new one in. I tried to compress springs to raise strut. No go. I tried a jack on rotor to lift up, and then it moved on me, pulling inner CV joint apart: the three roller mechanism popped with the grease from the hex socket that fits into tranny. What a mess. And the rollers would not go back in. I cleaned it up and the factory swages the end of the hex socket to prevent rollers from coming out. It did not work that way. So I had to file down the swages to reinstall the rollers and put the boot back on.


So I then decided to undo the strut from the spindle to gain some freedom of movement. I measured the gap to maintain the correct alignment and moved strut aside. This gave me the room to install the arm and get the ball joint stem inserted into the control arm end.


Success and only 5 hours of work for just one side.

[howardc64]

So I then decided to undo the strut from the spindle to gain some freedom of movement. I measured the gap to maintain the correct alignment and moved strut aside. This gave me the room to install the arm and get the ball joint stem inserted into the control arm end.

This way is much easier. Lifting the strut/hub assembly off the control arm allows the control arm to go in without any obstruction. Also no need to drop the subframe.

Left all my notes on this job at the link below. Search for "lower control arm bushing"

http://www.freewebs.com/howardsvolvos/suspension.htm

I can now pull each control arm is probably under 20min using this method.

[wwilme]

Howard - I found and followed your instructions six months ago on strut replacement, rear shock/mounting replacement and lower control arm replacement on my '01 V70 T5. You nailed all of them! The only thing I would say, is that if you have limited time just replace the whole lower control arm. I didn't think swapping the bushings out was going to be worth the hours of misery. I also replaced the four subframe bushings. With 160k on the car at that time, I should have just figured everything needed to be done and ordered all the parts at the same time. But instead I did the front struts/seats/mounts/etc and rear shocks/mounts one Saturday and not finding the car riding like new, then did the lower control arms the following Saturday. Still hearing clunks, I did the subframe bushings the 3rd Saturday along with the pully side motor mount, front torque mount and upper mount. That finally got the front end taken care of for the most part, but the ride is still not perfect and I can't really isolate it to one end or the other. Probably should have ordered that little known o-ring kit for the rear subframe attachment points that some folks have mentioned. The front sway bar links appear to be tight and only have about 40k on them and the inner and out tie rod joints appear to be tight as is the rack to the frame itself. I have not investigated the rear suspension yet other than the shocks and upper mounts. I usually only get into projects like this when the weather is cold and I take advantage of my neighbor's lift equiped garage since warm weather weekends are spent outside with the kids. So I have a few months to figure it out.

Anyway, thanks for your detailed write ups and links - they saved me hours!

[howardc64]

On the P2 rear suspensions, I think most people found all the bushings to be pretty indestructible. Only wear elements are the shocks, sway bar bushings and the end link ball joints. Shock isn't too hard, end links are very easy.

On your front end... is the clunks related to road bumps, turns, engine revs, or random?

[wwilme]

Noise in turns I have experienced in the past with our old 850 and v70XCs was cured by sway bar link replacement as I remember - could be wrong though.

I'd say the noises are definitely related to road bumps and broken pavement and not speed dependent.

[howardc64]

I'm assuming you changed the end links. On the 01 T5 that I used to own, worn ball joint on the endlinks made random clicking sounds.

[wwilme]

Nope, those are the parts I didn't replace as they only had 40k on them and felt tight. I pulled one end of each and tried to wobble the ball joints - all felt pretty tight to me. They are cheap an easy enough, maybe I should just do all four for good measure.