I've owned my 850 for a little over three years and I've come to find out that the suspension that is on my vehicle is waaaaay past its replace date. I don't have the money to do a brand new replacement... As someone who is rather mechanically retarded I wanted to know what potential dangers would arise if I was to replace my suspension with parts off of a salvage yard volvo that's been side swiped.

Thanks for any help!

 

I would not replace anything unless it's bad. For the ground joints (like ball joints) they'll be loose. It's very important to replace stuff when it is bad based on inspection. The ball joints in particular seem to have a modest life and the rest of the car lasts forever. If you have lots of time and no money, then I would say some parts off a wreck that are good (again, based on inspection) would be fine.

 

How would you determine the parts of that volvo is better than what you have?

 

Suspension parts are the one thing I wouldn't go used on! any components with rubber - control arm bushings, spring seats etc should be new and if possible OEM or better. If you are unsure what components are worn, have a professional shop do an inspection. Most of your symptoms will be based on feel - but a bad alignment or bad tires can contribute. Things to inspect (in no preset order): struts for leakage or lack of firmness, control arm bushings & tie rod ends (steering feel), sway bar end links and bushings (clunky noises), wheel bearings (wub wub wub noise?), spring seats/strut mounts (front end thumps going over speed bumps?), rear delta links (not a DIY replacement but loose handling or thumps from the rear). Then there are parts that may suggest suspension issues - chassis bushings, motor mounts etc. As you can tell, almost all of these have some rubber component to them...

 

As long as the suspension was not hit its probably ok but why would you replace an apple for an apple. You dont know the history of the parts your grabbing and just because it is cleaner does not make it newer. You could end up with parts that are in worse shape than when you started. Not to mention the extra labor involved doing the job twice. Figure out what you need and go new.

 

Agree

 

+1

Only ever made that mistake once...bought a set of springs and struts for a 92 Eclipse GS from the yard and turned the car into a boat over bumps. Never again...Same goes for brake parts (rotors/calipers etc).

UNLESS: its something that I can tell has been upgraded (IE poly control arm bushings, etc) and I can tell isn't damaged after removing it.