Shop told me my C70 control arm (bushings) is loose and replacement costs $600. So I wonder if anybody here ever did it by themselves before?

I am checking this part and found two variants of it: 18mm or 21mm. How do I know which one my car use？ Also there are left and right side. Each car has two of these or it's for right/left side drive cars?

Please share your knowledge here. Thanks！

 

You need a floor jack to jack up car, jack stands to support car, bottle jack to unload coil spring slowly and carefully. Wheel needs to be removed, complete brake hub. Wrenches/sockets to remove control arm. Machine shop to press in new bushings.

 

The new control arm should have everything on it already, right?
Still my question is which one, 18mm or 21mm, that my car uses and how many control arms are on this car?

 

Try using a site like Tascaparts.com or volvopartswarehouse.com to find the OEM part number and a diagram. You should probably replace both fronts at the same time and you'll need an alignment to follow. It looks like the 21mm ball joint set up started in 2007 and the 18 was prior on the C70s. Check out OEM# 31277462 for the right and 31277463 for the left to confirm fit in the 2010s.

 

volvopartswarehouse.com is where I found two variants of these. I just sent them an e-mail asking which one is for me. Tascaparts.com lists only 21mm version for my car, so 21mm is more likely. I read somewhere 18 is for C30 before certain date in 2003 and after that date, they changed it to 21mm even on C30. What a mess!

I will follow your suggestion, change both sides and do an alignment together.

Thanks!

 

I think I will also replace the struts: this way I don't need to worry about the whole front end later.


Anybody had good/bad experience with OEM or aftermarket parts? OEM may be a safe bet but I just don't see any quality advantage: they didn't last that long!

 

110,000 miles for a rubber wear item is bad? Maybe you should design new ones since those are flawed.

 

lol, move to poly bushings and save for the dentist (after losing all your fillings). With struts, OEM is Boge Sachs and they can be found competitively priced. The key on doing the struts is to replace the rubber strut bushing with OEM or better quality. Not sure but I but I think OEM is Lemforder... At any rate, factory bushings is a good idea. For the control arms, I'd still go OEM. Years ago I did after market control arms on my '95 850T and they only lasted 60K, so I'm now swearing by OEM for ANYTHING rubber.

 

To spend $400 on parts and $200 on labor just to get to a rubber piece is still not bad enough for you? Then you really don't have much expectations in life... :-)

 

I will buy everything OEM then. Do they provide new strut bushing with the purchase or I have to buy them separately?

 

I expect that car parts cost money. And labor of any sort also costs money. You have unrealistic expectations if you think you shouldn't have to put money into maintaining a car. But we established that with your last rant. How did your engineering meeting with Volvo go, by the way? I'm still waiting for the recall for new balancers...

And for $400, you don't just get the rubber bushing. It's the whole control arm, complete with new bushings and ball joint.

 

Yeah, otherwise, how can you make money, right?
"meeting with Volvo"? I understand you don't even know the process: I met the lawyers and let them meet/deal with Volvo... And it's not a recall, it's a class action. Let me know if you want to join: our statistics shows 2 out of 3 such cars were already sold for parts for the exact same problem and the owners can't afford the repair cost.

 

Shame on me for having a job and expecting to make money. And shame on carpenters, electricians, plumbers and any other person who provides labor for a cost. But no shame on lawsuit happy people like youself who blame everything on everyone else.

You should start a class action for control arms. I've replaced a bunch of them. Common problem on the P1.

 

Good idea: but since when control arms fail, they only fail locally and don't cause any other chain reactions, such as damaging your engine or transmission, or burning down your house, I don't see any lawsuit over there... :-)

 

True. I didn't realize your class action lawsuit was against every manufacturer who uses belt driven interference engines. Good luck!

 

You have to be very specific when dealing with legal matters: it's not manufacturer who uses belt driven interference engines, but rather


manufacturers who intentionally designed their products to cause chain reaction damage and high repair cost to the consumers...

 

If you shred a belt on any interference motor and it gets caught in the timing belt, the same result happens. So yes, your gripe is with any interference motor that is belt driven. I wonder if your legal team will include how driver error led to the belt shredding. I doubt it.

 

The key question here is: why the belt has to be THERE and who decided to put it THERE? :-)


And whoever made the decision have to be RESPONSIBLE for it!

 

Are you serious? Do you think your 2010 is the first car to have the timing and accessories belt driven off the crank?

 

There is a difference between the first and the cheapest...