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The right side bushing broke away from the front stabilizer bar and the bar is knocking every time I hit a bump. The Mitchel1 service manual says replace the bar. Volvo says replace the bar. Huh? For a simple bushing?
Has anyone successfully cut the old bushings off and installed aftermarket poly ones? Where size did you used and where did you buy them?
I ended up removing the bar, cutting off the old bushings with a hack saw, cleaning up the area with a wire brush/drill, then installing a poly bushing kit. It's nice and tight now. All that work took place when I had to disassemble the front suspension and drop the engine cradle in order to replace the rear cat/exhaust manifold. But that's another story. engine cradle with sway bar
old worn out bushings
new poly bushings, and hold down brackets. Note the hose clamps on the inner side of the bushing. They keep the bar from sliding back and forth. The brackets have grease zerks.
I ended up removing the bar, cutting off the old bushings with a hack saw, cleaning up the area with a wire brush/drill, then installing a poly bushing kit. It's nice and tight now. All that work took place when I had to disassemble the front suspension and drop the engine cradle in order to replace the rear cat/exhaust manifold. But that's another story. engine cradle with sway bar
old worn out bushings
new poly bushings, and hold down brackets. Note the hose clamps on the inner side of the bushing. They keep the bar from sliding back and forth. The brackets have grease zerks.
When the anti-rol bar is detached, the original bushings slide thrue the bar? Can we just change the rubber bushing and use the same metal harness?
I can’t found those polyurethane bushings you mentioned, do you have the link?
Do you fix your bushing issue? I really apreciated your comments
My XC90 is a 2008 3.2AWD
I also has the same problemo. The right side bushing is worn out on the front stabilizer bar and the bar is knocking and clunking.
I was checking the FEBEST VLSB-XC90F (30635778) Bushings in order to only replace the 2 bushings and not the entire sway bar as Volvo want
Have any of you have install this part? Any advise?
Is there is any DIY on how to replace this?
THX
Isaac
Yes you can change just the rubber, but be aware that the oem bars are bonded to the oem bushings. There are many euro parts for makeshift repairs, some work better than others. I don't use many of these aftermarket parts because of the reliability issues and having some bad past experiences with some euro stuff. I've never used these sway bar bushings on oem bars, but I have replaced many oem bars with oem replacement bars and also the Ipd as well as some other bars with their respective kits and had great results.
IPD bushings are meant to be used with ipd bars. This isn't perfectly clear in some of the prior posts. IPD, to my knowledge, doesn't sell bushings to be used with oem bars!!!!! Their kits are well worth the improved performance and are relatively easy to install. The full kit which is what I have used for the front will cost about 499.00 us. You can also get the instructions for their bars at their web site, which are also available at many euro sites, if you can read Swedish, as well. I do believe ipd gets them from some place in Finland.
Where are you going to purchase these Febest parts?
On another side note the ipd bars have welded thrust washers to control the side forces on the bushing mounts. While I applaud the effort I want to know more about the bar used in the pictures? I would have concerns about using hose clamps on a 25 mm bar, could you have taken it some place and welded some split rings on instead? Are the clamps chewing up the poly ?
If the rubber on oem bars is gone I would also take a real hard look at the control arms and the shock bearings as well. Personally I wouldn't ever replace oem assemblys with just some rubber bushings. Personally I think just about every Volvo sway bar is undersized in the first place. Which I suspect is the reason they are BONDED in the first place and the small size they are.
Personally I love my ipd kits, but then again I am absolutely in love with my total poly changeover using Powerflex poly bushings on my S60 and for an experiment I changed over all my bushings to powerflex bushing on my XC70, what an incredible difference in the XC70!!!! The S60 awd shares many of the same parts as the XC70, but no one was doing anything much with their cross country's, what a difference, I just can't get over what a difference changing out all the sway bars and bushings made!!! I think Vivia still can get the powerflex bushings.
AND BTW: anyone who takes off the front sub frame has discovered the joy and ease of doing so, it's really not all that hard and I congratulate your efforts, personally after doing all that work, ( I did notice the new motor mount!!!) I would have gotten the frame powdercoated some bizzare color just to let the world know of your efforts!!! did you change the frame bushings while you were there as well?
Last edited by chrisd111; Dec 16, 2017 at 11:43 AM.
Reason: add info
I changed: motor mounts, frame bushings, Volvo lower control arms and ball joints, Meyle sway bar links. And no, no chewing up of bushes by hose clamps; the bar doesn't twist enough to do that. The ploy bushes fit the bar VERY tightly too. The bushes are $40 now, but they were $22 when I bought them. That's a lot less than $500 for a new bar.
FWIW: the front suspension of my XC is a horrible design. It eats tires even when everything is tight and in perfect alignment. I should have done more research on it before I bought it (used, two years ago). But my wife likes it to haul around the grand kids. What caught my eye was the 4.4L V8 Yamaha motor. Very sweet, smooth and powerful.
I have owned, rebuilt, and driven Volvos for 40 years. My first was a used 1967 144S sedan which I bought for $900 and tricked it out: 1.8L four, shaved head, high comp pistons, polished and CC'd combustion chambers, bench flowed at a speed shop in PA, re-jetted dual SU carbs with mechanically linked secondaries, re-curved distributor, lightened flywheel, high performance clutch, Koni adjustable shock's all around, heavy duty front and rear sway bars, Pirelli (SP4’s I think) radials, stock 4 speed and rear end. Almost all of the parts came from IPD. They were big into racing Volvo’s back then and they published their build specs (stage 1 street, stage 2 street/track, stage 3 racing, if I remember right). The 144S would do 125mph all day long and still get 27mpg. It handled like a dream. But that's another story.
My 2005 XC90 2.5T 120K miles is getting new suspension soon (struts, springs, seats, endlinks etc. etc.).
The swaybar design is similar to my previous 1998 S70 (the rubber is vulcanized to the bar and not available separately).
The swaybar seems OK at 120K.
In fact, the 1998 S70 swaybar lasted until 190K, when that car was sold due to burned exhaust valve.
So back to my 2005 XC90 2.5T.
- At what miles did your swaybar went bad (How long does swaybar last in the P2 XC90)
- What are the symptoms of bad swaybar?
- Is it easy to replace?
Re: BUSHING ONLY...has anyone replaced the bushing in situ?
BMW E39 5-series sway bar bushings can be replaced by themselves, no need to buy the whole bar.
Back to XC90, has anyone left the bar in place, and somehow removed the vulcanized rubber, then use Febest aftermarket rubber?
Please post if you went this way!
I just does not want to drop the subframe, getting too old for that LOL...
replace front sway bar bushings with aftermarket
