I partially rebuilt the front suspension: lower control arms, ball joints, subframe bushing blue poly inserts, rear subframe "O" rings.

Now the car dives to the left when light breaking. The control arms have a lot of flex.

See video here:

XC90 control arm flex - YouTube

And the tires are wearing down the outer edges fast. I set the toe in at 1/8" each side. The XC90 drives straight, hands off the wheel.

Any suggestions?

2006 Volvo XC90 4.4l
1995 Volvo 850 turbo
many other Volvos over the last 40 years.

 

Did you use cheap aftermarket control arms?

 

Yes, cheap china made junk. Lasted 3000 miles.

 

I've seen that before. Never had that problem after installing Volvo arms.

The tire wear could also be the alignment.

 

Follow up question:

Has anyone tried/used poly bushings in the front control arms, like from these guys:

Polyurethane Bushings, S60/V70 AWD - ViVA Performance

 

Those aren't for an XC90. Polyurethane bushings will give a rougher ride.

 

I can't see the video, just the still at the beginning, but it looks like the rubber is torn. That will do it! I'm dealing with the same thing on my '05 XC90 right now.


I'm starting to think that the procedure for putting these in causes a problem. Specifically, if you do the bushings to the frame first, then bend the control arm down to get the ball joint, it hyperextends the bushing, leading to premature failure. I'm presently working to put mine in by compressing the spring, not by bending the control arm down. That, or I will let the dealer do it with their special tool that compresses the spring externally, allowing the same thing.


Roger
'05 XC90 90k miles (installing 4th control arms)
'95 850T 267k miles
.93 945T 220k miles

 

Roger, the video is a youtube video


I bought genuine Volvo control arms to replace the china ones. Compressing the springs is a real pita. When I installed the china arms, I was able to just push them down by hand far enough to get the strut to hub bolts in. That should have sounded an alarm that they were going to be to weak to hold that big fat heavy front end.\

The new Volvo arms are noticeably heavier built. I will take some comparison pictures when I do the job sometime in the next 2 weeks. As of now my back is hurting :-(.

 

It's cool. It think about 2500 miles