2010 Volvo XC70 D5 AWD - The formerly scruffy barge
Discussion
LunarOne said:
I used them once, ordering a pair of Febi Bilstein gas struts for the bootlid of my old 7. They didn't have them in stock so without asking sent me some cheesy no-name brand that sell for 1/4 of the price. I didn't want them and returned them, and it took them an age to refund my money. I'm loathe to use them again.
Re-reading, I realise that this doesn't really make sense. What I meant to say was that they were showing in stock when I ordered, and rather than informing me that they were no longer able to deliver what I ordered, they instead sent me a potentially vastly inferior product. Having had experience of gas struts in various applications before, I know that the only way to tell whether you have quality or not is to put them into service and see how long it takes for them to fail. Poor ones seem to fail the day after the guarantee expires, whereas good ones last for years, decades even. I don't know whether the ones they had sent me would have been just as good, but since I'd paid a premium price for known-quality items, that was all I was willing to accept.The Volvo disgraced itself yesterday. We were heading out, I'd loaded the pram and a bike into the boot moments earlier and went to open it again to add some coats to find the latch had failed whilst closed. The handle still moved a little (no power boot on my car) but it had some resistance where it didn't previously and no amount of jiggling of the boot and handle would release it.
In a grump, I removed a child seat and managed to squeeze the contents of the boot out of one of the rear doors and into our other car.
Back at home later in the day this video proved to be a saviour...
It shows that there's a hole on the side of the latch mechanism, you can manually actuate the latch using some bent wire. It doesn't explain how to remove the boot trim with the tailgate closed. You can't, there are two screws that go in from the sides that can't be accessed with the tailgate closed, but I was able to pull the trim away enough to access the latch...
I bent up a coathanger to resemble what was shown in the video. On a positive note, if I'm ever taken hostage in the boot of a P3 Volvo I'll have the perfect tool to escape - as long as I'm also carrying a T25 bit to remove the internal handle.
I could feel and move the latch, but unlike the video, I couldn't easily get the boot to pop. Eventually, with the help of someone who stood outside the car pushing and pulling the tailgate and trying the handle whilst I prodded from the inside it released.
I removed the plastic trim that usually covers the latch mechanism and the problem became obvious. I've had the tailgate apart a lot in the past, but I've never removed this piece of trim, so I'd missed this crustiness...
Weirdly, once open the latch seems to move ok, and with some penetrating oil and grease worked in the boot release is smoother than it's ever been. I suspect maybe a chunk of rust crumbled off internally and jammed it in position.
Well worth working some grease into the boot latch of your ageing Volvo to avoid this sort of fun.
In a grump, I removed a child seat and managed to squeeze the contents of the boot out of one of the rear doors and into our other car.
Back at home later in the day this video proved to be a saviour...
It shows that there's a hole on the side of the latch mechanism, you can manually actuate the latch using some bent wire. It doesn't explain how to remove the boot trim with the tailgate closed. You can't, there are two screws that go in from the sides that can't be accessed with the tailgate closed, but I was able to pull the trim away enough to access the latch...
I bent up a coathanger to resemble what was shown in the video. On a positive note, if I'm ever taken hostage in the boot of a P3 Volvo I'll have the perfect tool to escape - as long as I'm also carrying a T25 bit to remove the internal handle.
I could feel and move the latch, but unlike the video, I couldn't easily get the boot to pop. Eventually, with the help of someone who stood outside the car pushing and pulling the tailgate and trying the handle whilst I prodded from the inside it released.
I removed the plastic trim that usually covers the latch mechanism and the problem became obvious. I've had the tailgate apart a lot in the past, but I've never removed this piece of trim, so I'd missed this crustiness...
Weirdly, once open the latch seems to move ok, and with some penetrating oil and grease worked in the boot release is smoother than it's ever been. I suspect maybe a chunk of rust crumbled off internally and jammed it in position.
Well worth working some grease into the boot latch of your ageing Volvo to avoid this sort of fun.
I was briefly feeling like old high mileage cars are too much hassle yesterday. I made some murmurings about getting something newer, to my surprise this went down very badly with my wife, it would appear that she’s become quite attached to it.
I also saw my Dad yesterday. His 2022 XC60 had to be recovered to a dealership last week as both batteries kept draining overnight. The dealership have blamed a bug in the newer cars with Google infotainment where apps can potentially drain the battery once the ignition is off. There’s no fix currently, other than their workaround of quitting each app after every journey.
Maybe old cars aren’t so bad.
I also saw my Dad yesterday. His 2022 XC60 had to be recovered to a dealership last week as both batteries kept draining overnight. The dealership have blamed a bug in the newer cars with Google infotainment where apps can potentially drain the battery once the ignition is off. There’s no fix currently, other than their workaround of quitting each app after every journey.
Maybe old cars aren’t so bad.
Accelebrate said:
I was briefly feeling like old high mileage cars are too much hassle yesterday. I made some murmurings about getting something newer, to my surprise this went down very badly with my wife, it would appear that she’s become quite attached to it.
I also saw my Dad yesterday. His 2022 XC60 had to be recovered to a dealership last week as both batteries kept draining overnight. The dealership have blamed a bug in the newer cars with Google infotainment where apps can potentially drain the battery once the ignition is off. There’s no fix currently, other than their workaround of quitting each app after every journey.
Maybe old cars aren’t so bad.
Your wife knows whats good for this thread!I also saw my Dad yesterday. His 2022 XC60 had to be recovered to a dealership last week as both batteries kept draining overnight. The dealership have blamed a bug in the newer cars with Google infotainment where apps can potentially drain the battery once the ignition is off. There’s no fix currently, other than their workaround of quitting each app after every journey.
Maybe old cars aren’t so bad.
New cars are wonderful when they work. But, for every module and feature they add, it's a box of tricks to go wrong, and a technician left scratching their head when it falls over.
What a brilliant thread. Infinitely prefer this type of stuff to supercar bragging threads.
Fear not - I've no real intention of moving on just yet, but in the moment it can be a little frustrating when you've done the research and lined up the parts to address a few known issues, only for something else entirely to fail.
Keeping on top of maintenance can only help, so I'd better continue as I started, with a big box of bits from Autodoc...
I went with Lemforder bushes for the trailing arm, they're made in Germany and appear to be the OE supplier to Volvo. Autodoc were out of stock of the offside bush, so it came from a private seller. They're cheap, around £20 a side. Powerflex sell a PU option for the trailing arm, it's tempting as they can be installed without a press or special tool and should in theory last a lot longer. However, they're £200 for a pair and I've found that PU bushes often become noisy once the grease used during installation washes away. Given that I'm doing this to resolve a squeaking noise rubber bushes seemed the better option for me.
I ordered an air filter, as I noticed the one I fitted when we got the car is starting to look a bit grubby. AD were cheap for ARB bushes so I picked up a pair for the front and rear along with the world's biggest can of brake cleaner (750ml!).
Given that I'd need to remove the rear shocks I couldn't bring myself to bolt the originals back on. guitarcarfanatic has done all the homework on XC70 rear shocks and has documented it on his thread. KYB seem to be one of the only aftermarket options that make a longer rear shock for the XC70 rather than making the shorter V70 shocks do double-duty.
They're cheap at £48 a side and seem well finished, made in Japan too. I picked up a pair of KYB top mounts to accompany them.
I toyed with making my own press, but I didn't have anything on hand that was big and beefy enough to cover the 90mm bushing. By the time I'd assembled the parts to cobble something together myself I wasn't far off the cost of a dedicated tool. So, in the end, I spent £90 on a press designed specifically for this job...
It appears to be a copy of a much more expensive press from Draper, they have a decent video showing how it works - https://youtu.be/r7txU2ybcak
I started with the offside as that was the squeaky side. The bolts holding the strut on weren't looking too clever...
Sure enough, one came out ok but the other rounded with a 10mm socket. I hammered on a 12pt 9mm socket and it came out just fine...
To access the bushes you have to remove a plastic undertray on either side. I'd never had a need to remove these undertrays, and the fixings looked a bit fragile (although they came off and went back on just fine) so I'd left them alone until now. I should have removed them sooner, both sides could have benefitted from some Bilt Hamber and I would have spotted the state of the bushes...
Notice the cable tie - someone has been here before. With the bolts removed the bush slid out of the sleeve it should be attached to, it was completely collapsed and torn. It appears to have a 2013 date stamp on it, so it's not the original. Looking at the MOT history the car had done about 60,000 miles in 2013, so this bush has probably done about 105,000 miles since then.
I unbolted one side of the droplink and a small control arm link, unclipped the brake line from the control arm and some wiring and then levered it down enough to provide room for the tool to be installed. A bit of dead tree carcass was needed to hold the arm in position.
I was tempted to slice the bush sleeve using a reciprocating saw to make life easier for the press, but I figured I'd bought a tool for the job so I might as well see if it was up to it. It was...
I cleaned up the arm using a file and applied a little grease to make the pressing process a bit easier. Assembling the press to install the new bush is the hardest part of the job. It weighs 9kg and there are five moving parts that need to be jiggled into position whilst taking up the slack on the threaded section. A second pair of hands would make this a lot easier but I just about managed.
The tool is designed so that it bottoms out at exactly the right depth. I like the way that both removal and insertion is done with the tool in the same direction poking out under the sill. A lot of other tools for this job require you to swap sides, if you're working on axle stands you'll be underneath the car with your face close to a press that's exerting a decent amount of force.
As expected, the KYB shocks have a similar length of body to the OE shocks...
The KYB top mounts aren't anything special, they're made in India probably by a third party. They're a good match to the originals though, and usefully came with new bolts to replace my rusty and rounded originals.
I gave the newly exposed area a wire brushing and doused it in Bilt Hamber. I think part of the reason these bushes often fail is because corrosion creeps between the metal sleeve and the rubber causing it to separate. Maybe they'll last a bit longer with some wax on the sleeve.
The nearside bush was intact, but still not in great shape...
It was at this point I realised that I'd screwed up slightly. I can't remember if a parts finder told me I needed a bush with a larger mounting plate for mounting exhaust hangers, or if I read somewhere that some P3 Volvos needed this and assumed it was true for all cars. If I'd engaged my brain I would have remembered that the exhaust runs centrally so it would be odd for an exhaust mount to be near the nearside extremity of the car. My car has a 'small' bush on both sides, I'd bought the wrong part...
However, apart from the slightly larger mounting plate and two extra studs they're identical, and cost the same, so there was no obvious reason not to use it.
Same process on this side, now I knew what I was doing I was able to get to this point in about 20 minutes...
One small tip for anyone attempting this. There's a feature on the rubber bush that needs to be lined up with a notch on the trailing arm, but you can't see the feature once the press is in place and everything will be moving on you whilst you assemble the contraption. A line drawn down the outside makes life a lot easier...
Like so...
Ta-dah!
Whilst the larger bush fitted just fine, the unnecessary exhaust mounts were worryingly close to touching the fuel tank. I guess maybe cars without AWD or with single exhausts use a different shape exhaust and tank.
With hindsight, I should have chopped the part down before I fitted it to match what I should have ordered. I just about had room to sneak an angle grinder in for some careful chopping without having to take everything apart. The fuel tank seems very firmly mounted, but there's now no chance of any issues if it moves around a little.
This side was also treated with Bilt Hamber and a new rear shock...
I've got a growing pile of parts for recycling. I ran out of time to swap the ARB bushes - I think the existing pair are fine, but they're cheap and will be easy to swap in the future.
The results have been very much worth the effort. I hadn't realised how loose the rear had become until I drove the car without destroyed bushes. The rear shocks weren't leaking, but they appeared to be original. They seemed to take a few attempts to get the car back under control after a compression, particularly if there was any weight in the boot. Everything is a lot more controlled now.
This has of course made me think about doing the front shocks too. I've ordered two struts and top mounts. They'll probably be a project for another month. I'm undecided if I'll reuse the existing springs or not, it made little difference at the rear as they're separate from the shock so could be replaced without touching the shocks in the future if needed.
Keeping on top of maintenance can only help, so I'd better continue as I started, with a big box of bits from Autodoc...
I went with Lemforder bushes for the trailing arm, they're made in Germany and appear to be the OE supplier to Volvo. Autodoc were out of stock of the offside bush, so it came from a private seller. They're cheap, around £20 a side. Powerflex sell a PU option for the trailing arm, it's tempting as they can be installed without a press or special tool and should in theory last a lot longer. However, they're £200 for a pair and I've found that PU bushes often become noisy once the grease used during installation washes away. Given that I'm doing this to resolve a squeaking noise rubber bushes seemed the better option for me.
I ordered an air filter, as I noticed the one I fitted when we got the car is starting to look a bit grubby. AD were cheap for ARB bushes so I picked up a pair for the front and rear along with the world's biggest can of brake cleaner (750ml!).
Given that I'd need to remove the rear shocks I couldn't bring myself to bolt the originals back on. guitarcarfanatic has done all the homework on XC70 rear shocks and has documented it on his thread. KYB seem to be one of the only aftermarket options that make a longer rear shock for the XC70 rather than making the shorter V70 shocks do double-duty.
They're cheap at £48 a side and seem well finished, made in Japan too. I picked up a pair of KYB top mounts to accompany them.
I toyed with making my own press, but I didn't have anything on hand that was big and beefy enough to cover the 90mm bushing. By the time I'd assembled the parts to cobble something together myself I wasn't far off the cost of a dedicated tool. So, in the end, I spent £90 on a press designed specifically for this job...
It appears to be a copy of a much more expensive press from Draper, they have a decent video showing how it works - https://youtu.be/r7txU2ybcak
I started with the offside as that was the squeaky side. The bolts holding the strut on weren't looking too clever...
Sure enough, one came out ok but the other rounded with a 10mm socket. I hammered on a 12pt 9mm socket and it came out just fine...
To access the bushes you have to remove a plastic undertray on either side. I'd never had a need to remove these undertrays, and the fixings looked a bit fragile (although they came off and went back on just fine) so I'd left them alone until now. I should have removed them sooner, both sides could have benefitted from some Bilt Hamber and I would have spotted the state of the bushes...
Notice the cable tie - someone has been here before. With the bolts removed the bush slid out of the sleeve it should be attached to, it was completely collapsed and torn. It appears to have a 2013 date stamp on it, so it's not the original. Looking at the MOT history the car had done about 60,000 miles in 2013, so this bush has probably done about 105,000 miles since then.
I unbolted one side of the droplink and a small control arm link, unclipped the brake line from the control arm and some wiring and then levered it down enough to provide room for the tool to be installed. A bit of dead tree carcass was needed to hold the arm in position.
I was tempted to slice the bush sleeve using a reciprocating saw to make life easier for the press, but I figured I'd bought a tool for the job so I might as well see if it was up to it. It was...
I cleaned up the arm using a file and applied a little grease to make the pressing process a bit easier. Assembling the press to install the new bush is the hardest part of the job. It weighs 9kg and there are five moving parts that need to be jiggled into position whilst taking up the slack on the threaded section. A second pair of hands would make this a lot easier but I just about managed.
The tool is designed so that it bottoms out at exactly the right depth. I like the way that both removal and insertion is done with the tool in the same direction poking out under the sill. A lot of other tools for this job require you to swap sides, if you're working on axle stands you'll be underneath the car with your face close to a press that's exerting a decent amount of force.
As expected, the KYB shocks have a similar length of body to the OE shocks...
The KYB top mounts aren't anything special, they're made in India probably by a third party. They're a good match to the originals though, and usefully came with new bolts to replace my rusty and rounded originals.
I gave the newly exposed area a wire brushing and doused it in Bilt Hamber. I think part of the reason these bushes often fail is because corrosion creeps between the metal sleeve and the rubber causing it to separate. Maybe they'll last a bit longer with some wax on the sleeve.
The nearside bush was intact, but still not in great shape...
It was at this point I realised that I'd screwed up slightly. I can't remember if a parts finder told me I needed a bush with a larger mounting plate for mounting exhaust hangers, or if I read somewhere that some P3 Volvos needed this and assumed it was true for all cars. If I'd engaged my brain I would have remembered that the exhaust runs centrally so it would be odd for an exhaust mount to be near the nearside extremity of the car. My car has a 'small' bush on both sides, I'd bought the wrong part...
However, apart from the slightly larger mounting plate and two extra studs they're identical, and cost the same, so there was no obvious reason not to use it.
Same process on this side, now I knew what I was doing I was able to get to this point in about 20 minutes...
One small tip for anyone attempting this. There's a feature on the rubber bush that needs to be lined up with a notch on the trailing arm, but you can't see the feature once the press is in place and everything will be moving on you whilst you assemble the contraption. A line drawn down the outside makes life a lot easier...
Like so...
Ta-dah!
Whilst the larger bush fitted just fine, the unnecessary exhaust mounts were worryingly close to touching the fuel tank. I guess maybe cars without AWD or with single exhausts use a different shape exhaust and tank.
With hindsight, I should have chopped the part down before I fitted it to match what I should have ordered. I just about had room to sneak an angle grinder in for some careful chopping without having to take everything apart. The fuel tank seems very firmly mounted, but there's now no chance of any issues if it moves around a little.
This side was also treated with Bilt Hamber and a new rear shock...
I've got a growing pile of parts for recycling. I ran out of time to swap the ARB bushes - I think the existing pair are fine, but they're cheap and will be easy to swap in the future.
The results have been very much worth the effort. I hadn't realised how loose the rear had become until I drove the car without destroyed bushes. The rear shocks weren't leaking, but they appeared to be original. They seemed to take a few attempts to get the car back under control after a compression, particularly if there was any weight in the boot. Everything is a lot more controlled now.
This has of course made me think about doing the front shocks too. I've ordered two struts and top mounts. They'll probably be a project for another month. I'm undecided if I'll reuse the existing springs or not, it made little difference at the rear as they're separate from the shock so could be replaced without touching the shocks in the future if needed.
Top work Ian! Kudos for doing it on the drive, on axle stands, in Feb.
Don't know if the P3's are known to break front springs, but my P2 did which forced my hand on replacing them. Even if yours are good/not known for breaking it's still nice to build the whole strut assy up off the car with new springs.
Don't know if the P3's are known to break front springs, but my P2 did which forced my hand on replacing them. Even if yours are good/not known for breaking it's still nice to build the whole strut assy up off the car with new springs.
Accelebrate said:
I've got a growing pile of parts for recycling. I ran out of time to swap the ARB bushes - I think the existing pair are fine, but they're cheap and will be easy to swap in the future.
Good Lord, good work!! But as I said before, that pile of parts isn't for recycling, it's for building another XC70 out of! Think how many worn-out brooms Trigger would have had, if he hadn't binned all those broom handles and broom heads?Excellent work - might tap you up to borrow your press if I get round to doing my rears 
Glad the KYB shocks worked out for you, they seem great quality (and after loading over 600KG of sand and cement in the rear of the Volvo last weekend, hold up to abuse well)!
Good luck when front shocks come around - it's a job I put off for two years but was totally worthwhile. If you need a hand, give me a shout as well versed on the front end now. Just make sure you have a flexi-headed ratchet to hold the counter nuts on the control arms (removing them makes this job so much easier as the ball joints need manipulation to get them out).
Also - ref springs, mine were like new. Thought about replacing, but glad I didn't. I think they are known to snap in the XC90, but seem robust in the V/XC70's.
Glad the KYB shocks worked out for you, they seem great quality (and after loading over 600KG of sand and cement in the rear of the Volvo last weekend, hold up to abuse well)!
Good luck when front shocks come around - it's a job I put off for two years but was totally worthwhile. If you need a hand, give me a shout as well versed on the front end now. Just make sure you have a flexi-headed ratchet to hold the counter nuts on the control arms (removing them makes this job so much easier as the ball joints need manipulation to get them out).
Also - ref springs, mine were like new. Thought about replacing, but glad I didn't. I think they are known to snap in the XC90, but seem robust in the V/XC70's.
TurboRob said:
Kudos for doing it on the drive, on axle stands, in Feb.
Thanks! The problem with a large car and a garage with two single doors is that it often seems more appealing to drag tools outside and lift the car once rather than doing one side and then swapping the car around.TurboRob said:
Don't know if the P3's are known to break front springs, but my P2 did which forced my hand on replacing them. Even if yours are good/not known for breaking it's still nice to build the whole strut assy up off the car with new springs.
guitarcarfanatic said:
Also - ref springs, mine were like new. Thought about replacing, but glad I didn't. I think they are known to snap in the XC90, but seem robust in the V/XC70's.
This is why I'm undecided... they don't seem prone to failure, and aftermarket options seem limited. Skandix shows three different spring options for my VIN based on varying cryptic variant codes. The Sachs aftermarket catalogue shows a single option, but I can only find them for sale on Autodoc and they're double the cost of the shocks. KYB have a reasonably priced option, but I don't know if they're any good. It's tempting to just use my originals, but at 165,000 miles they can't last forever. 
LunarOne said:
Good Lord, good work!! But as I said before, that pile of parts isn't for recycling, it's for building another XC70 out of! Think how many worn-out brooms Trigger would have had, if he hadn't binned all those broom handles and broom heads?
But then I'd start slowly improving the worn-out XC70 and an infinite loop would form, eventually resulting in there being more XC70s on the road than Volvo ever built, mostly in black.guitarcarfanatic said:
Excellent work - might tap you up to borrow your press if I get round to doing my rears
Good luck when front shocks come around - it's a job I put off for two years but was totally worthwhile. If you need a hand, give me a shout as well versed on the front end now. Just make sure you have a flexi-headed ratchet to hold the counter nuts on the control arms (removing them makes this job so much easier as the ball joints need manipulation to get them out).
Too slow on the press I'm afraid, I put it on Marketplace and it was snapped up almost immediately by a local man with a squeaky S-Max. I got back most of what I paid, so it was a cheap way to go in the end.Good luck when front shocks come around - it's a job I put off for two years but was totally worthwhile. If you need a hand, give me a shout as well versed on the front end now. Just make sure you have a flexi-headed ratchet to hold the counter nuts on the control arms (removing them makes this job so much easier as the ball joints need manipulation to get them out).
There is someone selling an identical one for £55 posted on one of the Volvo groups, I nearly bought it but my parts turned up faster than expected and I wasn't sure if the seller would get it to me before some free time I'd lined up. I can send you a link if you're interested.
I'm not looking forward to separating the balljoints, the mobile mechanic I used for the angle gear seal had a good fight to get the offside apart. Hopefully, that'll make my life easier but I can see the nearside being a pig. As well as being undecided about springs I'm half-tempted to order some new control arms (this would also allow me carefree use of a pickle fork), the bushes in mine look a little perished but are still doing their job. AD sell Moog arms for under £70 a side, I've no real experience with the longevity of Moog aftermarket parts though.
stevemcs said:
Nice work, i've still got the rear to do on my Mondeo, i've got the addition of springs, bump stops and arms to do.
Good luck, should be a very similar process! 
This was my issue on the springs - Vida list about a dozen variants....most aftermarkets list 1! It's all to do with engine and options picked, but I didn't want to end up with the front 10mm higher/lower so stuck to the originals!
I think if you unbolt the control arms before separating the joint, you can swing it out and it will tap out with a few hits down on the control arm with a rubber mallet. They aren't super tight, it's the angle the have to drop against the arm that wedges them in.
I used a separating fork on the side of mine that wouldn't budge and then replaced the ball joints in isolation - 15 mins drilling out the 3 rivets and a decent saving. A good aftermarket control arm is £95 (Febi) - I bought the ball joints (Febi) for £20 a side. £150 saved for 30 mins work.
I think if you unbolt the control arms before separating the joint, you can swing it out and it will tap out with a few hits down on the control arm with a rubber mallet. They aren't super tight, it's the angle the have to drop against the arm that wedges them in.
I used a separating fork on the side of mine that wouldn't budge and then replaced the ball joints in isolation - 15 mins drilling out the 3 rivets and a decent saving. A good aftermarket control arm is £95 (Febi) - I bought the ball joints (Febi) for £20 a side. £150 saved for 30 mins work.
guitarcarfanatic said:
This was my issue on the springs - Vida list about a dozen variants....most aftermarkets list 1! It's all to do with engine and options picked, but I didn't want to end up with the front 10mm higher/lower so stuck to the originals!
I think if you unbolt the control arms before separating the joint, you can swing it out and it will tap out with a few hits down on the control arm with a rubber mallet. They aren't super tight, it's the angle the have to drop against the arm that wedges them in.
I used a separating fork on the side of mine that wouldn't budge and then replaced the ball joints in isolation - 15 mins drilling out the 3 rivets and a decent saving. A good aftermarket control arm is £95 (Febi) - I bought the ball joints (Febi) for £20 a side. £150 saved for 30 mins work.
Good tip, thank you!I think if you unbolt the control arms before separating the joint, you can swing it out and it will tap out with a few hits down on the control arm with a rubber mallet. They aren't super tight, it's the angle the have to drop against the arm that wedges them in.
I used a separating fork on the side of mine that wouldn't budge and then replaced the ball joints in isolation - 15 mins drilling out the 3 rivets and a decent saving. A good aftermarket control arm is £95 (Febi) - I bought the ball joints (Febi) for £20 a side. £150 saved for 30 mins work.
The mobile mechanic used a massive 60" wrecking bar that he placed onto the subframe and across the control arm, hammering down on the other end with a foot keeping some pressure on it. Not a bad method if you're working at axle stand height, but it still took him a while. To his credit, he didn't do any damage in the process. I've picked up a similar bar from B&Q as I can see it coming in handy - I've got a few control arms to do as I've offered to swap a pair on a friend's track car too.
If I don't replace the arms completely (the appeal there being new bushes as well as ball joints) I'll pick up a couple of the Febi ball joints you used as a backup.
Accelebrate said:
Good tip, thank you!
The mobile mechanic used a massive 60" wrecking bar that he placed onto the subframe and across the control arm, hammering down on the other end with a foot keeping some pressure on it. Not a bad method if you're working at axle stand height, but it still took him a while. To his credit, he didn't do any damage in the process. I've picked up a similar bar from B&Q as I can see it coming in handy - I've got a few control arms to do as I've offered to swap a pair on a friend's track car too.
If I don't replace the arms completely (the appeal there being new bushes as well as ball joints) I'll pick up a couple of the Febi ball joints you used as a backup.
Yes, I had to use my massive breaker bar wedged into the subframe to lever the first side down. A tip I have since seen is putting a G clamp around the control arm and then levering it down from below the control arm if that makes sense (bar through the g clamp below the arm, levering against the underside of the subframe and pulling the arm down). This is more akin to the big arm thing Volvo use in their garages.The mobile mechanic used a massive 60" wrecking bar that he placed onto the subframe and across the control arm, hammering down on the other end with a foot keeping some pressure on it. Not a bad method if you're working at axle stand height, but it still took him a while. To his credit, he didn't do any damage in the process. I've picked up a similar bar from B&Q as I can see it coming in handy - I've got a few control arms to do as I've offered to swap a pair on a friend's track car too.
If I don't replace the arms completely (the appeal there being new bushes as well as ball joints) I'll pick up a couple of the Febi ball joints you used as a backup.
I think if you pop the control arms out, the ball joints should be unscathed. It will be interesting to see if the one eased by the mobile mechanic survived re-assembly. The side of my car that was opened up a couple of years ago had given up sealing grease - I presume it was the being removed and then reassembled distorting the rubber a little.
I always get a sense of vicarious satisfaction from this thread; the regular, consistent progress is great.
Moog is just used as a name for selling parts of all sorts of different qualities now. I’ve decided against fitting some moog parts I’ve grabbed from ECP as a last minute resort due to the general look of poor quality.
Febi stuff is good, as long as you get genuine stuff; I think they had a problem with counterfeit bits in the past.
Moog is just used as a name for selling parts of all sorts of different qualities now. I’ve decided against fitting some moog parts I’ve grabbed from ECP as a last minute resort due to the general look of poor quality.
Febi stuff is good, as long as you get genuine stuff; I think they had a problem with counterfeit bits in the past.
I remembered something else last night - when you get the front struts off, you can normally get the top nut undone with an impact gun (or if it spins, mole grips on the shaft to counter hold). For the new shock, you obviously won't want to do that. Normally an offset ring spanner works for struts, and you can counter hold using an allen key...but the mount is too recessed to work in this scenario.
My solution was using a box wrench from my "plumbing" DIY kit (18mm?) and then passing a allen bit on an extension through the middle of it. Most box wrenches have a hex pattern on the outside so I tightened the nut using a big adjustable spanner externally via the box wrench, whilst counter holding the spline with the allen key on extension and attached to a ratchet.
If you have pass through sockets, you won't have an issue - but if you need to figure something out, the box wrench is probably the cheapest solution.
My solution was using a box wrench from my "plumbing" DIY kit (18mm?) and then passing a allen bit on an extension through the middle of it. Most box wrenches have a hex pattern on the outside so I tightened the nut using a big adjustable spanner externally via the box wrench, whilst counter holding the spline with the allen key on extension and attached to a ratchet.
If you have pass through sockets, you won't have an issue - but if you need to figure something out, the box wrench is probably the cheapest solution.
Edited by guitarcarfanatic on Friday 17th February 10:56
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