Control Arm - lower left and right

[reija2004]

my 01' with 86,000 miles has been shaking horrendously when i give it gas above 20 miles an hour. Upon mechanic's suggestions we replaced the front and rear motor mounts and the torque strut bar. No improvement. Next we replaced the front left and right cv axles, little improvement. As a final option he says the left and right front lower control arm bushings are bad. So I said replace them, and he said he can't without a special machine so after labor it would be just as cheap to get a new control arm with the bushings installed. Fine. So I found multiple ones online ( http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carco ... 05%2BVOLVO ). $80-$100...not so bad. I told him the online price and he said he talked to his volvo guy and an 01 s60 2.4t needs a special control arm that costs $190, which is the retail price of a normal one from parts stores.

Are there two possible types of control arms for my vehicle?
or would the ones from the rockauto link above be just fine?

[igel513]

Check out IPD and eEuro for comparisons. The P2 cars should have the same contol arms. Your mechanic probably wanted to install OEM parts and not the after market w/c are cheaper. You can also have a shop w/ a hydrolic press replace the bushings. That's what I did and it came out cheaper. Inspect your inner/outer tie rod end, ball joints and struts. These cars' suspension and steering components easily wear out even at less than 100k miles (poor design/qality???)

[caliwagon]

Replacing the control arms may be needed (I had to do mine at 125k), but make sure you have your front wheels rebalanced first to make sure that's not the issue.

[RaymanSean]

On the XC's the control arms are pretty easy to do. On the V's it seems (or at least a lot of people claim it to be so) that you have to use a lever to cajole the control arms into place. It seems that most European cars are sensitive to their suspensions. I do not know if that is because we are used to the responsiveness and feel of the better handling suspensions, or if we are just more accustomed to American suspensions, which are usually worn out around 50,000 but no one can tell because they always handle poorly (I will undoubtedly be attacked for this comment. I have thick skin).

Does the vibration change with engine speed, road speed, or neither?

[fazool]

...we are used to the responsiveness and feel of the better handling suspensions, or if we are just more accustomed to American suspensions, which are usually worn out around 50,000 but no one can tell because they always handle poorly...

/AGREE