850 Lower control arms

[98expeditionXLT]

Looking for recommendations for long life lower control arms for 95 850 sedan. The last two sets of aftermarket lower control arms which I installed each lasted about 30000 miles. The pair of arms prior to that lasted 120000 miles, but I don't know what was installed as my father used to own the car and had everything done by an independent garage. Does anyone have first hand experience with control arms that will last longer than 30000 miles? I am tired of changing control arms once a year with the amount of driving I do. I have 283k miles on car and I am about to invest in another set of Michelins, timing belt replacement and AC condensor replacement.

[Ozark Lee]

OEM Blue Box Volvo or Lemforder which is the OEM supplier. I've heard that TRW makes arms that are good but I have never found any TRWs from any of the suppliers I use. For Lemforder arms check Pelican Parts if you can't find them anywhere else.

...Lee

[rspi]

I installed the '94 aluminum arms that have the replacable ball joint. You can buy them new but I don't have any money so I got a good pair from the local junk yard for $21 each instead of $178 each. One guy I know installed poly bushings in the frame mount and moog ball joint I believe. I'm pretty sure the poly may last 10 years but will probably transmit vibration in the car at low speeds. The replacable ball joints are nice.

[j_cd]

I've heard that TRW makes arms that are good but I have never found any TRWs from any of the suppliers I use.

...Lee

Funny you should say that, I almost made it a point the other day to post that Parts Geek carries TRW Control Arms.

www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1995/volvo/850/suspension/control_arm.html

[cn90]

Volvo Blue Box $140
Lemforder $120
TRW $92

Lemforder makes the control arm for Volvo.
TRW has a very good name too. With the car that old, personally I would go with TRW, which has an excellent reputation.

[erikv11]

Blue Box is $121 from Darrel Waltrip Volvo web site.

I agree with cn90: on a budget I would go with the TRW's; to be done with it for a long, long time I would go with the blue box.

[Matty Moo]

I can't see how people are having problems with the newer aftermarket control arms.

I understand that there are probably still a lot of new Scan-tech and HT arms getting installed. We already know that stuff is trash.

I've installed 5 sets of APA/Uro's now and haven't had a single issue out of any of them. The guy I sold my Platinum Wagon to still keeps in touch, and I've told him to get ahold of me if anything comes about...and he's driving the hell out of that car. That's over 60k on that set of APA's and still tight. tight as in ZERO play at all, with 17's on Michigan roads. I drove that car hard and it's still being driven the same way.

All of our other Volvo's in the family have the same arms with no problems. One of the cars was driven by my sister in law, who drives like an idiot down dirt roads and abused the car. No problems with that one either until she destroyed the engine.

I'm not a penny pincher either. I won't buy aftermarket timing parts, cheap tires, brake pads or things like that.

Either they're shipping me the very best arms that they're manufacturing or other people aren't installing them correctly.

[erikv11]

Interesting post Matt.

Truth is, I have not installed new control arms in years, not since I went to blue box arms whenever it was on my now-wrecked wagon (would have to look it up). So your experience goes a long way as far as I'm concerned. My R may well need control arms when I get it on the road at the end of the month, I will (shudder) consider aftermarket. Price difference is huge.

[jblackburn]

I haven't put new ones on mine in over 100K. In fact, I've never even changed the right side one. The left side one was bent from my tire blowing out and hitting a curb.

I think the right one's not OEM, as the steering stop is broken and looks to be different than the OEM left one I've put on after that. But there's NO play at all.

[rmmagow]

I've always used Lemforder branded parts on my old Mercedes Diesel front end things and never had a problem.