'99 V70 -- IPD Heavy Duty Sway Bar Link Catastrophic Failure

[E Showell]

I do have pictures, but they are stuck in a dead cell phone. Picture this --the bottom stud firmly screwed into the outer tie rod end and attached to nothing else and the rest of the sway bar link hanging lifeless from the strut mount.

Admittedly the parts were out of warranty, but come on -- a "heavy duty" product that has a significantly shorter service life than the stock parts -- what's heavy duty about that?

[tryingbe]

So, they should be renamed LD for "light duty".

[E Showell]

Most interesting to me was that they didn't want the parts back for failure analysis. Either it is common enough so that they know what goes wrong, or they have limited interest in attempting to improve the part. Both reactions would be disappointing.

[tryingbe]

More interestingly, the old ad on the links stated 5 year warranty where the new ones only for 1 year.

http://www.ipdusa.com/newsletters/18/11 ... m-endlinks

[E Showell]

Well, I guess that should be a lesson to us all. Only reason to reduce the warranty is that they were getting too many warranty claims under a five year warranty, or they cheapened the production process and had no confidence in a warranty period longer than one year.

Who plans on annual renewal of their suspension components?

[JDS60R]

I use Meyle HD endlinks. We beat the heck out of them and have not yet had a failure. Meyle offers a 4 year replacement warranty on them. FCP offers a lifetime warrant on them. $88 delivered gets you 4 (2 front 2 back). We have these in service about 2 years now. I am in a warm climate and would wonder if they hold up in cold. The 14 years I lived in MA was able to find some weakness in parts I can't see hear like reaction to salt and extended sub freezing temps. ( The kind that makes grease thicken up and hide)

[confused_al]

I too have these Ipd's HD links and they are just awful, once awhile they got frozen (ball joint got stuck).

[Redneck]

I ordered several parts from IPD at different times including their PCV kit. The only reason I ordered from them was that they are in Oregon and I am in Seattle, so the package arrives fast. However, most, if not all parts that I purchased from them I had to return for being defective. They always returned my money because I fought for it, but last time they wrote me that they disabled my account. I could register another account, but I don't want to. I have had an excellent experience with FCPEuro and their parts. They also have better prices. I bought parts worth of many thousands from FCPEuro and a few Volvo dealers combined. When I rebuilt my front and rear suspension, I bought all parts from FCPEuro for a great price. If any part was defective, they accepted the return without me having to fight with them.

[dosbricks]

I use Meyle HD endlinks. We beat the heck out of them and have not yet had a failure. Meyle offers a 4 year replacement warranty on them. FCP offers a lifetime warrant on them. $88 delivered gets you 4 (2 front 2 back). We have these in service about 2 years now.

I installed the Meyle HD on both our cars earlier this year. They are marketed as being an improvement on the Volvo OE design. Time will tell, but with FCP backing their parts for life, it makes it easier to try an alternative on a part that's easy to change like endlinks.

[abscate]

Evan..if you don't mind I'm going to bring this thread to IPDs attention. I have a lot of respect for your rationale, sensible contributions here and value your presence on MVS. If we can reciprocate in some way, I'm happy to help.

I have the same links on my 1999, and when I replaced them my old ones ( unknown make) fell apart much as you described.

On edit..I went Volvo OEM on the links.