2000 V70R - AWD Front suspension noises

[scot850]

Well spent some time today under the front end of the car from hell, and checked for wear in the steering joints and suspension. There is some signs of wear starting in the lower control arms and ball joints but not much. Also tried the car up on axle stands to see if turning the steering while turning the wheels may highlight wear in the CV joints but again nothing significant.

Finally decided to remove the RH end-link from the anti-sway bar. Took the car for a run around the neighbourhood and suspension was silent!!

Hopefully this doesn't just mean that as the anti-sway bar was not connected and therefore loading the suspension, it isn't hiding another issue when not working/connected.

I think that the issue is the IPD anti-sway bar. As they powder coat or paint the bars, then fit the bush over the paint, I believe what may be happening is that when the bushes aren't grease very frequently, the paint rubs off the bar and leaves a gap between the bar and the bush. Option would be to try to find a 24mm bush rather than the 25mm/1" as standard or remove the bar and have it re-coated and re-fit. Problem with that is that can I be sure even after that it will be ok. I think I may end up just replacing with an OE standard ant-sway bar and be done with it. It means I am slowly removing all the IPD stuff from my car as it doesn't last like I'd expect, and also not helped by PO's not maintaining the IPD products that are overly needy.

I have a question though on OE anti-sway bars. I have an OE bar from a P80 V70XC (99 I think) that is if I recall correctly a 21.5mm diameter and is slightly thicker than the OE 'R' if I recall. I know diameter does not necessarily relate to torsional stiffness. Does anyone know what the stiffest OE anti-sway bar is?

Thanks,

Neil

[precopster]

Neil I think you're getting way ahead of yourself here

The endlinks can be so noisy when they need further torquing above and beyond "tight" I had noisy Meyle endlinks on my 2000 V70 and all they needed was to be torqued above and beyond what I would consider to be reasonable. I used a long 1/2 inch drive breaker bar for final torquing. They haven't made a sound since

[scot850]

Hi Mike,

These have been torques to spec. I have had OE, IPD HD and Meyle HD (current) and they are all the same. Used different torque tools to torque, but then you are saying you have to take these way above normal? I will try taking from (I think) 35 ft/lb (50Nm) by maybe 5Nm increments and see what happens. At least I have spare end-links if I break them!

Neil.

[scot850]

Took Mike's advice and tried tightening the end-links up. Tried 60Nm (50Nm is book value). Took the car for a short run and not noticeably different. Tried taking it up to 70Nm and it was better but still there. Tried to take one to 90Nm but could feel that it was getting close to breaking to left it at 85Nm.

Also checked the anti-sway bar bush bolts and gave those a few extra grunts of torque. I'll take it for a run tomorrow and see if there is any improvement. One thing I noticed, was that the Meyle studs have a very small flat face that comes in contact with the anti-sway bar face, and the tighter I tighten it, it looks like it is actually pulling into the hole in the end of the sway bar. So there is very little contact surface which could be allowing the shaft to turn when loaded or twisted when the wheel is turned. I have thought about trying a washer between the anti-sway bar hole (which does seem large) and the end link, but I think it would also perhaps rotate when loaded. Another option is to have someone weld the hole smaller and re-drill it to a closer size to the end-link shaft, allowing more contact area.

Last option is to take the 21.5mm (yellow/blue marked) anti-sway bar down to the dealer after a coat of paint, and just get rid of the IPD unit. I get a price break there and it is rated as a 1.8hr job. A new bar is $230 CDN with tax, but the foreman had a look at the used one I had and concluded other than some paint it was in excellent condition (thanks PnP for $30).

I'll update as I work through this.

Neil.

[scot850]

Well as much as I had hoped Mike's input on tightening the end-link nuts to a higher value may work, I couldn't be that lucky with this devil vehicle. I have now booked the car into Volvo on Friday to have the OE bar installed. I'm hoping this will be the fix, but will report back as I don't want to be un-fair to IPD if this is not the solution or cause.

Neil.

[IG-88A]

I just wanted to report back in that I attempted to locate my noise by placing my audio recorder here and there while replicating various backing out of parking spot scenarios, which is when I usually hear it. Even though I'd set the mic to low sensitivity, the ambient noise from the engine seemed to drown out most of what I could detect volume-wise with my squeak. Long story short, I wasn't able to pinpoint it using this method. Maybe my swaybar bushings have indeed separated from the bar itself. I'll have to crawl underneath, undo my end links and do some fiddling around.

[scot850]

So here is the long promised update on the noisy front suspension. All is almost 100% quiet!

Last Friday I had Volvo swap the IPD anti-sway bar for a good used Volvo OE 21.5mm bar from a 2000 V70XC.

The mechanic had no real issues, but due to my concern of possibly stressing the Meyle end-links he fitted the low km (2-3000km max) IPD end-links I had left in the trunk. He drove the car and there was still some noises there, so he put the Meyle HD end-links back in and the noise was much reduced, especially on the straight ahead driving.

I did a round trip of 600km at about 120kph on a sometimes bumpy highway and no noises.

Checked the car again yesterday and I still get a very occasional knock if I hit a sharp bump in the road, but still quite.

So is it the IPD products that are the issue or just the car. My view is IPD stuff works for many folks, but I have not had a lot of luck with it. Maybe it is just their newer stuff.

My thoughts for what they are worth is that the issue is 2 fold. The part quality and 2nd the design. Placing bushes over a painted bar does not make sense. Maybe it depends on where you live and the crap that gets put on the roads. I'm not sure if the IPD ant-sway bars are painted or powder coated, but at some point I may have the bar re-coated and keep it for a spare. But as it costs $120 CDN to have a batch of stuff done, it will wait until I need other stuff done and may not end up being blue!

I'm sure some of the issue is that the car sat for 9 months on axle stands, but the noises were there prior to that.

Neil.