1998 S70 Front End Twitch Under Braking

ferocity02 · Post by **ferocity02** » 12 Aug 2018, 11:57

Recently the front end of my s70 twitches under moderate braking. Essentily when the brakes are applied it will pull to one side or the other momentarily then continue tracking straight. It only twitches once per braking event.

I'm thinking the front calipers are sticking, the lower control arm bushings are worn, or the steering rod ends are worn.

The car has 190k miles.

Post by **abscate** » 12 Aug 2018, 12:41

My 1999 did this with bad ball joints on one side, very loose. I swore I replaced them at about 100k but it turned out I had 210k on them. Horrible.

ferocity02 · Post by **ferocity02** » 12 Aug 2018, 22:08

I replaced the lower control arms (because the ball joints were so badly worn) about 20k miles ago. So I'd hope it's not that. But, I did use a crappy off brand parrs so it wouldn't surprise me. They were so crappy, I torqued the bolts they supplied to factory specs and 3 of the 4 nuts sheared off WHILE DRIVING. That was exciting.

sventastic · Post by **sventastic** » 13 Aug 2018, 12:37

I had this exact issue and it was gone after replacing the control arms and inner+outer tie rods. I did them all at once so unfortunately I don't have a definitive answer on which was the culprit, but my guess would be the control arm bushings. I believe all the parts were still original at 235,000km

Post by **scot850** » 13 Aug 2018, 13:14

The guys and you have covered the bases. With my V70 it was the inner and outer tie rods on one side caused the car to twitch and pull to one side.

Neil.

ferocity02 · Post by **ferocity02** » 13 Aug 2018, 14:21

What's a good brand for the lower control arms? The Volvo brand is pricey.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/Volvo-parts/S70 ... =206&e=153

I bought the last pair from Deutsche Parts on eBay, the brand was Hamburg Technic for $85 with sway bay end links.

Post by **abscate** » 16 Aug 2018, 00:22

I used Lemforders (sp?) from FCP After reading the cheap ones last a year

sventastic · Post by **sventastic** » 16 Aug 2018, 10:06

I have 15,000km on my Meyle control arms, no complaints so far. I went with OEM TRW tie rods because those are more of a pain to change, and an alignment is needed. I figure with the control arms, if they go bad it only costs me shipping back to FCP and a couple hours of repair work to save me $130CAD compared to Lemforder/TRW (OEM brands).

ferocity02 · Post by **ferocity02** » 01 Sep 2018, 14:24

Finally got a chance to investigate this... and yes, it's the lower control arm(s). The rear bushing on the driver's side arm is shot, it has about 3/16" of radial play. I didn't bother checking the passenger side.