Debugging a scary moment - steering wheel not in control / broken control arm / WHAT???

hot9000 · Post by **hot9000** » 20 Feb 2020, 23:17

Last Saturday, I was driving my XC90 (2012, base, auto transmission) on a city road when I realized the steering wheel no longer in control. Then the SUV started swinging left and right across the 2 lanes. I had to press the brake to slow down -- thank God that cars behind me were able to avoid me. After 10 seconds or so, I managed to pull over by the curb side of the street. Then I saw an orange triangle light with warning message: "Auto-skid temporary off" on the dashboard.

After deep breaths and collecting myself, I called the roadside assistance to tow XC90 to a dealership fearing I could get myself killed if I kept driving it.. An hour later, a flat bed tow truck came. The tow guy was still able to drive it up the slope of flat bed. When we got to the dealership, the tow guy had greatest difficulty unloading. As he reversed XC90 back down from the slope of the flat bed, we could tell the front two tires were pointing to different directions. The left front tire even moved back and forth. If the steering wheel turned left, the left tire would crush into the back of the front bumper; if the steering wheel turned right, the left tire would ease off the bumper. Very bizarre!

OK after the weekend, on Monday, I got a call from the dealer's repair person. She said the control arm was damaged. Saw a few (not sure how many) missing screws. When I asked how this could be? She speculated that we drove over a very large pothole or curb. My wife did hit a curb on the front right side on Friday morning. But the curb was just an ordinary sized one. Nothing out of the ordinary. The repair person also said it must be something that hit hard from the inner side of the left front wheel. Between my wife and myself, we couldn't recall anything we hit for the past few years since we owned XC90.

This whole thing happened like a surreal nightmare. I am pinching myself to try to make some sense out of it. We are regular people and probably would hit no more or no less pothole/curbs than the next guy. How could this happen! If hitting potholes could cause a car to no longer steer, wouldn't we see rampant cars from left to right on the roadway?

Can any expert on the forum give me any clue or speculation that makes sense?

PS. I called insurance on Monday who initially told me that mechanical problem/wear-and-tear isn't covered. After sending an assessor to look today, the insurance told me it is not wear-and-tear and would pay for the repair. But I am still not convinced all of this could be due to a very big incident that we were not even aware of. Befuddled and scared!

Post by **gstallons** » 21 Feb 2020, 05:49

IDK what is being called a control arm . To the best of my knowledge , you have the steering column , intermediate shaft , rack & pinion assy. , inner & outer tie rods . If each wheel is now independent of each other , that means a tie rod has failed .
can you give more info as you get it ?

Post by **abscate** » 21 Feb 2020, 10:03

Get some pictures. The control arms on later Volvos are Aluminum and do fold up and break in a collision, and the force in a even a low speed curb collision is pretty large. IF the control arm lost integrity with the subframe, you will lose steering ability.

Generally, suspension stuff gets serviced at 100-150k miles depending on road conditions and usage.

Post by **ggleavitt** » 21 Feb 2020, 10:50

Yes, photos please.

Lower control arms (LCA) on the XC90 are solid steel and the attachment hardware is torque to yield. Will be interesting to know what's really broken.

Post by **oragex** » 21 Feb 2020, 12:05

Depends how strong the curb was hit.It doesn't have to be a big curb. I understand you weren't in the car when this happened, so the the event may or may not have been related accurately. If the impact was strong, it's possible to weaken the bolts securing the control arm, causing them to break off all of a sudden later on. The missing screws may have been the heads of the bolts that sheared. You may also want to inspect the ball joint on that side, the shock absorber for bending where it attaches to the wheel hub, of course the alignment and the tire for any damage such as side bubble. Not a bad idea to replace the tire and I would also replace the whole control arm given the severity of the impact

hot9000 · Post by **hot9000** » 21 Feb 2020, 22:08

I have attached 3 pictures taken by insurance assessor.

The repair shop at the dealership said the parts would come on Monday and I would get the car back on Tuesday. It all seems a bit too quick and not thorough enough. I wonder if there is some check you guys can suggest that I ask the repair folks to perform to doubly and triply make sure the car is safe to drive.

Thanks in advance.

Post by **oragex** » 22 Feb 2020, 07:28

There doesn't appear to be any impact area - any marks on the wheel ?
The control arm rear bolt broke and the control arm hit the sway bar - the mark on the bar.
Why the bolt snapped, was any suspension work done in the past ? Overt-ightening this bolt can weaken it.

Masscomguru · Post by **Masscomguru** » 22 Feb 2020, 10:56

That’s scary. Glad your ok. Are they replacing the whole arm? Lots of stress on the front bushing in this case.

hot9000 · Post by **hot9000** » 22 Feb 2020, 11:57

Attached is a close-up on the front left tire with elbow of the tow truck guy. The tire already rubbed against the bumper as I said in my original post. Other than that, I can't see anything abnormal. The wheel has the marks from abrasions against curbs from the past 8 years of driving done by my wife and sometimes me. I would say it's still within the normal range. FYI - The mileage is only 50K for a 8 year ownership.

Over the past 6 months, I did send it to Pepboyz for oil change (Sept 2019) and a wheel alignment (Jan 2020)... Not sure either involves the control arm bolts (I am not ready to think about foul play yet)...

Fast forward to now, from the itemized listing of repair shop at the dealership, I can tell the repair is going to include a complete replacement of control arm and bolts.

I am happy that I am sitting here, breathing and typing. But outraged and shaking from thoughts of what if's. What if I was driving on highway or windy roads on the hills...

Post by **cn90** » 22 Feb 2020, 12:43

The XC90 control arm can be steel or aluminum, depending on the year (IIRC).

The fore part has 2 horizontal bolts, the aft one vertical bolt.
Your aft vertical bolt broke off, it was probably damaged/weakened by the curb hit, then on highway, it just broke off.

I wrote a whole front end DIY, so you can see all details below.

DIY: Front Suspension Rebuild (2005 XC90 2.5T AWD with 120K)
viewtopic.php?t=91985

PS: My recommendation is to replace all 6 bolts to be safe. Very easy to replace all 6 bolts.
Check the control arm for micro-fracture(s), may want to replace the control arm (use only Volvo OEM or Meyle).
Balljoint is Lemforder.

Count your blessing, you should go and play some lottery because you just won a jackpot being alive...