Hit curb and CV axle broken. Time to junk it?

goVolvo · Post by **goVolvo** » 16 Aug 2020, 11:06

2000 V70XC 237300 miles.

Child hit curb while left turning. Right front CV axle broken, ball joint disjointed, fender and wheel well cover torn off the fasten bolts. Seems minimum need is CV axle and control arm, and fender body work. I did some DIY before like replacing struts. But not sure I can tackle control arm.

What would be the estimated cost? $200 for third party parts and $400 for labor, another $500+ for fender? $1k+ is too much for this car. It still runs good and I drive regularly. Very sad to see it go.

Post by **scot850** » 16 Aug 2020, 11:46

For parts you can try vandsautodismantlers in Sacramento, or from Canada Chapman motors on Vancouver Island. Chapmans can be a bit pricey but with the exchange rate may be not to bad for you. I have bought a lot of parts from them over the years and never had a bad part over the years. Both should have good axles with a bit of luck, and go for a good OE axle over a cheap aftermarket if you can.

Axle and control arm are fairly straight forward. Your control arm is a little harder as it has 4 bolts with the heads facing the engine on the sub-frame. Driver's side is easier to access but may require a slight jacking with wood under the trans to give full access to the bolts.
Control arm has 4 bolts on the sub-frame and 1 holding the ball-joint to the strut.

The CV axle on your 2000 has a stretch bolt (should be replaced with axle) at the hub end and you should be able to remove the axle from the hub with the sub-frame disconnected. Removal from the transmission requires careful use of a cold chisel between the axle and the trans case and a blow with a hammer should pop it out.

When fitting a new axle, make sure you feel the 'C' clip in the trans snap in when installing to hold it in place.

Main thing to check is that the sub-frame is not bent or you will never get it aligned.

Good luck.

Neil.

Post by **abscate** » 17 Aug 2020, 05:46

Fenders are $35 at Harrys here, so under $300 to get a running car back To the road.

If that’s not economical then you should dump it and drive a 10 year old Asian car.

The metric of cost of repair relative to car value is frequently poorly used

Post by **smacknab** » 17 Aug 2020, 11:32

Yeah are you planning on doing it yourself? If you've done the struts you should be able to tackle the control arm no problem. The right CV axle is much easier to replace than the left IMO. Plus you have to pop the knuckle out of the control arm to do the axle anyway (atleast on my 99 fwd) so doing both at the same time makes sense. Shouldn't take more than an hour or two. If the parts are the same as fwd, an ipd axle is about 150 shipped, frontal arm is like $50?

Could you post a photo of the fender damage?

goVolvo · Post by **goVolvo** » 17 Aug 2020, 20:22

The fender panel is still Ok but it is torn off from fasten bolts.

Also the pinch bracket on steering knuckle is cracked open and need to be replaced. Still not sure about wheel hub.

It is fixable but maybe not for me. I did the struts 3 years ago but now feel not as strong as before, and less willing to work on cars.

I don't need this car right now so I have enough time. But also not eager to get it fixed. I can give it for free if someone wants to fix a car to drive.

Post by **abscate** » 18 Aug 2020, 03:47

That’s a perfect way for cheap wheels for someone who likes pick and pulls

Post by **amblerman** » 18 Aug 2020, 08:19

"Main thing to check is that the sub-frame is not bent "

That is one of the most important things to look for.
However, your control arm looked like it snapped clean and quickly. When this happened to my car, the control arm twisted and bent before it snapped and while it did that, it bent the frame.

In my car, this is what happened to frame (and what a good used frame looked like)
As my control arm twisted, it collapsed the tubular frame a bit. This resulted in my bracket for my control arm being shifted a bit.

I found a parts car and swapped frames. The damage to my frame was obvious. It's definitely check that out on yours.

: bent-goodframe.png (1.12 MiB) Viewed 1485 times

goVolvo · Post by **goVolvo** » 18 Aug 2020, 11:38

From what I can see, the subframe doesn't seem to be affected. And seems I can still use the bolt and snap-in bracket to put the fender back in place. Looks easier now?

But the wheel arch linen were bolted by plastic pivots. Not sure how to re-do it properly.

Post by **wheelsup** » 18 Aug 2020, 12:23

I bought my axle from Advance Auto Parts for $52 five years ago (with a coupon). Came with a lifetime warranty. Haven't needed to use it.

Don't buy name brand stuff, it's 20 years old with 237,000 miles. Just put generic stuff on there. If you want to keep it.

Swapping the control arm is pretty straight forward, do you have air with an impact? The bolts are pretty tight. I used a pry bar to help pry them out as well.

It's not a bad job, IMO way easier than struts. But still can be a PITA.

goVolvo · Post by **goVolvo** » 18 Aug 2020, 12:42

If I DIY it, I plan to get parts online from ipdusa or even rockauto. Part cost probably is not a big amount.
Tight bolts are my main concern. I don't have an air impact wrench. And it is hard to extend wrench arm underneath the car.
I don't know how hard to separate wheel hub from the steering knuckle either.

More feasible way is to get a mobile mechanic with my parts. If I can put the fender back and only need the wheel linen, the overall cost could still be manageable.

Tried some search but can't find third party parts for the Steering Knuckle (Volvo part number 9200175). That's a bummer... Need to get from junkyard?