I found an error regarding subframe bushings from professional parts Sweden

lawrencium265 · Post by **lawrencium265** » 15 Mar 2022, 16:48

I now highly recommend that if you purchase subframe bushings, or any other parts that you do so through Volvo or through a trusted company such as ipd.

I just had a really nasty experience buying parts on eBay.

There are two different part numbers for front bushings on these cars, one with a perfectly round hole, and one with an oval shaped hole.

The oval hole bushings go in the left rear of the front subframe. The other three will be round.

You can replace all 4 with round.

I ordered two oval hole bushings from a seller on eBay and received round ones. His photo shows it as oval and the photo for his part number shows that it is oval. The parts were drop shipped from imc/parts authority

Why two? I am going to try something that may or may not work, adjust caster.

I went and double checked on the manufacturer website and the photo is an oval bushing:

https://www.proparts.se/en/artiklar/bushing-lr-43.html

There is a second part number that also has the same photo I ordered this part from a different seller and it is an oval bushing.

https://www.proparts.se/en/artiklar/bushing-lr-42.html

If you look at the notes on the manufacturers website they correlate with the bushings I received.

I emailed pro parts Sweden and imc about these issues and have not heard back yet.

This has been one of the worst experiences I have ever had on eBay and I've been using it for 18 years. The seller has tried every trick to stop me from returning these bushings. It looks like he's done this to many others in the past as well. I still have not gotten a refund and I may not.
Link to seller:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Left-Right-F ... 1768411624

Post by **Blacklab467** » 15 Mar 2022, 20:03

Volvo only lists 1 part number for the OEM subframe bushings, the oval bushing in the driver's side rear was only delivered on new cars for whatever reason. I would suggest that the only way you will be able to effect caster would be if you had all four bushings with oval holes as any repositioning of the subframe rear would return to neutral position when the front subframe bolts were tightened. I would also discourage from using aftermarket parts for this application.

Post by **SuperHerman** » 15 Mar 2022, 21:35

My personal experience the error with PPS is buying them. I have never had a positive experience with their parts, having to replace them within 1/2 a season.

Post by **abscate** » 16 Mar 2022, 03:25

Life is too short and lovely,

To not buy from FCP or IPD

-Mahatmas Ghandi

lawrencium265 · Post by **lawrencium265** » 16 Mar 2022, 13:10

Blacklab467 wrote: ↑15 Mar 2022, 20:03 Volvo only lists 1 part number for the OEM subframe bushings, the oval bushing in the driver's side rear was only delivered on new cars for whatever reason. I would suggest that the only way you will be able to effect caster would be if you had all four bushings with oval holes as any repositioning of the subframe rear would return to neutral position when the front subframe bolts were tightened. I would also discourage from using aftermarket parts for this application.

On my 01' V70 there are two dowels/pins on the left side of the car that fit closely inside of the bushing. On the right side there is nothing but the bolt going through the bushings.

The purpose of the oval bushing is to allow minor adjustment of the subframe to square it to the body of the car. The subframe would pivot around the pin in the left front location. You could affect caster some this way but it would be different from side to side. This would help correct for road crown. They may have done different bias based on region or which side of the road that country drives on from the factory.

When I replaced mine I used all four round bushings, I was still able to move things around quite a bit, I still may be able to go forward a smidge as it sits.

If you use two oval bushings on the left side of the car you could move the position forward more. However I'm unsure if this will even work because my car is AWD. Using an online calculator because I don't know trigonometry I'm guessing that moving the subframe forward 1/2" will increase caster by 1°. Mine is at 4.2° which is nearly not enough to be in factory spec. If you consider road force pushing the suspension back it is likely less under load and the car almost feels unsafe to drive as it is.

Post by **vtl** » 16 Mar 2022, 13:50

When I was spacing subframes in my XC70, I did a mistake and sprayed spacers with corrosion inhibitor wax. On the very first good pull my front subframe moved to front as far as bushing holes allowed. Rear subframe shifted fully backwards on its own while installing spacers (rear wheels were on ramps, car rolled down a bit).

Now my car has a longer wheel base and a bit more positive caster. And I like it!

First, the car cruises less than Toyota and more like Mercedes. I can basically leave the steering wheel alone and have a nap. Second, I don't have any more pain removing the driveshaft, since it has this 1/8" of extra space now to pull CV joints out of flanges without unbolting everything

Post by **vtl** » 16 Mar 2022, 13:51

Oh, I forgot to mention that spaced subframes allow so much easier access to just anything related to the subframes. I don't know why I didn't do that 10 years ago when I first got that car.

lawrencium265 · Post by **lawrencium265** » 16 Mar 2022, 15:22

vtl wrote: ↑16 Mar 2022, 13:50 When I was spacing subframes in my XC70, I did a mistake and sprayed spacers with corrosion inhibitor wax. On the very first good pull my front subframe moved to front as far as bushing holes allowed. Rear subframe shifted fully backwards on its own while installing spacers (rear wheels were on ramps, car rolled down a bit).

Now my car has a longer wheel base and a bit more positive caster. And I like it! First, the car cruises less than Toyota and more like Mercedes. I can basically leave the steering wheel alone and have a nap. Second, I don't have any more pain removing the driveshaft, since it has this 1/8" of extra space now to pull CV joints out of flanges without unbolting everything

This is all very interesting! I thought the rear of my car was surely messed up because the rear wheels are so much closer to the rear door then the rear bumper within the wheel arches. I looked at side views of other x/c and v70s and they are all the same.

Post by **Blacklab467** » 17 Mar 2022, 05:23

Very good point about the oval bushings, hopefully you can use the play to achieve a small bit of caster to bring you into spec. I'm thinking about your comment about how the car almost doesn't feel safe to drive, I recall test driving a very clean, low mileage XC70 a couple years ago that had been in a minor accident that affected the rear of the vehicle, there was no perceptible repair as the accident was very minor, no parts were replaced in the rear suspension, however.............when I drove this vehicle it had very negative stability and was all over the road like something back there was bent, or maybe even in the front. It was unsafe to drive above 80 Kmh.
My thoughts are: perhaps something is bent in the back, or something is critically worn like a spring seat separated ( I had one of these). What were the specs after you had the alignment last week, and before. Is there any evidence of collision or curb strike?

lawrencium265 · Post by **lawrencium265** » 17 Mar 2022, 07:51

Blacklab467 wrote: ↑17 Mar 2022, 05:23 Very good point about the oval bushings, hopefully you can use the play to achieve a small bit of caster to bring you into spec. I'm thinking about your comment about how the car almost doesn't feel safe to drive, I recall test driving a very clean, low mileage XC70 a couple years ago that had been in a minor accident that affected the rear of the vehicle, there was no perceptible repair as the accident was very minor, no parts were replaced in the rear suspension, however.............when I drove this vehicle it had very negative stability and was all over the road like something back there was bent, or maybe even in the front. It was unsafe to drive above 80 Kmh.
My thoughts are: perhaps something is bent in the back, or something is critically worn like a spring seat separated ( I had one of these). What were the specs after you had the alignment last week, and before. Is there any evidence of collision or curb strike?

Strangely the car did not feel like this before I replaced the subframe bushings and engine mounts. The steering feel was much firmer.

However I did have a very scary pull to the left under braking which did not affect the steering wheel at all. You could hit the brakes and the car would slide to the left like it was doing the cha-cha slide. This was fixed with new engine mounts and or the bushings.

The original bushings shown were not torn l, but the left engine mount was completely collapsed. I'm not sure if an engine mount could cause

I had replaced the upper strut mounts before that.

I'm very certain that it is a combination of too much negative camber -1°L / -.8°R up front and -.4°R / -.7°L as well as the 4.2° caster up front.
However you have me thinking, the tech did adjust the toe on the Rear left which was at .32°

Those front camber numbers are different than before I did the work obviously, and I had different front toe as I also replaced the inner tie rod ends due to miniscule play and I didn't want to pay for an alignment on loose parts.

I did my own alignment adjustment at home when I was finished just to make the car better since I needed it for a few days before the alignment appointment. When I checked rear toe it seemed like both sides had very equal toe in.

This makes me wonder exactly how the computerized alignment works. I took my reference off of the center of the front and back wheel to get a parallel line to the car. Where is the machine getting a reference from exactly? If I actually have the subframe crooked in the car the machine may just be set up to make the wheels track straight to each other and may not be able to tell the difference between a car that is parked crooked on the lift and a car with a crooked frame.

I have noticed that the steering feels different when turning left and right. I don't see it being possible to get the subframe too far left or right. I'm planning on taking careful measurements before I do anything so maybe that will reveal something.

I will also look at the rear more carefully, I did look at it and gave it a quick handshake before I took it in.

I also wonder if I made the steering feel much easier than it was when I greased the strut bearings.I started chasing a steering squeak I was hearing while turning the wheels in the air to bleed the power steering. I had actually unseated the steering shaft bearing/isolator when I was messing with the subframe. That caused the steering shaft to rub on the rubber body boot inside the car making an awful noise. I thought it was the strut mounts at first so I hit them with some white lithium spray grease.