Was the seller honest?

Ethan5150 · Post by **Ethan5150** » 22 Sep 2023, 13:39

He folks, I recently picked up a '06 S60R. The seller and his mechanic assured me the bushings and ball joints were all in good shape before shipping the car to me (I'm out in Hawaii).

When I received the car I noticed it was vibrating at ~60mph and had an occasional rattle so took it to my mechanics and put it on the lift to have a look. Here's what they found:

: ControlArm1.jpg (141.83 KiB) Viewed 406 times

: ControlArm2.jpg (140.84 KiB) Viewed 406 times

: TieRod.jpg (124.01 KiB) Viewed 406 times

: SubframeBushing1.jpg (126.59 KiB) Viewed 406 times

: SubframeBushing2.jpg (167.72 KiB) Viewed 406 times

They advised me to purchase new control arms and a tie rod. There are other issues as well but these are the main contention points with the seller, who maintains:

"The bushing and such are in great condition for a 17.5 year old car and are not in need of replacement. They are not perished and have plenty of life."

In your opinion, is this an accurate statement?

I welcome your input.

Post by **BlackBart** » 22 Sep 2023, 14:13

Those are not in "good shape." They are perished.

Post by **Blacklab467** » 22 Sep 2023, 14:37

Those are easily the worst I've seen, not exagerating! Makes me wonder how many miles on the car and what else is in "great condition".

Post by **jonesg** » 22 Sep 2023, 16:07

they're shot.

Post by **scot850** » 22 Sep 2023, 19:12

Well past their prime and into the coffin they need to go. Unless the people completely stupid, then the mechanic that said these were good should hang up his spurs!

Neil.

leapdragon · Post by **leapdragon** » 23 Sep 2023, 12:30

Those bushings are dead.

Ethan5150 · Post by **Ethan5150** » 25 Sep 2023, 17:20

Thanks everyone - I really appreciate your help - just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Ironically, the seller owns 25 cars and a yacht. Go figure...

Post by **jonesg** » 25 Sep 2023, 17:54

Ethan5150 wrote: ↑25 Sep 2023, 17:20 Thanks everyone - I really appreciate your help - just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Ironically, the seller owns 25 cars and a yacht. Go figure...

its very likely the seller relied on someone else' opinion, if they knew but lied? , that is unproveable.
due diligence was on you.

Post by **cn90** » 26 Sep 2023, 11:00

My 2006 S60 2.5T with 102K miles has exact cracking
of the bushings as in the original post.

I have not had time to replace the control arms yet.

Car, however, runs smooth in city and on highway.
Outer ball joint seems fine.

What is the consensus here when you see the bushing as in the photo above but the car runs fine? Replace the CA or wait until vibration sets in?

Post by **erikv11** » 26 Sep 2023, 13:31

Here are some pics of factory P2 control arms I did not replace until 180k, on an XC70: viewtopic.php?t=78596&start=2020.

You can see that the rubber looked pretty bad, not as bad as the ones here but still a lot of cracking in the bushings and boots, however the control arms seemed to be working fine. They weren't noisy the way bad control arms can clunk and/or click, and the front end didn't wander or vibrate. The ride did quiet down slightly after the replacement but no amazing difference.