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

[cn90]

@alschnertz @cn90:

By "itemized listing", I meant from the dealership's repair shop, not from Pepboys. I re-edited my post and corrected some other typo's. I don't think the alignment job would touch the control arm/bolt either. Sorry about my bad writing as I misled you.

So, if the dealer replaced the control arms and bolts at 50K, they are liable for this repair.
They should fix this whole thing for free.

If this was done by the dealer, then my theory is the mechanic got distracted.
Things happen all the time, you are doing something and if someone interrupt you to talk/discuss something, when you come back, often you forget where you were left off.

PS: I agree with going back to find the bolt, but this is dangerous bc you will be walking along the highway to find the missing bolt (intact or broken)...

[hot9000]

My description maybe a bit too long and causes confusion. Hope the following timeline clarifies:

Sept 2019 - oil change at Pepboys - I don't think it's related to the incident
Jan 2020 - wheel alignment at Pepboys. - I don't think it's related to the incident. Also, No service on control arm, etc at all (!!) that I may have misled some of you
Feb 14 - hitting curb
Feb 15 - incident, lost of control, towed to dealer's service dept
Feb 20 - inspection by insurance, deemed not from wear and tear, incident no fault to me. Agreed to pay beyond the deductible
Feb 24 (today) - parts should arrive, replacement of control arm/bolts on left side at dealer's service dept

Thank you for the advice on the thread. I will request dealer's service dept to also replace the bolts on the right side.

[ggleavitt]

This thread got me thinking. Been chasing a year old right side curb slam in the '05 that so far has resulted in replacement of both right side rims (heavy rash), the FR Hub (loose), the FR ball joint (preventative) and the RR rear stay (bent), each job followed by an alignment that would be close but never perfect. Because the LCA are solid steel and pretty stout, had not thought much about them as they were relatively new (<10k, OE) and the bushings were not torn. New hardware was used when I put them in so didn't think much about that as well.

Noted a little FR outer tire wear recently, took the vehicle in for an alignment and rotation to be told that FR camber (slight low) and caster (slight high) were out out of spec. Tech thought LCA or strut were bent and it got me thinking about this thread.

Sure enough, can see my issue with the alignment, the vehicle was making an occasional knocking noise as well.

I didn't think at the time to check all the LCA attachment hardware when this incident occurred, it's on my list for the future. Not the same problem as the original poster but these things can happen when you slam a curb, this being another example. I replaced all the hardware with and re-torqued to spec.

edit 031520- typos.

[abscate]

Old thread but still worthy of discussion.

I think the failure here was the nuts came loose and the bolt machines the visible groove into the bushing and control arm. That’s wear, not impact damage.

[800artfreed]

Glad you were not injured in what must have been a very scary moment. Recently on my 1998 S70-T5, the forward bolt of the two lower control arm bolts, on the left side, broke allowing the arm to move away from the mount point. Fortunately I was just going up my driveway, with the steering locked all the way to the left for the turn, when I heard the most unusual noise as the control arm moved back and forth after straightening the wheel direction. I have usually replaced the bolts when changing the arms but maybe retaining the Volvo hardware is safer than using the newer imported hardware.

[abscate]

Glad you were not injured in what must have been a very scary moment. Recently on my 1998 S70-T5, the forward bolt of the two lower control arm bolts, on the left side, broke allowing the arm to move away from the mount point. Fortunately I was just going up my driveway, with the steering locked all the way to the left for the turn, when I heard the most unusual noise as the control arm moved back and forth after straightening the wheel direction. I have usually replaced the bolts when changing the arms but maybe retaining the Volvo hardware is safer than using the newer imported hardware.

Thanks for sharing that art. Wow!

Moving forward

Volvo says replace the LCA bolts with new on removal. That means Volvo bolts, not the crap at Lowe’s.

I confess I have reused the strut bolts many times, but I’ve been religious on the LCAs. They literally keep the wheels on the Bus