P80 P2 Subframe Bushing installation with pictures 3507923

[vtl]

2-1/2" hole saw accidentally matches the front subframe bushing diameter. If your drill is mighty enough to cut through the thick rubber you will end up with less or no damage done to the subframe. My front subframe bushings replacement was uneventful.

[leapdragon]

Thanks to everyone for all the information posted! I took this on today. It was harder than the most optimistic reports (def. more than a couple of hours), but easier than the worst (couple YouTube videos really did this the hard way).

I did it without dropping the subframe. I got as far as the two rears done and had to pause for now, but I think having done the rears, the fronts will be easier to complete. Getting the two rears done, for reasons that will become clear below, took about 4 hours. Three things to add for anyone taking this on:

1) One of my rears came out okay, but the other one was harder. I drilled the plastic, but it was brittle, and the plastic had adhered in some way to the rusty metal, so any time I tried to pry on anything, little pieces broke off, and meanwhile a bunch of white plastic was left stuck on the subframe and needed to be scraped off with hammer and chisel. I ended up going at it for about 45 minutes and finally getting it all out in chunks and pieces. Point being: Have a good hammer and several chisel-tip style tools in case yours behaves similarly.

2) Neither floor jack nor bottle jack would press the new ones in, even slightly. It would just lift the car off the stands. Tried silicone grease, tried dish soap. The 3D printed tool was of IMMENSE help (I don't think I would have managed without it), but because jacks did nothing I also needed to use a bolt to tighten it into place—and the actual Volvo subframe bolts are too short for all but one mount to be pressed back in. I ended up on a goose chase around town trying to find an M14 bolt longer than 4 inches. For US people, turns out there's a Jeep control arm bolt. O'Reilly has it as Dorman part #14859 for just a few dollars. It's about half an inch longer, which is enough to catch the threads and pull the bushings in without needing to make any progress with a jack.

3) I had purchased the o-rings that Volvo later added for the rears to suppress some noise. Unfortunately I didn't know until after doing the passenger side that the driver's side is different—if you're not going to drop the whole subframe, you must put the o-ring in before (not after) pressing in the bushing on the driver's side. I didn't realize this and ended up just running without them (as the car originally shipped) rather than having to tear a new bushing out again and wait for another new one to arrive. So if you have the o-rings, be sure to insert the one on the driver's side up through the hole in the subframe *before* pressing the bushing into it, otherwise there's no getting it in without either fully dropping the subframe or removing the bushing again.

[vtl]

3) You just need to lower that corner more, so the O-ring can be squeezed between the bushing and guiding pin.