2010 v50 2.4i - TWO front end suspensions between 67K and 103K miles?

[packetfire]

I got a good deal on a 2010 v50 at 103K miles, and knew it needed at least a timing belt, new lower control arms/ ball joints, and an axle.

But the LCAs on this thing are... shot. At low miles. The big fat bushings on both are very loose.

a) Reports to DMV from annual (NJ) inspections include the miles, auto-copied from the ODB2 port, so no funny business. The low miles are real, and were steady from 2010 to present for this one-owner car. It was traded in to a Subaru dealer this summer, and the Subaru dealer was easily negotiated down to a nice price for the car "as is".

b) It was serviced at the same dealer from which it was purchased from 2010 to 2018 (67.5K miles), but then was serviced by an unknown mechanic. The dealer is no longer an official Volvo dealer, but sells used Volvos, and still runs a dealership-class service and parts department. They did all the service one could need, but did nothing major.

c) Between 2018 and now (67.5K and 103K miles), the struts were replaced with aftermarket, the lower control arms where replaced with aftermarket, and both CV-joint axles were replaced with aftermarket all by the unknown mechanic, who did not report any service to CarFax.

d) Driver's outer CV joint boot cracked, and is throwing grease all over the inside of the wheel.

e) It may be the lower control arm, but it may be the driver's side strut spring seat - when going from park to reverse, reverse to forward, and forward to reverse, there is a "thump" as something shifts under the changed torque.

So the factory parts failed, were replaced, and the aftermarket replacements failed too, all before 100K. Are all the front ends on these "P1" Ford/Volvo/Mazda chassis this flimsy?

The car does not look at all like it has been driven "hard", the undercarriage is in good shape, the bodywork is unblemished, the interior is clean, the inner surfaces (door hinges etc) are very clean, and while the "clean" may have just bee an excellent job of pre-sales detailing, the bits of dog hair here and there in the back of the wagon convinced me that the car was simply garage-kept, and not abused, rather than detailed to remove the usual grime.

So, questions:


1) Are the Mazdaspeed 3 front end parts maybe a little more robust?

2) What's up with the ball joints being RIVETED to the LCAs? Detroit Axle has a more sensible design with a bolt-on ball joint (https://www.detroitaxle.com/part/2010-v ... 8_k620599/ ) but no one else seems to have bothered. Not sure what I am missing here... dunno why.

3) Given that the original springs are gone, replaced by a Quick-Strut, should I scavenge some originals from a junkyard to get "real volvo parts" cheap, or are the aftermarket springs just as beefy as the originals?

[scot850]

Like you say, there is no information on the source/brand of the replacement parts. Quality of aftermarket parts are so variable now and parts can fail very early in some cases. I have to say 67k does seem low for the front end OE parts. 8 years does seem low, but the P1 parts share a lot of FoMoCo parts which are also variable.

I like that Detroit axle idea. The reason I guess for the lack of replacement bolt on items like the ball-joints is they often wear out at around the same time as the bushes on the LCA. Balancing up the cost of swapping the individual parts in labor terms is often higher than the cost of a decent replacement complete LCA. I went down this route with our P2 XC70. I bought the replacement bushes and ball-joint but paid for them to be installed. An hour labor made them around the same price as shiny new ones.

Axle C/V boots are mostly crap these days. I had an aftermarket one fail in around 6 months which made me really happy!!??

Again, not sure if they replaced just the boots or the whole axles. Again labor v's complete aftermarket axle may have come into this again. I would rather fit the original Volvo axles with GKN Lobro boots (OE ones are stupid expensive).

For your clunking issue I would be checking the upper and lower torque mounts for failing bushes.

Don't get me started on the quality of quick-struts. I'm surprised they lasted this long!

I would look at replacing with better parts like Bilstein struts/shocks, better spring seats (not familiar with aftermarket parts for P1 cars), and if you can find a decent set of OE springs in your area maybe go that route. You could try Erie Vo-Vo for good used parts over buying crappy aftermarket stuff.

Sorry, no idea about Mazdaspeed parts, their inter-changeablity or even if the quality is any good.

Good Luck,

Neil.