2002 V70 tie rods quiz

Post by **vtl** » 11 Jan 2015, 19:38

Left to right: Volvo OE (TRW) inner tie rod + Meyle outer, Lemforder inner + OE outer (and ignore OE outer from the other side). Outer rods are bolted into inners to max depth, inners are aligned.

OE+Meyle is 310 mm, Lemforder+TRW is 320 mm. Your guess what's wrong?

2002V70XC · Post by **2002V70XC** » 12 Jan 2015, 17:41

Hi vtl,
Is the Meyle outer tie rod longer than the OEM? I've had Meyle HD outer tie rods (from IPD) that were longer than OEM. IPD staff confirmed it after checking with Volvo.
I thought the non-HD Meyle version would be fine for front wheel drive!

Post by **vtl** » 12 Jan 2015, 18:00

Non-HD Meyle has same length as OE 274175/274176. However, quality may be not up to OE. This Meyle was in vehicle for 1 year, so far so good, but I took it out and replaced by OE, because I had miserable experience with other stuff from Meyle: struts went out in 6 months, sway bar end links in a year.

I've got these OEs on Ebay for $103 w/ shipping.

Post by **oragex** » 12 Jan 2015, 20:59

vtl wrote:I had miserable experience with other stuff from Meyle: struts went out in 6 months

The Meyle struts didn't last? I was just looking about purchasing them.

Post by **vtl** » 12 Jan 2015, 21:09

oragex wrote:The Meyle struts didn't last? I was just looking about purchasing them.

Nope. I drive that car (V70) only occasionally, so in 6 months I noticed they were... well, not like I put them in half a year ago. When I replaced them in another 6 months, I still had old rusty original struts laying around. 1 year old Meyle struts were worse than 12 years old Sachs. So that speaks best to Sachs quality, I finally decided to put them in the car. New Sachs, of course.

Forgot to mention: everything I had made by Meyle rusted badly. If they'd last, lets say, 5 years, I fear I'd had to use Dremel to cut nuts.

Post by **oragex** » 12 Jan 2015, 22:21

vtl wrote:
oragex wrote:The Meyle struts didn't last? I was just looking about purchasing them.
Nope. I drive that car (V70) only occasionally, so in 6 months I noticed they were... well, not like I put them in half a year ago. When I replaced them in another 6 months, I still had old rusty original struts laying around. 1 year old Meyle struts were worse than 12 years old Sachs. So that speaks best to Sachs quality, I finally decided to put them in the car. New Sachs, of course.

Forgot to mention: everything I had made by Meyle rusted badly. If they'd last, lets say, 5 years, I fear I'd had to use Dremel to cut nuts.

Happy I learned just in time, this saves me time and money. Do you feel the new Sachs are a little bit smoother than the old ones? What color were yours?

Post by **vtl** » 12 Jan 2015, 22:45

Suspension was dead when I bought V70 4+ years ago, so I don't really know how it drove new. In last couple of years I replaced basically everything replaceable in suspension and steering. I've got Sachs with blue label, they feel as stiff as in XC70, which I bought soon after previous owner replaced suspension at dealer. Original Sachs were white label. Remember this is V70, not XC.

Springs are Suplex. I've mistakenly ordered S60 rear springs, which are softer than those in V70, but since wife doesn't carry 4 corpses in trunk too often, she likes unloaded car with softer rear springs better: the ride is not that bumpy like it was. Looking backwards, I'd order OE springs, because lot of aftermarket parts from not very well known brands failed quick enough. Not confident in how long those Suplex'es will last. Darn greed...

Post by **oragex** » 13 Jan 2015, 06:38

Then the blue Sachs must are the standard ones, replacement for the white original ones. I'll go with them too (there's also red Sachs which they say are a little bit stiffer).

2002V70XC · Post by **2002V70XC** » 15 Jan 2015, 04:43

I also had a problem installing the rear Meyle HD sway bar link! One of them had the boot pulled out from the string that hold/tighten its mouth! I couldn't get it back into position so I removed the string and used a zip tie to deal with it. Hopefully its fine!
I was very careful installing them but their design for couterhold the nut is not as good as the OEM one (torx bit). I noticed that all the Meyle parts I got were made in Turkey but i'm not sure if that has anything to do with the quality.
Also their Tie rod ends (HD version) are longer than OEM so they won't fit the XC70 properly.

Post by **vtl** » 15 Jan 2015, 09:14

2002V70XC wrote:I noticed that all the Meyle parts I got were made in Turkey but i'm not sure if that has anything to do with the quality.

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking" (c) Henry Ford

Answering to quiz: I've got OE outer tie rod (made by TRW in USA) with ~10 mm of uncut thread. Had to cut inner tie rod shaft to be able to do toe-in alignment.

Though this is a good bit of info on Meyle: looks like Meyle has to be avoided, HD or non-HD, doesn't matter Thanks!