Wondering Which Axles to Buy?
A bit of a warning: Some have bought the cheap “knock-off” axles that are made in China…
wrecked2001 » I am in the Air Force currently stationed in Mildenhall AFB in England. I just bought a 97 850 glt automatic as a second car for my wife, UK spec right hand drive. The cv axles need to be replaced, can i order US spec axles for the car. With the curret exchange rate i would save about 400 dollars ordering form the states. Help will be greatly apprciated. Thanks.
MadeInJapan » When I look these numbers up in VADIS, I see absolutely no difference between the part numbers offered for U.K. spec or U.S. Spec (right hand drive vs. left hand drive) Volvo’s from your model year. Make sure you get the axles (called drive shaft on your side of the pond) for a turbo vehicle as a ’97 is a turbo (at least in the U.S.). If for some reason a U.K. Spec ’97 GLT is not turbo, you’ll need to know this before ordering.
A bit of a warning: Some have bought the cheap “knock-off” axles that are made in China from fcpgroton and not been satisfied at all (some of the splines have actually broken off in the transmission). If you do order from fcpgroton, buy their higher end axles. My personal suggestion is that you contact Marty at Raxles.com (either phone or email) and tell him your situation. I know that they typically require a core return and I don’t know how that would work out from across the Atlantic, but their axles really are superior. Or…maybe you had another place in mind? Another option is to deal with IPD (www.ipdusa.com). I believe they have distributers in the U.K. as well.
Good luck and let us know how things go.
Which Axles to Buy, Which to Avoid
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Last Updated on August 27, 2022
3 Comments
I bought “OEM” from FCP. Turns out they were Uro (probably made in China). Didn’t have time to send them back, so I installed them. About 4K miles later, the right side CV is making the traditional lunking noise (lunk, lunk, lunk). Classic CV failure. I am going with the actual European shafts from Volvo this round. You get what you pay for. ($140 vs. $350)
Bought from O’Briens @ $59.99 ea plus $60 core.
Master Pro(mfr) Remans- offered lifetime warranty. Their more expensive @ $73-L/$87-R, were 1 year wty only. Pretty much a no brainer. Had them installed by an alignment shop,Pro outfit)who said:they buzz just a little at first between 60-70mph(goodie). Just drive ’em 80-100 miles and they smooth right out. Right on. Zactly what happened.Now have just about 600mi on them and they are as smooth as the orig. The vibration was very light, and only under acceleration most of th time.Further foot buried, more vibes. I have a backup car so could take the chance to mess with taking old out to put real spendy in. Most stuff like this gets better as it wears in, so I’m pretty satisfied. Do go for the remans.I’m convinced most of them are orig Volvo with just
the ‘foreign’ CV structure. Seems real good, and the cost saving was well worth it.
Avoid Chinese if you plan to keep the car. I went with “Raxles”. Excellent company.