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V40 Control Arm S40-V40

Hello to the Board,

I have discovered when taking in my V40 to get aligned that the left ball joint in the control arm is shot and the right is soon to follow. A couple of questions....Any pointers on the job itself? Are special tools required?

I have only found a couple of replacement control arm assemblies online and there is quite a difference in price. Is there a quality difference in these parts? volvopartsdirect.com has $107.73 for a part made by Meyle. Autohaus Arizona has a Febe for $120.95. The Volvo dealer is $260. What do you all think?

Mark
91 240 DL 193k, 2000 V40 93k








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    V40 Control Arm S40-V40

    I've replaced both on my car just over a year ago. You need a torque wrench and a ball joint seperator (basically a heavy duty fork). Something that works better than a ball joint seperator is 2 hammers, you knock the joint simultaniously on the sides and the joint will fall out without destroying it. Remeber to disable the passive air bags (e.g. for front seats remove cover and insert plastic disable key).

    Unfortunately on this car you have to replace the whole control arm, not just the ball joint. In New Zealand the arm costs around US$375 each form Volvo! I've imported genuine parts from Australia and paid that same price for both plus a service manual plus shipping. The genuine Volvo parts are Scantech brand. The ball joints tend to wear out fast on this car, I would stick with genuine as it would generally be of higher quality. So try and find a supplier that does Scantech.

    The thing that I got wrong was that the half shaft pulled out of the engine and turned slightly, so was not mated when I've torqued the bolts and did the allignment. Afterwards we found the problem and turned it, the half shaft just popped in but now the allignment is slightly out.

    For this job you should get a service manual or at least a copy of the pages. But I would not recommend it for a amature (I'm an amature as well). Next time I would just take it to a shop and supply the parts (because Volvo parts in NZ are expensive, shops here don't mind if you supply your own).








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      V40 Control Arm S40-V40

      Niel,

      Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm still not sure how to disable the passive airbag system. Is that definitely required for this procedure? My manual doesn't say anything about it, but that's not saying much....sometimes they leave some of the good stuff out. I subscribed to Alldata, so far it seems pretty good. I couldn't find a manual anywhere else for this car.

      Any further information on disabling the airbags would be helpful....I plan on starting the job in about an hour.








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        V40 Control Arm S40-V40

        For all interested. The job turned out well. Thanks to Niels warning, I was able to keep the output shafts from coming out of the CV joints. Definitely a DIY job. Hard to get a torque wrench and crowsfoot on the ball joint nut though...

        91 240 DL, 193k....2000 V40 93k (and steering tight again)
        mwhittie








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          V40 Control Arm S40-V40

          It was long weekend in New Zealand, and I took 2 extra days off. Anyway, to disable the front seats side air bags (passive ones) you remove a cover on the side of the lower cushion, towards the rear. Inside the cover will be a plastic key thingey (think it is orange) which you can slide over the sensor.

          By the way, from the sensor is a connection that runs up the side of the seat to where the actual bag is.

          Glad to hear it all went well. The only trouble I had was actually because the half shaft was out of position, it was really hard to get the control arm into position!

          I use a standard Haynes manual, should be available in any book shop or on eBay. It is the first Haynes book I've had that is actually good.








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            V40 Control Arm S40-V40

            PS: I always disable the airbags when I'm going to hit the car with a hammer, disabling is such a simple job. Even if not going to use a hammer, it is still a good idea since the car could roll off the axle stands, hit the ground and deploy the air bags which results in a huge replcament cost for the bags and the car seats.







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