I just made a frightening discovery.

I ordered OEM Volvo tie rods for my 98 c70 from IPD.

They arrived in nice OEM Volvo bags, marked as 271598 and 271599. With time being short, I installed them and took the car to an alignment shop immediately.

Then, the right wheel started making terrible scraping noises. I investigated this afternoon and discovered that I actually have TWO Left Hand tie rods on my car. Trusting that the bags actually contained the correct parts, I didn't think too much about it during installation. My mistake - which now costs me wheel damage and another $95 in alignment labor.

I initially thought that IPD had screwed up and picked two left hand rods, but after re-checking the bags, I realized that the bags were marked as left and right, but the contents of the Right-Hand Tie Rod End package (271599) was wrong.

I've contacted IPD about the error via their customer service site. I'm trying not to fault them here, but this snafu comes the day after I discover that the control arms they sold me (only ones they sell) are rapidly falling apart.


My old rod-end is too worn out to put back on, so I'm stuck avoiding sharp right turns until the correct rod end shows up.

I have *NEVER* heard of this happening before.