Does anyone have experience replacing either the front or rear suspension bushings on their Volvo? My 89 240DL has 137K on it. My IPD catalog has motivated me to replace bushings to improve the ride, but their descriptions lead me to believe that unless I have some bushing presses, that I should leave the job to the pros. I won't do it if I can't do it myself. Also, are there any good sources for tools for this job? Thanks.

From what I am reading here, it looks like a job for the shop. My torque arm bushings and track rod bushings are looking like they are pretty well shot [I can shake the track rod back and forth at one end without any problem] so I have ordered them from ipd. My 82 GLT has close to 300,000km on it and it is making a clunking noise from the rear.

If you think that somebody with a good vice and a reasonable set of sockets can replace these bushings without destroying the vice and the sockets in the process, please advise.

Bob

Tex,

They're right, the rear trailing arm bushings (rear TAB's) probably are the only ones needing replacing, they start to go at about 100K and by 160K the clicking in the back end will become quite frequent during take off. It is not a bad idea to replace bushings before they make noise, in fact it is cheap insurance. The tool worked well for me and cost about $13 to make it myself. HOwever, if you live in the rust belt you WILL need air tools, and a good chance you will have to air chisel the old ones out like I did. look underneath at them and see if there is alot of rust on the bushings or the trailing arms. they are a press fit. air wrenches will make the job easier anyway.

also, spray PB blaster on the bushings for about 2 weeks before you do the job. If you are going to tackle this yourself it is a pain in the a$$ (PITA), but it can be done (took me 5 hours with air tools). there are plenty of lil tips from others who have done this, just ask when it's time. It may not be a bad idea to replace the rear shocks too, only a couple extra bolts...

chuck
'88 244 170K
'87 BMW 325e 170K

The reason why I did the job myself is because I didn't feel like paying my local indy shop $500 to do it. I like to know what goes on under there and if something fails, then I know who to blame.

The rear trailing arm bushings require a special tool. You can make your own with the information at:
http://www-ese.fnal.gov/People/wilcer/volvo_trailing_arm_bushing_tool.htm

The tool is not difficult to fabricate and it works well. Make sure to go to the added effort of getting the hardened bolt and nut.

The other bushings can be done with a very large vise but are most easily handled by sending the components to a full service auto supply store and allowing their machine shop to swap them out.

The rear trailing arm bushings seem to be the ones that take the most abuse and many times do need replaced. However, I am of the opinion that many times the other bushings are just fine and are replaced needlessly. I base this on my own experience. At 137K I would be willing to bet you only need rear trailing arm bushings.

Randy

I know what you mean when you suspect that other bushings are replaced needlessly. I would however comment that I after replacing my trailing arm bushings, I did find a tear in one of the torque arm bushings. This was admittedly at higher mileage than 137k (don't know exactly; my odometer doesn't work).

One of my control arm rear bushings also had a sleeve separated from the rubber, and the rubber was split. I couldn't really tell this until I had removed it though.

I don't know very much about 200-series Volvos but on my Amazon I replaced the front suspension bushes myself. For the lower wishbones on the Amazon a press is needed. But a big vice and some short pieces of correctly sized tubes doubling as drifts did the trick.
Big sockets can also be used as drifts.