I was leaving for a trip upstate (170 mile drive) on Friday and noticed an annoying clunk when I went over certain bumps. I looked around and did not find anything. I could not jack up the car because of the rain either.

Today, Sunday, was beautiful. So while I was upstate, I was determined to find what it was. What I found was not a happy sight for me to behold:



It looked the same on both sides of the car. No wonder.

Now, I have a few questions here relating to the end links and the bushings as well.

As you can see, there are pretty meaty bushings in there. Those are polyurethanes that I obtained from FCPGroton. There are 4 pieces per side in total, and all 4 are the same type. Do I have the right bushings in there?? I was informed by someone at FCP that there are two types of end links depending on if my control arms are aluminum or steel, and that if I have threads on both sides (looks like I do) then my control arms are aluminum. Are these bushings appropriate for what I have or do I have the wrong ones somehow?

I'm guessing this happened because the end links are old, but I'm not sure, and do not want this to happen again.

Is there something else that would have caused it to snap, such as inappropriate installation (not preloading the swaybars?) If so, I will inform my mechanic of this and have it done properly.

Man, talk about a lousy weekend, my catalytic converter seems to have gone this weekend as well. (rattling sound from inside)

Thanks.


Note: the car was jacked up and the wheel was hanging, thus why there is such a large gap between the snapped ends in the photo.
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Kenric Tam
1990 Volvo 740 base sedan (B230F)
My Volvo 'Project'