S60 Suspension: Wishbone / Lower balljoint Who comes out best on quality?

[Thassos]

May need to have a go at replacing my S60s front wishbones at some point soon, what is your experience of non volvo parts for these, the names that appear to be good quality like Meyle (HD does that mean anything?) and febi bilstein / lemforder appear to stand out as better quality than 'generic/no mfg name parts' but what has been your experience with replacements if you've fitted them?

Also the bottom balljoint -- does it take some effort or tool to remove it and refit, as it appears to have a round section that locates into the hub, how easy is it to press back in or is it not such a tight fit?

[petey]

A ball joint splitter will break open that lower ball joint easy enough.
Getting it back in is dead easy, no effort at all if you can get the wishbone low enough. If you’ve replaced the wishbone (or at least it’s bushes) you will fight trying to lever it down. A tie down ratchet strap around the subframe on the other side and it becomes so very simple.

Getting the wishbone out is much easier if you remove the brake calliper and associated bracket, and break the ARB drop link at the bottom. Be VERY cautious about pulling the inner cv joint out as that’s a pain to replace.

[MarvinMitt]

I wouldn't consider Febi Bilstein nor Meyle as the better brands in general.
Some products maybe, but overall for suspension parts go with OEM ZF group brands (LEMFÖRDER, SACHS, TRW).

[barrybritcher]

www.partsforvolvosonline.com

[AndyV7o]

Lemforder, meyle, Febi are all well reputed. Febi I can vouch for on a renault if not volvo. My Scenic has done 127k and is only on its second set of bottom arms, which are still good. I drove it f##kin hard too, make no mistake! Originals were Febi/Renault branded, replacements are Febi with grinding where the renault name/logo/part number were on originals.
That said, word on the street is Meyle/Lemforder for Volvo V70/S60/S80

[oragex]

Skip Meyle / Febi, HD or not. Lemforder is good for both parts. Placing back the ball joint on a wishbone with new bushes is tricky because of the stiffness. I for one much prefer removing the two lower shock absorber bolts, makes the job a breeze (google a bit about the camber setting)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxC9Ek9HhGI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o028fLkbl5k
At 6:30 how to position the strut when putting it back in place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ypsxupaja8

[MarvinMitt]

Hi Oragex. Sorry, no time to look at your 25 min video, but undoing the strut from the spindle will loose camber settings.
I'd be interested to read what makes you suggest that to undoing the balljoint with ratchet straps?

However after replacing suspension parts I would get wheel alignment done by a shop anyways.

[oragex]

About the strap method, I know several people did use it, however I like keep a little skepticism when people online say 'it's easy' about something.. sometimes we don't say the whole story.. I remember someone saying using the strap wasn't exactly that straight forward. It's for this reasons why I would rather go with the 'by the book' method instead. In fact, I did remove my suspension a few times by now (old mistake of buying cheap struts..) and I did remove the lower strut bolts several times for this reason. It seems to me as a normal task.

As for the camber adjustment, again just my 2c but I would not be that afraid about this setting. It doesn't do much to the handling or tire wear at both limits of the setting, I just like to push the strut all the way towards the engine then tighten the nuts (this would be the most negative camber I believe), but again, I had it also to the most positive setting and didn't see a tangible difference - the adjustment is quite small in the end, about 1/8" at the 'top' of the wheel, so a little angle in the end. Compared to this, racing cars may have severe, visible to the eye negative camber for thigh cornering speed grip, with little effect on tire wear http://f1framework.blogspot.com/2012...car-setup.html

Agree about the geometry needing a check after suspension/steering parts replacement, always a good idea.

Side note, a little off topic but speaking about front wheels geometry, I do the toe adjustment myself at home with just a ruler, I've done so on my cars for the past 15 years or so with good results, good tire wear, handling etc. I think this may sound like an heresy somehow, but at least for me it worked. The history behind this is long three garages charged me without doing the geometry as asked, which forced me into starting doing it myself. I think if the garages in my area would have been a little more honest, I would had never got into self repairs (this being in Canada) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOEk-BUmNg8

A tip for the OP, when I did the bj, I turned the large nut with the ratchet at first, without locking it with the Allen key. This allowed the bj washer to start spinning, which helped because sometimes this washer gets stuck into the wishbone. Also, a pretty good tip is to start by useing a wire brush to clean well the exposed bj stud threads, or dirt will prevent the nut from being easy to remove.

[petey]

It’s true that there’s two types of “easy” in Internet forums, one which is easy and one which seems to be someone shouting out about great and clever they are to be able to do a tricky job whilst sounding smug about it.

If you’re changing wishbones, you hopefully have a degree of nous about you, and with that in mind, using a ratchet strap to locate a new wishbone is easy. It’s easy by any measure, by anyone sufficiently suitably experienced to be able to get the wishbones off.
Removing the lower ARB drop link and the calliper and bracket will give you loads more room to negotiate the wishbone out of its hole (it needs to go in whilst positioned horizontally). Be cautious about pulling the inner CV joint apart. It will go back together but it needs to be absolutely in line and that’s a pain. I pulled mine out trying to use a power tool on the top calliper bracket on the OS. Lesson? Use hand tools if yanking the hub around is required.

This is not a hard job, it is the definition of easy provided you remove the bits that get in the way. I have levered I don’t know how many ball joints back into place but I doubt I will again after seeing how uncomplicated it was.

[R-P]

I for one used Moog and I never managed to get the ball joint back into the control-arm no matter how much leverage I used (and I used so much I was afraid to tear the brand new rubber in the control arm).

So after hours (and hours and rewatching youtube video's and some more hours of sweating, cursing, rebuilding the dislocated CV joint, etc), I took the two bolts of off the strut and did it that way.

I just read Petey's advice of using a strap on the OTHER side of the subframe and that might make a little bit of difference, but I am not sure it would have been enough. Maybe when removing the subframe rubbers, or fiddling with the 4 subframe bolts.