[Orange]

Just sharing this, usually I am a Lemforder supporter but it seems they have some trouble with their bushing quality lately (may happen to any company, hope they come back quickly with a better product)

Perhaps too soon to be sure, but it's good to start talking about it as most of us usually buy and recommend these control arms

Open for discussions :thumbup:

Please see my comment inside the video

 

[JonE1976]

I have about 25K miles and 3 years on a set of Lemforder control arms with no issues. However, it sounds like this batch is newer than the CAs I installed on my car.

 

[Baron Von Chickenpants]

My Meyles have not held up well, 30k later and the right inner is starting to tear, or at least it looks like it, I got too much else on my plate to worry about it right now. I was already planning to get a cheap set and swap everything out with urethane, guess Ima need to do it sooner than I expected.

 

[inteller]

well I got bad new for the guy suggesting to get TRWs. ZF just bought them too so they will probably consolidate production with Lemforder.

Lemforder was OE on P2s so not sure what you are going to find that is better. Some say Meyle and I've found them to be ok for brake rotors but so so on other parts. Also, Meyle did a back door deal into a China manufacturing hub by acquiring Wulf Gerner a few years back so I put them right up there with Pro Parts Sweden on the Chinesium usage.

 

[LloydDobler]

Yeah last set of Meyle control arms on my C70 didn't make it 20k miles before the rubber literally fell out of the bushing sleeves.

 

[Phixion]

Seems like even if using OEM, the rubber manufactured now is NOT as durable as it was back 10+ years ago. Also the Volvo parts while Lemforder by manufacture, could be beefed up due to Volvo's requirements compared to the same exact Lemforder branded part. That does definitely happen in the industry, not always, but it certainly happens. Too bad someone doesn't make spherical type bearings for some of the ones.

 

[UT OLI]

Sheesh, i hope not. I just installed the Lemforder kit from FCP about a month ago with ball joints as well. The product seemed pretty beefy. This is my sons car so not my daily. I drove it yesterday and did notice a slight clunk noise from the right front end when going over bumps. Ive also replaced inner and outer tie rods, HD sway bar links, shocks, springs with bearings and seats. I will look into the clunk this weekend and if its related to the control arms or ball joints i will be pissed and will report back here.

 

[metalbender]

The first time I worked on P2 control arms (with the V70), I ordered Lemfoerder bushings and pressed them in including the supposedly 'heavy duty' taxi/police bushings. The next time I lifted the car up, two months later, the rearward bushing seemed to be tearing under weight of the wheel and general spring pressure. Not happy.

In December, I did loaded IPD control arms on the S60. Did not feel like spending an extra 3.5 hours monkeying around with removing and pressing bushings. The rubber seems to be holding up much, much better. Just my two cents...

 

[chefricky]

I went with Moog when I did my LCA"s So far they are good at 20,000 miles. I kept the originals, the steel ones and plan on sending them to Revolv for new bushings when the Moog's start to go bad. We will see how good they are.

 

[Phixion]

Sheesh, i hope not. I just installed the Lemforder kit from FCP about a month ago with ball joints as well. The product seemed pretty beefy. This is my sons car so not my daily. I drove it yesterday and did notice a slight clunk noise from the right front end when going over bumps. Ive also replaced inner and outer tie rods, HD sway bar links, shocks, springs with bearings and seats. I will look into the clunk this weekend and if its related to the control arms or ball joints i will be pissed and will report back here.

FCP, you're good to go. Don't forget about their lifetime warranty on everything that they sell!! :thumbup:

I know that most in here will know this, but for those that don't, you never want to final tighten down most bushings and moving suspension parts until there is weight on the parts so that you're not over stretching any rubber pieces or exerting too much stress on metal parts. You want to use a jack of some sort to simulate the parts being in normal sitting position when you final tighten things down. Imagine it like this, you install a bushing with the suspension fully suspended, what will happen when it's fully compressed? The rubber only has so much give to it, which is designed to be stretched or worked an equal distance in any direction. This is why some parts tend to wear out faster than otherwise. Just food for thought for everyone. I've experienced this myself personally with parts like control arms and such on other cars.

 

[T501]

^this is true on a lot of LCA's including older Volvos, but the P2 LCA'S doesn't require the bolts to be tightened under compression.

My factory original LCA's only lasted about 80k miles.

 

[ImportService]

Regarding Meyle,

We had a big problem with bushings failing under warranty at our shop. After contacting Robert Castro (Technical Support USA/Canada WULF GAERTNER AUTOPARTS AG )
he confirmed there was a quality problem and warrantied a bunch of prematurely failed control arms due to bushing issues. We no longer use Meyle regardless of the "new design". Since then we've switched to Lemforder and have had almost no issues with quality and we replace them daily. If Lemforder has a new bushing material we have yet to see any problems with it. This is just our experience. I'm very hesitant to purchase any other brands. We've tried APA/URO, Karlyn, TRW, Moog, ProParts and Dorman, out of all of those the Lemforders hold up the best.

 

[Phixion]

^this is true on a lot of LCA's including older Volvos, but the P2 LCA'S doesn't require the bolts to be tightened under compression.

Also, FWIW I only got about 65k miles out of my factory original LCA's.

This is good to know. Yes, the Volvo P2 LCAs are the type where the bushing is attached to a mount and you bolt the mount down, therefore final tightening under weight isn't necessary since you aren't bolting up to the actual rubber itself like other LCAs on older Volvos or other cars. It's not a bad practice though to well practice, lol!

 

[Baron Von Chickenpants]

Regarding Meyle,

We had a big problem with bushings failing under warranty at our shop. After contacting Robert Castro (Technical Support USA/Canada WULF GAERTNER AUTOPARTS AG )
he confirmed there was a quality problem and warrantied a bunch of prematurely failed control arms due to bushing issues.

Well, I def have a pair of them, I was at my dealer today picking up the dp shackles and my rep was there so we looked it up..... a little under 22k on them. I looked again last night, they are both failing, do doubt about it. siiiiiigh, oh well, I ordered the powerflex bushings just now. guess thats next on the list

 

[T501]

My Lemforders with about 15k miles on them:

They appear to be like new. Unless something changed with their manufacturing very recently, I still think they are the safest bet.

Also, notice in this video what brand new genuine Volvo LCA's look like when under load:

I think OP's rear bushing was normal.