Volvo 70-Series 1998 TRW Rack, FWD.

Passenger side wheel has *bad* play. It makes a clunk when I stop, and a clunk when I drive. My alignment has slipped and the car seems to be pulling to the left quite a bit now. The outside corner tread on my tires has worn down.

I do almost all city driving, but when I got the car on the highway, the weird handling was immediately obvious.

I *thought* it was a bad Control Arm/Ball Joint - one of my joints had a torn boot anyway, so I replaced them both. But, after installing new control arms, the play is still there. Passenger-side only.

The passenger front wheel moves noticeably w/o load and with pressure at 3/9 O'Clock. I'm not sure if this is inner or outer tie-rod failure. But I want to order my parts ASAP.

What's the rule-of-thumb here? Should I replace both inner and both outer rods all at once, or just limit myself to the worn components?






I'd like to order parts ASAP in order to have them on-hand by next weekend.

After fitting new control arms and ball joints, I realized that the passenger side play was still pretty bad. rocking the wheel forward and backward revealed detectable looseness. Under the car I can see the movement in the Tie Rod end.

Unfortunately, this is not all. I tried tilting the wheel up and down and felt a similar level of play. This sort of movement supposed to be diagnostic of a bad ball joint. Unfortunately that is not the case here. I have a brand new ball joint and can see that the play is at the axle/hub assembly.

It looks like my el cheapo aftermarket CV Axles (purchased last year from eBay) may not be a perfect fit. It's way too late to get my money back.

I can confirm that the tie rod end is worn, but now I'm realizing that the problems and excessive tire wear seem to have started when I replaced the passenger side axle.

Due to the ill-fitting replacement boot from FCP, I can't reinstall the old EMPI axle either, so it looks like I may need to order another new set of QUALITY replacement CV axles.

I've e-mailed RAxles and compared prices on EMPI axles from a variety of sources.

Ouch, OEM is $335+ at Tasca. You can do better than that with EMPI.

Klaus
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Did you do your Random Act of Kindness today?

going price seems to be about $120 each for EMPI. I'm just still confused about the looseness in the front assembly. The axle is actually tight with the hub, but I can move the whole assembly around.

The weather finally turned here so repair season is almost over.

Going to do the tie rod ends as soon as they arrive. I need to try and isolate the source of the movement. It's very dark when I get home so it'll be the weekend before I can get a good look at the problem).

I don't want to put on OEM components only for them to wear out because there's something else going on...

Looking at about $350.00 Shipped for Raxles. Not a bad deal really.

At that price, I would go with Tasca. Backed for 2 years at any Volvo dealer.

Klaus
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Did you do your Random Act of Kindness today?

It is a lot more work to remove a questionable inner rod. You also have to know what kind of rack you have. SMI or TRW: To determine the brand of your rack, please locate the product ID plate of your vehicle. That is under the hood by the drivers side wheel well. You are looking for the last line on the right of the divider and looking for the last digit. If it is marked with a 5, then you have the SMI rack.

Myself, I would replace just the outer and then check for play again. Most often it is the outside bushing that is toast.

Klaus
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Did you do your Random Act of Kindness today?

I checked the rack already, I've got a TRW Rack. So does my 940... oddly enough...

Thanks. I'll go with the outer rods first. Several of these problems began when I pried the control arms loose to replace the front axles. Seems like I pushed several worn pieces over the limit.