Hello: I have replaced both lower control arms on my 98 s70 about a year ago because both ball joints were shot. Today while changing oil I noticed that the drivers side lower control arm ball joint is out again. I did not have the car aligned after the first repair and have seen no unusual wear on the tires since. My questions are this, why did this wear out so fast? appx 10k mi. The units were purchased over the net and were made by Merle, are these junk? they seemed to be of good quality but the stamp on the box indicated they were made in Turkey which makes me question the quality of these parts. My next question is this, do I buy another one on the net for $150 or do I pony up and pay the delership $200 for genuine volvo parts {which I hate to do} also does anyone think that because the car was not aligned this could have caused the joint to go out this quick. Any thoughts on this would be very helpfull. Also thanks everyone for all their posts on this site I have saved a ton of money and gained alot of confidence while working on this car

jmack,

I don't know if misalignment would hasten the failure.

OEM parts are almost always your best bet. For instance, most find that aftermarket anti-roll bar end links don't last as long as the OEM.

Patronize the suppliers advertizing on the BrickBoard and you''ll probably pay the same as for the often inferior aftermarket parts.

I have good luck with Swedish Engineering. Ask for Phillip.

Bryan

They are shot? How many miles did ya get on the originals? My 98V has 101K and still no problems.

I bought the car used with about 70K on the clock , I do not know if they were bad at this time or not. It wasn"t till about 15K mi later that i noticed both ball joints were very sloppy, I assume that these were the original control arms but dont know for sure. Thank You very much for your reply.