Volvo owners know for a fact that their vehicles are meant to be safer and more comfortable to ride in, but just like any other man-made machine, their parts wear out with time. One of the most common problems Volvo drivers have is suspension bushing wear.
These tiny yet important components are there to absorb shocks from the road, minimize vibrations, and maintain the ride quality. When bushings go bad, you might experience things like clunking noises, uneven tire wear, or a rougher ride. If you're feeling these signs, then it's time to get your suspension checked out by a professional.
First: What Are the Early Signs of Worn Suspension Bushings?
Suspension bushings are usually made from rubber or polyurethane, which will break down over time from continuous exposure to heat, friction, moisture, and road debris. As these components start to wear out, you’ll begin seeing warning signs, including:
- Excess Vibrations: The most common symptom that you notice is that the vibration in the steering wheel, the seats, or the floorboard is excessive. Because bushings are a cushioning interface between metal suspension components, they will wear and allow more metal-on-metal contact that transmits vibrations with gusto.
- Clunking or Knocking Noises: You may notice some unusual clunking or knocking noises when driving over bumps, potholes, or uneven road surfaces.
- Poor Steering Response and Handling: With the degradation of bushings, you will experience less precise steering. Things such as a delayed response when turning the wheel or trouble keeping a straight line may be experienced. This is especially apparent at highway speeds.
- Uneven Tire Wear: Misaligned suspension components due to worn bushings impact how your tires meet the road. This leads to uneven wear on the tires, with bald spots or heavy wear on one side.
- Braking Instability: You might find that your car nose-dives when you hit the brakes because its suspension system is not able to cope as effectively.
How Worn Suspension Bushings Affect Your Vehicle
The longer worn bushings remain, the more pronounced their detrimental impact on your car becomes. Let’s take a closer look at how worn suspension bushings affect various aspects of your car’s performance:
- Less Comfort and Ride Quality: The suspension bushings help in the absorption of shock and vibrations, which also means that suspension bushings have significant roles. As they become worn, you will experience every bump, pothole, and imperfection in the road far more acutely. This leads to a stiff, jarring ride and can make long journeys particularly painful.
- Poor Suspension Alignment and Other Component Damage: Bushings serve to align suspension components. When they do, control arms, sway bars, and shocks can get misaligned and wear excessively. This can cause damage to the control arms, shocks and struts, ball joints and tie rods, etc.
- More noise while driving: Good bushings control unwanted movement of suspension components and keep the ride smooth and quiet. But when things go south, you’ll notice that you’re hearing more of the clunking, creaking, and rattling coming from your suspension, particularly when driving over mixed surfaces.
- Greater likelihood of accidents: Neglecting to repair worn-out suspension bushings can risk the overall safety of your vehicle into question.
The Process of Repairing or Replacing Suspension Bushings
Here at Royalty Auto Service, we have a detailed, step-by-step process to get your vehicle's suspension system back to normal.
Step I: Inspect the Suspension in Full
Our qualified technicians will thoroughly inspect the entire car suspension system before replacing the bushings. We will look for signs of excessive wear or cracking in the bushings and any loose or damaged components, such as control arms, ball joints, and tie rods. Other key signs of problems lurking in the underpinnings are uneven tire wear, unusual noises, or excessive movement of the suspension.
Step II: Bushing removal
After confirming which bushings are not up to par, the next step is the removal. As the bushings are pressed into metal parts, they need specific tools to pull them out. We start off raising the car up on a hydraulic lift, removing the damaged suspension parts like control arms and sway bars. Next, we apply precision techniques to press out the old bushings without damaging surrounding parts.
Step III: Pressing in the New Bushings
Depending on your vehicle and personal driving habits, we may install rubber bushings, which yield a smoother ride but wear out faster, or polyurethane bushings, which add toughness and performance but can also stiffen up your ride a bit.
Step IV: Reassembly and Alignment
Once the new bushings are in, we reassemble the suspension components and provide a professional wheel alignment.
Step V: Road Test
Finally, we do a full road test of your vehicle. Our technicians listen for grinding or scraping sounds, test the steering response, and inspect the suspension system for smooth operation.
Need Suspension Bushing Repairs? Visit Royalty Auto Service in Kingsland, GA
Royalty Auto Service is proud to offer expert suspension repair to drivers in Kingsland, Amelia Island, Brunswick, Kings Bay Base, Woodbine, Yulee, and St. Marys, GA. If you are seeing worn suspension bushings on your Volvo or any vehicle, do not delay—make an appointment for an inspection with us today and drive with confidence!