406oc.co.uk

Welly wrote: I ventured into their 'lounge' last week with something I thought was quite useful to know........bejesus it was like walking into a busy Pub covered head to toe in sh*t, holding a severed Pigs Head in the air. Silence.

That's nothing - think what will happen if they check this forum.

(Your signature's bound to have them rolling in the aisles).


.....There's no place like home, is there?

When my father ordered his V50 he could choose between 3 different suspension setups.
Standard, Comfort or the 'R-Design suspension package'.
He chose the R-Design which was rock hard and lowered 20mm.

It handled like a total pig considering it has a Focus chassis, god knows how Volvo ruined it.

Probably by bolting on stuff that looked good on paper, without actually trying it

Welly dear chap, did you avatar fall into a time warp? I was just searching through posts from a few years back, I saw your old avatar and thought "aww, them were the days" Then I realised. Where's the one with the exhaust lying on the road? That was from when I first joined, before the board got "redesigned", which is what that one's about.

This one?

That's the one.

Well my new springs have just turned up, from Sweden, via the UK

Doesn't say the company name who made them does it? There's an automotive spring manufacturer a couple of miles up the road from here.

No, doesn't say. I buy all my parts from FRF in Swansea (using the special Forum Code) I think I get 10% dissy on stuff.

Welly wrote:Well my new springs have just turned up, from Sweden, via the UK

Did you mean from the UK via Sweden?

Mind you, there's not much these days that sports that kind of label

The UK dealer had to ship them in from Schveden, but they were originally made in UK, just one of those funny things. But not so funny when you think of the cost.

They seem nice quality to be fair.

For your convenience, the cost of shipping it from the UK to Švedska and back again has been added to your bill Although, perhaps that's what they've told you...

Oo-err this aint working out very well........

First up, the N/S went straight in (1 hour) then the O/S lower control arm bushing was seized....had to be drilled out....then the 'easy out' was used.....then got a new "Ford" [spit] bush....this was too big....ring Volvo....you have to buy the COMPLETE LOWER ARM.......how much?.....£130.00.....so waste of time drilling the old one out....all now scrap.

It's that bit flapping down, holds the coil spring and has 'that' bushing at one end:



Me: "err how long have you spent so far on this job?"

Garage: "quite a lot to be fair"

Me: This is Day 2 now, will I need to borrow "the loaner"** again tonight?

Garage: "no should be ok if the control arm turns up this afternoon, we're turning away MOT customers because your Volvo is effectively stuck on our new expensive ramp"

Me:

** The 'loaner' is a 20-year old Honda Concerto, auto, have you ever driven a car and felt genuinely scared?......

Oh blimey The only loaner (reminds me of that bit in The Mask) I ever had was a Ni$$an Micra, it was almost new and took about 10 minutes to start my back off. My mate (who was driving it because they were iffy about my UK driving license) took a bit longer before it started his back off. We spent the day thrashing it unmercilessly about ZG ("let's see how high we can get the fuel consumption") but when we went to fill it up before taking it back we couldn't work out how to get the fuel flap open. We went back and asked how to open it but they guy said not to worry as he was sure we couldn't have used that much fuel

Hope they manage to figure it out soon anyway.

Just popped round to check progress and yet another bush has siezed at the other end of the arm so it needs cutting off and we can't get another new bolt until tomorrow.........DAY 3

AND the supposed 'Volvo Dealer Only' control arm has FoMoCo stamped all over it

Basically pretty much every bolt/bush/anything on the back end is corroded. I can see me crawling under there soon and giving the thing a good clean up and coat of something? to seal it.

So I will indeed be doing a 'Stanley Ipkiss' and taking the loaner home tonight

I thought Vulvas were reliable?