Thinking of saving a few bucks by using cheap rear trailing arm bushings? Think again bucko, unless you love changing them every 20,000 miles don't save your money here.
When I put the Bilsteins off of the 244Ti onto my '88 I noticed the bushings were off center. I checked my records and found they had been changed 28K mi. ago. When I got the new bushings from Volvo and pulled the old ones out this is what I found, they were completely shot.
And yes I got a look at the catalogue at Interauto and these are indeed ScanTech!!!
On the left here is a Volvo bushing, on the right is a ScanTech el-cheepo.
A set of Volvo bushings was $95 at the dealer, the el-cheepo was $25/set.
The Volvo bushing weighs a little over one pound, the aftermarket is right at 12 ounces, over 33% more rubber in the Volvo bushing. Additionally probing the rubber showed the Volvo bushing has firmer rubber.
The aftermarket was not marked "ScanTech" but when I went back to the parts house that's what they turned out to be.
Now for the good news.
Here is the Volvo bushing (R) next to the Boge bushings that are available from FCP Groton on request. They seem to be identical in every way except for the "Volvo" at the top of the "Factory" ones. The Boge were $41.50/set including shipping, and they were at my door 3 days after I called FCP, just long enough for a good soaking of penetrating oil on the old bushings.
FCP = 877-634-0063
Here is an interesting aside, this is an original bushing that came out of the '88 at 168K mi.
It has "Volvo" at the top but as you can see it has 2 metal pieces imbedded in the rubber. Could it be that Volvo is getting cheap and buying bushings from Boge with the Volvo label on them? No not Folvo, they'd never start cheapening their parts.
This just adds fuel to the Factory vs. OEM, vs OE question.
Can you ever tell what you really get?
