Last week I replaced the OEM endlinks with after markets...big mistake, even though the aftermarket ones are on tight the car is very noisey now, more so than before. I bought PFS or something cuz they were cheap ..$100 for all four.

Well, I was at the dealer this morning and they test drove the car and put it on the hoist too but in their opinion the after market endlinks are on nice and tight so they shouldnt be noisey but the rattling noise Im experiencing is a symptom of bad endlinks! They couldnt find anything else wrong.

So they suggested changing the rear endlinks again and putting in volvo ones this time.

Should I go with volvo links this time $120 for rear pair, or invest in IPD or QBM?

Has anyone had experience using the two aftermarket ones and is the extra $$ worth it?

Here are the links to IPD and QBM links

Cheers

http://www.ipdusa.com/Volvo-S60/Suspension.../p-74-404-1163/

http://www.quickbrickmotorsports.com/prod_endlink.html

PS. All four wheels make noise when going over small bumps but the rear ones are extra loud when there are passengers in the back.

No comments on this folks? No one here has changed end links ever??

I've posted and heard nothing but crickets too. I think it is my "handle".

Coincidentally, I just changed the front links and one strut mount last week on my 02 s60 -- used all aftermarket parts. It was a little creaky at first, but it went away after a little bit.

Not sure about the rear clunking, but the front is probably the strut bearing plates//spring seats. To diagnose, jack up the fron end and turn the tire side to side - feel for roughness or a 'catch' in the plate. It helped to have someone turn the tire so I could hold my hand on the top of the plate and feel for the roughness. Getting an alignment isn't a bad idea either.

It all depends on if the car was noisy before you did the links.

Something else for all 02's - get your trans. flushed before it is too late.

Good luck,
Brian

Thanks Brian

By strut bearing plates do you mean strut mount? Do you recall what the parts and labour cost was?

I agree on the tranny fluid. I changed mine a few months ago and it made a huge difference.

The rear noise has gotten so bad the car clunks when going over the smallest imperfections in the road...but only if I have passengers in the back and only at slow speeds.

I will swap the rear endlinks again with OEM and see is that makes a difference...its the cheapest remedy to start eliminating possibilities.

Cheers

I got the bearing plates and spring seats from FCP off of ebay -- for labor it was a driveway special that I did myself. It wasn't too bad - just took a long time because I kept getting interrupted. If you decide to try it yourself, you'll need some basic metric tools and a spring compressor that you can borrow from most auto parts places for a deposit that they give back. You'll need an alignment for sure because the lower strut bolts are the camber adjustment & even if you scribe the base positioning it will be off somewhat. It was a whole day job [labor book rate is about 4-5 hours at any shop]. I was replacing a wheel bearing too.

This is a good writeup if you do it yourself:

http://members.shaw.ca/heeeeee/strut/

Mind that spring, though - it'll really do some damage.

As for the rear, if you had to pre-load the sway bar by using a pry bar to get the links in place, maybe try to shoot some lube into the actual sway bar bushings to loosen things up a bit. I did that on my fronts - don't know if it did anything, but it seemed like the thing to do.

Brian