EXTREMELY interesting thread. The reason is because my powerflex lower arm (front) bushes don't fit correctly, and this has answered the question why...
When you had fully melted all your rubber off the original centre bar, in your pictures it reveals that the centre bar reduces in diameter in the middle and is wider at either end. Mine however, was a consistently large diameter all the way across, and this is why mine didn't fit properly. The bush then expanded too much when the centre bar was inserted, causing it to be almost impossible to then fit into the arm.
The only reason I can think of is, yours were maybe original Volvo arms and bushes which is what the Powerflex bush will be designed to fit to. Mine on the other hand must have been aftermarket ones, not made to the same spec, but I couldn't have known this at the time. Truly gutted. Unless of course the S60R and V70R come with different centre bars through the original bushes? If so, Powerflex should be informed really. Mine:
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...53305941_n.jpg
Still fits to the car fine, handles fine, no noises and doesn't show up discrepancies with laser tracking... still not right though.