Excellent thread. I hope you continue posting.

OP, I have freshend my front suspension as well at 175K miles. New struts, top mount, top bearing, lower control arm & ball joint, stabilizer bar end links, outer & inner tie rods + alignment. All told around $670 in parts + $80 for alignment. This goes against general consensus of using onl...

OP, same thing happen to me a few months ago. I drove the car to dealer for some body work and after short period of being parked, it refused to start - all lights light up but absolutely would not engage the starter. I had it towed on flatbed($$$) to a Volvo dealer($$$) 20 miles away. Turned out it...

I replaced mine with the exact same ones Matt recommended. Nice shocks. Assuming you are DIY, I suggest also looking into stabilizer end links. With the vehicle on the ground and front wheels pointed straight - see if you can easily rotate the links by hand. This for both front and rear. Since you w...

I had wheel alignment done at Belle Tires over a year ago due to having installed new set of tires and that the car had funny behavior during braking. After the alignment all was well and the funny behavior was gone. Fast forward 10 months driving through icy/snowy road my XC70 was slipping and slid...

I wish I can give thumbs up on your thorough posts! Well done and thanks!

The control arms are mainly different by the quality of bushing used. The front front bushing was made by Lemforder as OEM and I don't believe Beck/Arnley uses Lemforder bushing. I replaced my control arms/bushing x3. Lemforder bushing is strongly recommended. Checking the condition of tie rods is e...