As a follow up on this post...

The dealer kept the car for one month. Lots of discussion with Volvo North America about the repair. In the end, they opened up cylinders, found no scoring and therefore performed the "piston job" in lieu of engine replacement. This all happened without consenting ...

Thank you all for your replies.

Previous Volvos, we had oil changed every 3-5k. '98 xc70, '85d something. So it was never noted.

As for the PCV valve, the dealer did mention that a new "fix" was being considered which involved the PCV valve. Since this is all greek to me, I did not ask what, when ...

Car has 35k miles with mostly City driving.

The low Oil Light has come on numerous times since around 20k miles. The car, still under warranty, had the Dipstick and reprogramming fix applied at 32k by the dealership and a fresh oil change.

Was taking the car in for the badge recall this week and ...

Just to wrap up this inquiry, I had my local volvo shop replace the seat and mounts along with some other misc parts and washers at the strut head. The problem has been fixed! No more terrible noises from the front end.

They checked the sway bar links and as hoped for, they were fine. The only ...

A few more questions before I order all this stuff.
1. Would recommend getting all the other washers at the top of this assembly, in addition to the spring seat and strut mount?
2. Is a torque wrench essential? I suspect so.
3. IPD is suggesting a strut top nut wrench and socket.... does not seem ...

Thanks for the responses. A volvo shop replaced the strut and seats 35k ago and I have no idea what they used.

I checked the sway bar links and they appear to be solid and do not make any noice when moving the car side to side.

I will replace the sping seats and upper strut mounts on both sides ...

Looking for some assistance as a newbie DIY'er. Have read several posts on this topic and am still unsure of my exact diagnosis.

1998 V70-XC, with 135k. Front right suspension makes a good deal of noise when going over anything but a smooth road surface. On bigger bumps, there is a loud clank noise ...