Suspension and Brake Recommendation

[Juan62]

Geo, read the "Front Suspension-putting together parts list". This will assist you much more.

[Ozark Lee]

If it were me, and you have enough loonies, I would change them (the struts). In the process of removing the spring seat the strut is completely free and it makes no difference in time, other than opening the box, whether a new part or an old part goes back in.

This is not a horrible job but it isn't like changing the oil either. It is a solid 4 wrencher so it is the kind of thing I would like to just check off of the list and be done with it. I'm a fairly decent shade-tree mechanic and changing a bad axle and the struts and spring seats, along with the tie rod ends, took me a very long day - about 10 hours.

I was using a pneumatic impact wrench to compress the springs, a little on one side and a little on the other, back and forth, which greatly speeds things up. Once you get the cross shaped nut off (which can be its own special nightmare) things go very quickly.

The car will handle quite strangely if you don't change the rear shocks at the same time and I stay brand specific front to rear on shocks and struts. Whichever brand you choose do all four corners with that brand.

...Lee

[geokilla]

I stumbled onto this suspension kit and it more or less has everything that we need. It uses the OEM S70 spring seats though instead of the XC90 ones. There's also sway bar links in there, which I'm not so sure if we need or not. But it seems that the more research I do, the more things I find that needs to be replaced...

Should the springs and shocks be changed as well? If I have enough money that is.

[Ozark Lee]

The standard spring seats will work just fine, just not as long. At the end of the day it depends on how much longer you plan to drive the car.

In my case I'm going for the million mile club on all of them - well maybe 3 out of the 4 - so even the parts that I am putting on a car with 256,154 miles on it I am using premium parts. My son's 850 that has been solid reliable getting him through college - other than the C/V joint that blew up on his way home - and I only paid around $350.00 for it and it has a bunch of warts - it may soon come up in the parts section of the classifieds.

If this is a car that you will drive for another couple of years and then get something different I wouldn't worry about it on the spring seats between the standard seats or the XC90 seats but don't sink so low as to use Scan Tech parts.

...Lee

[quietlymknnoise]

Try their new beta site FCPEuro.com. They have a sale going on until 6/30 at 10,12 &15 % depending on your total price.

[geokilla]

Wait so I should to change the springs, shocks, when the struts are changed? They should all be the original ones btw so I'm thinking they're pretty much shot. Is there a way to check besides the pushing at the corner of car technique?

Um how do I check which control arm and tie rod the car has? I found this image, but where am I supposed to look once I jack the car up? Or do every single S70 come with the 2 bolt control arm and not the 4 bolt one? I can't find any OEM 4 bolt control arms on IPD and FCP, only aftermarket ones.

To check if they need replacing, I found the two posts: post #1 and post #2. I don't recall the tires moving when we were switching from winter tires to summer tires. At most, they spun just a wee bit back and forth as we were tightening the nuts and stuff.

Also found this thread which is hella useful.

It seems that the FCP control arms are pretty good as well, assuming our S70 uses the two bolt mounting.

Sorry for being such a newb.

[jblackburn]

S70s only have 2 bolt control arms. Don't use aftermarket.

Change everything at once unless you can't afford to; but ultimately cheaper to do it all at once than change them later.

At 198k mine doesn't handle potholes and big bumps very well, but they don't bounce either. That's a valid test for worse struts - hit a bump on the highway over a bridge at 65 mph and it should settle down quickly. I drove a Civic a few weeks ago with only 80k miles that bounced around like crazy over the same bridge I take all the time in the Volvo just fine.

[Juan62]

Geo; on this forum, look for the post "Front Suspension-putting together parts list", by ojdorson. This will help you visually, while under the car. Now, as for your springs, struts, shocks; your coil springs will last much longer than struts/shocks. And yes, replace both at the same time (front Struts and Rear shocks). The struts and shocks can be another brand, but the specific components is HIGHLY reccommended Volvo/OEM. As for me; since I can't afford to purchase all suspension parts at one time, I'm catching and buying them when they come up on sale. Once I have all, then I'll do the job once. Though my 98 S70 T-5M is 62K, she also needs a massage, stockings, and a good pedicure.

[Juan62]

Forgot to mention; Brakes....if you can't afford to do brakes and suspension, do brakes FIRST. (Safety).

[zhenya]

But it seems that the more research I do, the more things I find that needs to be replaced...

That is certainly the case when a car gets to the 150k mark and above. Just like a home remodeling project, there is always the problem of the 'while you're in there' mentality causing project creep. There is good reason for it, as many of those parts are almost certainly worn out, and it does save time or money to do it all at once. What I did, was replace the shocks and struts and all associated seats and hardware, along with sway bar end links at once. A couple of years later my control arms started going, so I replaced those, and now, with everything else tight, I can, probably for the first time, feel that there is a slight amount of play in my tie rods, so those will be the next, and pretty much final, parts to be replaced in the suspension and steering dept.

In your case, it wouldn't hurt to get it to a good, honest mechanic who will give you a second opinion about what parts need replacing. They probably won't recommend everything, and can tell you what parts are the worst and should be replaced right away.