2007 V70 135K harsh, noisy suspension suggestions

[OliPhant]

Hi Everyone,
Like others on this list I've long puzzled about a harsh, noisy ride on normal road imperfections.

The car has 135K. After the 5 years/ 50K miles i've owned it I've stumbled on some "fixes" that resulted in a more balanced, supple ride.

Apart from the obvious: wheel balancing, alignment, all the following made a difference:

* Tires - switched from stiff Z-rated to softer H-rated
* Ball joints - replaced the fronts
* Struts, mounts, spring seats - front
* Torque mounts - motor-mount at top of motor, and tranny-mount below.
* Coil springs front - seems i'd gone 50K miles on softening front springs, with possible long-standing cracks. New springs made a big difference. Personally I think the coil springs are a weak point; I'd recommend examining them regularly after c. 75K.

Hope this helps.

[scot850]

Front springs do seem to be a bit hit or miss on the P2 cars, especially the XC70. I've read of several that had front springs break. In our case it was a rear coil that broke which ended up with a full suspension rebuild with 4C chocks all around as one was leaking at the rear as well. Not a cheap job.

The front suspension I have always found crashy over things like speed bumps even at slower speeds. I could not imagine what Z-rated tires would be like on these cars.

Glad you found a way to improve the ride and thanks for sharing!

Neil.

[Vova585]

I used to have P1(98v70xc) and currently have P2 and several P3 in the family. Among 3 of them, P2 front suspension is just "Lego " with proper spring tamer. No evil press in wheel bearings, no rusted iron knuckles, just epiphany of engineering talent. Yes, all suspension components of XC will be worn 20k prior to regular V70 all things being the same. In terms of suspension repairs- most importantly dont cheat yourself with aftermarket junk. Only high quality parts and from FCP(you will be replacing them in 4-5 years again anyway). In my experience-if you want to drive 4-5 years normally-replace everything and it will work nicely. When you starting to replace only 100% problematic item, by the time you got to it, it caused wear and tear on other componenets and 2 month later you are under the car again and hopefully you have alignment plan at your tire store...