850 Spring seats

colovolvo · Post by **colovolvo** » 11 Feb 2006, 12:14

Just replaced the original struts w/ Bilstein heavy duty. First days awesome performance. Drive a lot of dirt roads and they worked great for a while. Now the spring seats have failed both bushings are loose in the body.
Could I have assembled them incorrectly??? I used the spring compressor from ipd and new oem parts. Are the Bilsteins too strong for the oem parts? I do drive pretty fast over the dirt...... Is that a problem??? I've a new set of bilstein seats but wonder if they'll fail. Are there any super duty poly type seats available?
Lotsa questions............NEED HELP

White850Turbo · Post by **White850Turbo** » 12 Feb 2006, 07:02

I've heard before that the Bilstein's are pretty hard on spring seats. I think it's just coincidental though that yours failed right after you changed the struts. They are a common failure, even with completely stock suspension.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 12 Feb 2006, 07:32

I agree....when you changed the struts and shocks you should have changed them as the new ones will sit in the old ones slightly different than the ones that came out...the age of the old and the strength of the new is a sure cause for them failing. Btw, same goes for the rears...should change the shock mounts as well. Even though not advertised on their site www.shox.com has all of these items for pretty cheap compared to others. Give them a call. Sounds like your struts are coming back out

colovolvo · Post by **colovolvo** » 12 Feb 2006, 09:34

Thanks for giving me a response. The problem is I replaced the seats with oem parts. Is there anyone that manufactures poly seats?? I now have a set of Febi bilstein seats and yes they'll be coming out for replacement this week.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 12 Feb 2006, 14:08

You sure it's the seats that went bad? You know there are strut mounts in there too, so potentially 2 things can go bad. It's just way too early for the seats to go bad if you just replaced them. Here, this should help (Volvo part numbers are listed with each part as a bonus!):