Creaking on RH front wheel

milesursogood · Post by **milesursogood** » 06 Aug 2011, 07:48

Lately, I've been experiencing creaking noise on the RH front wheel when slowly going over speed bumps. What advice are there to diagnose this problem?

Post by **erikv11** » 06 Aug 2011, 08:30

My advice is check the basic suspension components.

First: check the spring seat. Under the hood, put a wrench on the big nut on top of the strut tower. Try to rotate it. If you meet resistance, then the rubber of the spring seat is still intact. If the nut is able to spin around, it is shot.

Second: pull the right wheel and have a look around. Check especially the attachments of the sway bar end links. Look for cracked rubber boots, look for any play in the end joints of the various parts. There should be none. Also check out the metal backing plate on the brakes, they can rub, but it doesn't sound like that.

milesursogood · Post by **milesursogood** » 07 Aug 2011, 10:52

Nut is able to spin on the passenger side. So is the spring seat or strut mount that needs to be replaced?

Post by **erikv11** » 07 Aug 2011, 13:30

Nut spins around = badly broken spring seat.

Of course it is possible other parts are bad. Because you have to totally remove and disassemble the strut tower to fix this, consider changing other parts now if they are really old or worn.

Spring seats is another on of those parts where the aftermarket items tend to just fail quickly. IPD makes a heavy duty one that is OK, otherwise go with Volvo brand or even better, Volvo branded to fit an XC90. The latter are heavier rubber they last a long long time.

Oh and when the struts come out, you need to get the front end aligned. Another reason to not have to take it out again soon for another broken part, and to check out the other side now for worn parts.

EDIT: I'd give this a look, I have bought other things from this person before. Prices look decent but I didn't compare with the online sites:
www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=41595

milesursogood · Post by **milesursogood** » 07 Aug 2011, 23:08

Bad spring seat . . . Does this need to be replaced or repair immediately?

petek153 · Post by **petek153** » 08 Aug 2011, 02:55

When replacing front strut mount why is it front alignment is needed? If you don't loosen tyrod there is no adjustment to what your replacing. I've done several 850 strut mounts and never had a alignment problem after.I've marked all parts taken apart and when put back everthing realigns due to no adjustable parts. Am I missing something ? Had the first one checked just because everyone says to but the shop said it was fine.

Post by **jblackburn** » 08 Aug 2011, 06:57

Bad spring seat . . . Does this need to be replaced or repair immediately?

Ehh...not immediately. Your handling will suffer a lot and the clunking is SERIOUSLY annoying, though.

Post by **FlyingVolvo** » 08 Aug 2011, 07:02

If you do a lot of driving, it could start to affect the wear on the tires negatively. My spring seats were shot before I went to Alaska and back. Obviously, putting a new suspension on AFTER the trip would have been best (tough roads up there)... but I was forced to replace before due to the bad handling and long trip ahead.

Post by **matthew1** » 08 Aug 2011, 07:06

erikv11 wrote:Spring seats is another on of those parts where the aftermarket items tend to just fail quickly. IPD makes a heavy duty one that is OK, otherwise go with Volvo brand or even better, Volvo branded to fit an XC90. The latter are heavier rubber they last a long long time.

That's what I went with for front mounts. Here's how to change them once you've got the strut assembly out:

That's my 2004 V70, but the concept is identical, and the parts will be indistinguishable to you.

petek153 wrote:When replacing front strut mount why is it front alignment is needed? If you don't loosen tyrod there is no adjustment to what your replacing. I've done several 850 strut mounts and never had a alignment problem after.I've marked all parts taken apart and when put back everthing realigns due to no adjustable parts. Am I missing something ? Had the first one checked just because everyone says to but the shop said it was fine.

Thanks Petek. This is very interesting. After my work I had an alignment done, and one wheel was off slightly, but not a whole lot. Who knows, it could have been the car hadn't had an alignment for tens of thousands of miles.

I could look in my notes from the previous owners but I'm too lazy.

Post by **erikv11** » 08 Aug 2011, 07:21

petek153 wrote:When replacing front strut mount why is it front alignment is needed? If you don't loosen tyrod there is no adjustment to what your replacing. I've done several 850 strut mounts and never had a alignment problem after.I've marked all parts taken apart and when put back everthing realigns due to no adjustable parts. Am I missing something ? Had the first one checked just because everyone says to but the shop said it was fine.

There is slack in the attachment holes for the strut to steering knuckle bolts, so there is adjustment there that affects the steering. But I agree, if you put everything back the way it was then you don't need an alignment, sure. This goes even for tie rods although I would be less likely to trust that.

Truth be told I check my alignment (toe) in the garage before and after a job like struts, and only take it in if I think it is out.