Spring seat or strut mount

[osman]

Its always the spring seat. So much so that volvo uses the xc90 spring seat across the board now when you buy replacements at their part counter. A mounted strut compressor beats the hell out of the loan a tool type, but use what you have and handle with care. A friend or a vice is usually necessary as this is more of a wrestling match than a repair. Trust me. This is not for the faint hearted or easily dissuaded. But it definitely can be done. Lock your steering wheel before you start so you dont have it out of whack when you finish. If you do a trip to the alignment shop CAN BE AVOIDED.

[matthew1]

[erikv11]

...Lock your steering wheel before you start so you dont have it out of whack when you finish. If you do a trip to the alignment shop CAN BE AVOIDED.

This is interesting, could you explain this last point?

I wouldn't think locking the wheel would matter, I would expect you have to get it aligned anyway. The point being the strut-to-steering-knuckle bolts won't go on in exactly the same place, nor will the three nuts at the top (you can try, sure ... but they won't )

[osman]

Well from doing it more than one time and getting tired of the steering wheel being on center when replacing a spring seat and upon completion noticing the steering wheel being off center. I started locking my wheel before I start and I have noticed the problem lessened and I believe that replacing just one spring seat one shouldnt have to pay an alignment shop as if I had done a whole front end replacement.

[mikilla]

It can be done without a spring compressor, all you have to do is loosen all the bolts that connect the Strut to the spindle thing and put a jack underneath the spindle, jack it up to put pressure on the strut n spring and unbolt the strut insert top bolt and + shaped washer/bolt thing from the top, then lower the jack slowly and remove the 2 bolts that are holding the strut n spindle together. Drop it down n do what you got to do.

I think u have to unbolt the sway bar endlinks too n maybe a few other things but i cant remember. i know i didnt have to unbolt the tie rods but i cant remember everything, its been a while

i know I'm missing steps but you get the basic idea, I'm not sure if its bad to do it this way so do it your own risk, but it worked for me and was really easy and fast and seemed alot safer, i hate messing with spring compressors. I'm always afraid there gonna slip off or something. The only compressor I've used was a harbor freight one so i dont know if the other ones are better. The only thing that happend was on the bottem from jacking up the spindle i pushed the brake dust shield thing in a little and it was rubbing i just pushed it out and its fine know, and my alignment is off now i didnt know about locking the steering wheel.

I also have eibach lowering springs so i dont know if that made it easier or something. I did it almost the same way it the junk yard on stock springs but that was in the jy so i wasnt afraid of messing anything up.

Again do it at your own risk im not responsible for anyone else's car, im just saying how i did it

[shegarty]

Lock your steering wheel before you start so you dont have it out of whack when you finish. If you do a trip to the alignment shop CAN BE AVOIDED.

Best thing to do after you have locked the steering wheel is to take a cold chisel and mark the strut against the bracket assembly. Place the chisel across both along where the bolts go through the bracket and give it a good whack, hard enough to leave a mark. When you reassemble make sure these marks line up and you can probably avoid the alignment. Note that this doesn't work if you are also changing the struts which you might want to do if they are original equipment since you already have to take the whole assembly apart to change the seats.