Spring seat, strut mount question.

rbtsmpsn · Post by **rbtsmpsn** » 29 Jul 2013, 20:26

My wife's S60 was making a clunking noise coming from the upper passenger's side front strut area when hitting bumps. The struts are less than a year old. I suspected a bad strut mount. I placed a wrench on the nut on top of that strut and could turn it all the way around. I did the same on the drivers' side and it didn't move much.

I ordered 2 new strut mounts and replaced both sides since they were the original mounts with over 200000 miles on them. Once I installed them, I was still able to turn that nut all the way around on the passenger's side as well as on the driver's side now.

I took the car for a test drive on a bumpy road and the clunking noise was gone.

The old strut mounts didn't look bad at all to me. I'm wondering. Should I have replaced the spring seats instead, or at least along with the mounts? Was that test actually for the spring seats?

Since the car has over 200000 miles I've ordered new spring seats. I just wanted to get some comments or suggestions.

Thanks.

Post by **JRL** » 29 Jul 2013, 20:29

What exactly did you replace?
Nothing called a strut mount in Volvo vernacular
Either upper spring seats or
Strut bearing plates and yes...... ALWAYS replace the spring seats, that's why it's turning, it's broken...and also yes, that was the test for a broken spring seat

rbtsmpsn · Post by **rbtsmpsn** » 29 Jul 2013, 21:14

I replaced the strut bearing plate. All the auto parts stores I priced call it a strut mount. I see it referred to here as a strut mount as well. That's why I was calling it a strut mount. I like knowing the correct name for parts though.

Thanks for the info. I'm glad I have 2 new seats on order.

Post by **JRL** » 30 Jul 2013, 05:56

Don't buy or install aftermarket spring seats
The only ones that are any good are OEM VOLVO XC90 (which is all they sell now) or IPD HD spring seats.
You install something else and it can fail in 5-10K miles

Bearing plates were probably OK, they don't go bad very often, but maybe at your miles it was a good idea.
They will look awful at high miles but as long as the middle bearing is functioning with no noises or binding, they were probably OK