2000 V70 passenger side strut mount squeaking

nmelche · Post by **nmelche** » 20 Nov 2014, 22:55

The passenger side suspension has been squeaking recently and as far as I can tell its the strut mount. The one on the passenger side can freely spin (as shown in the video link below) but the driver side is fine. Is there anyway to fix this and what parts would I need? Thanks in advance.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 21 Nov 2014, 07:13

The strut mount might be OK but the spring seat is definitely bad. Don't cheap out on replacement spring seats, use the OEM Volvo or the IPD HD versions. The original Volvo seats that shipped with the car were kinda wimpy and we all started using XC90 seats as replacements.

Volvo caught on and they have superseded the original part number with the beefed up XC90 part number. That said, if you buy the OEM part, make sure it is indeed the same part number as the XC90 (any year).

If you are doing this yourself you might want to change out both of them while you have the spring compressor on hand. The good one on the left side is likely not long for the world.

...Lee

DrJammer · Post by **DrJammer** » 21 Nov 2014, 07:39

I did this repair last year, and second Ozark Lee's recommendation of just doing them both.

Look into ordering a kit; I tried to get away with ordering just the spring seats and found other parts were failing (bump stops, etc.). It put me in a jam since I had to wait for additional parts and I had my coils compressed in very cold weather. The kit would have had me in and out in 1 day. I know it's a bit more $$, and all parts may not be needed, so do your best to determine what you'll need.

There is a good FCP video on replacing the entire strut assembly that has a lot of good info to pull from

When you're done, get that sucker aligned

nmelche · Post by **nmelche** » 21 Nov 2014, 09:18

Ozark Lee wrote:The strut mount might be OK but the spring seat is definitely bad. Don't cheap out on replacement spring seats, use the OEM Volvo or the IPD HD versions. The original Volvo seats that shipped with the car were kinda wimpy and we all started using XC90 seats as replacements.

Volvo caught on and they have superseded the original part number with the beefed up XC90 part number. That said, if you buy the OEM part, make sure it is indeed the same part number as the XC90 (any year).

If you are doing this yourself you might want to change out both of them while you have the spring compressor on hand. The good one on the left side is likely not long for the world.

...Lee

Ok thanks for the advice! do you have any suggestions as to where I should get the parts from?

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 21 Nov 2014, 18:48

Many of the dealerships have on-line parts departments that are very competitive and OEM is always good. Other sources are places like eEuroparts.com, ipdusa.com, fcpeuro.com but avoid the economy versions of the parts. This isn't the kind of thing I would buy through a local auto parts store since they will typically source a lesser quality part like ScanTech or URO.

Changing the springs seats isn't terribly difficult but it is time consuming. With the cheap aftermarket parts it isn't unheard of for the part to fail again after 15 or 20 thousand miles. The beefy XC90 seats may well go to the junk yard still in good condition after the rest of the car is used up.

...Lee