2001 V70 T5 Should your suspension struts turn?

[GBS]

I just did the rear on this car recently, WAY over due at 188k but again I didn't really notice how bad it was until I had new ones on there. Its surprisingly easy, at least on my 02 V70, so you might consider doing them too, I know I would have. I also did rear on our XC70 last year and that was definitely harder as the whole shock assembly has to come out similar to front, but again you get to (safely) use a spring compressor.

[siboyslim]

Ok so I tried the things suggested tonight and here are the results,

Video of star nut which was loose...



And video of it all back together, unfortunately still creaking! Turn your speakers up as it is not too loud...



So I think I have a shot top mount bearing, this is a shame as it only has 1500 miles on it.

[SuperHerman]

Bummer. If you are confident I would pull the entire thing out and check all the parts to make sure it was put together right. Pay attention to the big rubber spring seat as it goes bad. You can get these at Napa in a pinch.

Were it my car I would call around locally for parts to see what is quickly available and then rip the thing apart. Pulling it is pretty quick. I have a friend who was too cheap to replace the top mount bearing on his car so he just cleaned the bearing well and relubed it. 15k later no problems. I don't recall if the bearings are accessible on this car. Too many cars in my mind.

Here is my theory as the part was just changed - your Strut Pad is broken and/or your Strut Bearing as well. The guy or gal who did your work did not properly tighten the Gold Star Nut which allowed too much play which damaged things. Or best case scenario the spring is not seated correctly in the Strut Pad. Is the strut original? Is it leaking? If you remove it do not let it spin when tightening the Gold Star Nut! Maybe the bearing is defective or the Strut Pad failed due to low quality.

Read through this: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=25239

[siboyslim]

Bummer. If you are confident I would pull the entire thing out and check all the parts to make sure it was put together right. Pay attention to the big rubber spring seat as it goes bad. You can get these at Napa in a pinch.

Were it my car I would call around locally for parts to see what is quickly available and then rip the thing apart. Pulling it is pretty quick. I have a friend who was too cheap to replace the top mount bearing on his car so he just cleaned the bearing well and relubed it. 15k later no problems. I don't recall if the bearings are accessible on this car. Too many cars in my mind.

Here is my theory as the part was just changed - your Strut Pad is broken and/or your Strut Bearing as well. The guy or gal who did your work did not properly tighten the Gold Star Nut which allowed too much play which damaged things. Or best case scenario the spring is not seated correctly in the Strut Pad. Is the strut original? Is it leaking? If you remove it do not let it spin when tightening the Gold Star Nut! Maybe the bearing is defective or the Strut Pad failed due to low quality.

Read through this: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=25239

Sound advice, my plan is to get all the parts together and swap both front shocks and associated seats and mounts. I think it will be worth the outlay as GBS Mentioned the car will drive much better.

Thanks all, for your help and I will re-visit in a few weeks.

[GBS]

Full replacement get my vote, in this thread Jason from FCP mention a fully assembled unit:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =9&t=68553

Depending on price and what they use for parts (particularly the spring seat) I think I'd go that way if I did this again. There is some assembly required if you plan on buying individual parts, the cross nut has a special cross nut tool one's supposed to use but the hard part was getting a REALLY long hex inside it to counter hold. Getting all that torqued right without the correct tools was a challenge, I'm sure anyone with proper shop bench could do better than what I did.

Check your rear shocks too, if the shock doesn't have a spring seat on the bottom you just get to the top of the strut inside the car and take the nut off there, a nut on the bottom, slide out, very easy...

[siboyslim]

Full replacement get my vote, in this thread Jason from FCP mention a fully assembled unit:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =9&t=68553

Depending on price and what they use for parts (particularly the spring seat) I think I'd go that way if I did this again. There is some assembly required if you plan on buying individual parts, the cross nut has a special cross nut tool one's supposed to use but the hard part was getting a REALLY long hex inside it to counter hold. Getting all that torqued right without the correct tools was a challenge, I'm sure anyone with proper shop bench could do better than what I did.

Check your rear shocks too, if the shock doesn't have a spring seat on the bottom you just get to the top of the strut inside the car and take the nut off there, a nut on the bottom, slide out, very easy...

Cheers GBS to be honest I am quite looking forward to attempting this job and getting it all sweet for the summer

[phly50]

Well I have recently fixed the creaking noise by replacing the spring seats, together with the strut bearings. I feel the IPD "heavy duty" seats I fitted 14 months ago were of inferior quality. My invoice for those parts showed that the seats were of taiwanese manufacture, not what I expected. My theory is the rubber quality used produced the noise as the spring minutely rotates against the seat as the strut rotates. As well, I made sure the part of the spring that sits in the seat was very clean, and even gave it a spray of silicon prior to reassembly. Don't forget to check/adjust camber and toe-in after doing work on your suspension/struts. I did it myself (do a Google search on DIY alignment), or take it to a shop you can trust to do the job for you. Phil