96 850R - replaced front struts, now car feels like it is skating

[JeffHicks]

I would also check the control arms. I had a similar situation once with my old 850 which was driving fine going straight. But all kinds of things happenend when I turned into a curve and the car felt unstable (floaty). I didn't think of control arms, but it ended up a bad bushing on the driver side.

I needed to replace both lower control arms on my '99 V70 (all 3 contact points were bad), but the worn control arms made the car wobble & shudder a bit on turns, rather than give it a floaty feel.

[polskamafia mjl]

I should clarify: OEM quality struts won't change the suspension geometry. I have no experience with quick struts.

[erikv11]

I once had an 850 with two bad control arm ball joints. The car would wander all over the road at high speeds, and on grooved pavement would wander off following the grooves.

[DougM]

Still in the garage. Apparently one of the sway bar bushings was shot. The previous owner had replaced the sway bar with a bigger diameter sway bar, and the bushings went. Additionally the right tie rod needed replaced and the control arms too.

I'm guessing all this happened in the winter when my son did a little accidental off roading on the way to skiing. Slid off the road and hit a rock (or something) with the right front tire--hard enough to break the rim. Just surprised none if this was noticed then. Maybe it just took time to wear out or something.

[rspi]

What was going on before you replaced them? If what you had were in real bad shape, A lot of people feel that Volvo's "skate" on uneven pavement. The tight suspension and steering feel bothers them.

I recently installed those assembled Gabriel units on a '95 T5 and they are good.

I doubt the sway bar end links matter much. I have seen them totally MISSING on several P80 cars.

[DougM]

Not sure the best way to describe the problem, other than when you hit even a small bump it felt and sounded like the strut was going to come up through the hood. I had been told the struts needed replaced, so I did that myself. We'll see when I get it back. I had never felt the car steer like this before.

[rspi]

Yea, the R struts get rock hard when they go bad. Fixing the other bad suspension parts should even things out.

[erikv11]

The R has exactly the same Sachs struts on the front as the non-R. So maybe there is some difference due with the front springs, those are different.

[DougM]

Picked the 850R up on Wednesday. Much better!

Replaced the after market sway bar that had a bad bushing with an OEM one. Also had the end links replaced, and the right side tie bar.

Seems to be riding much nicer.

Now I have to tackle the lack of air blowing through the defroster vents. Looks like I will be pulling the glove box to look at the shaft on the damper.