changed complete struts today

[jenkinskg]

Put 20K on daughters struts so far, feel awsome still, do 80 plus mph with one finger on the wheel
Has new lower control arms now and last thing is sway bar end links, wrong ones were in kit

My c70 feels like it never did before, going to send Koni's back, they were bad day one, seems like old stock with sticky valves inside, bought from tire rack, was never happy and they were not cheap. adjustable seemed like a good idea

[wheelsup]

I redid the front and rear suspension and steering components about 1.5 years ago. Put four new tires on. Drives extremely well and nice and smooth up to about 70 mph. Above that I get a little shimmy. Not sure from what, but it's a lot better than it was before.

Replaced the struts with Sachs and replaced the control arms, tie rods, end links, and strut mounts. Cost a pretty penny (around $1,500 IIRC) for everything, front and back, but certainly made the car drive a lot nicer.

[scot850]

Same reason I swapped the Bilstein HD's the PO had fitted to my 2000 'R'. Even the guys at IPD say they don't fit them to their road cars as they are way too hard for regular road use. I replaced with Bilstein Tourings and car is way nicer. Mind you, had to replace the HD's anyway after hitting a deep ice rut in the turn into my street and it broke the valving in one of the struts. Again, I have the Volvo tool for the front strut tops but take them to the dealer and they charge an hour labour to swap the parts out for me. I have manual spring compressors, but feel it is a dangerous job without the right tools for the job. Maybe when we downsize I can build a new garage with room for a hydraulic compressor! We can dream!

Neil.

[jenkinskg]

After 2 years of rough roads my daughters s60 killed the complete struts I installed.
I contacted them through ebay and they responded asap, gave them order details, they looked me up and are starting to process return already.

Having more trouble contacting KONI about their struts for my c70, they were shot day 1!

[erikv11]

That works for some, buy cheap and know they won't last but plan on just swapping them out under warranty. One way to save some coin, struts are not cheap.

How many miles did you get you of the ones on the S60?

[firestarterpro]

Ive bought a set a had them replace them after they went bad, but i drive 30k miles a year and barely made it in time for the 1 year warranty. I think its a one year warranty at least.

[erikv11]

Wait a sec, I just put it together, sorry for missing the obvious. So on March 28 they were "awesome"

Put 20K on daughters struts so far, feel awsome still, do 80 plus mph with one finger on the wheel
...

but two weeks later on April 12 they were "killed"

After 2 years of rough roads my daughters S60 killed the complete struts I installed. ...

which means they were in fact nowhere near fine back on March 28.

So they only lasted 20k miles??? That's terrible, and right in line with the same experience from firestarterpro. I would stay far, far away from these units.

[jenkinskg]

Koni's are back to Koni to get fixed.
The complete struts on my car are great.
My daughters s0 killed upper spring mount and they only warranty for 1 year, so bought another top mount.
I heard top spring mounts from xc90 will work and don't die I looked around and not sure, they all seem to say they work on s60 and xc90?

[jenkinskg]

Was told by Koni replacements are on the way back to me, free repair under warranty

[erikv11]

Yes, the spring seats and the strut mounts are the failure points on any cheap unit. When you have to replace the spring seats, it completely defeats the purpose of a "complete strut" setup because you have to disassemble the strut tower. I'd rather just do it the first time.

The XC90 and the 850 and the 98-00 x70 all use the exact same spring seat: same part number, same part. For good S60 I think not, more likely it uses the same one as a 01-onward V70/XC70 (P2 car), but for better info you will probably want to ask that question in an S60 forum. But if you buy an aftermarket XC70 (or whatever) spring seat, don't expect it to last very long.