Volvo 850 Suspension

[Messerschmitt101]

Hello All,

I have a 1996 850 (non turbo), and I am in need of new suspension.
I am new to the car world, and am not sure where to start with all of this.

The car feels very floaty, and whenever I go over even a minor bump, there are audible clicks and clacks.

My question is this: What set should I get? Or even further, what parts should I get?

If you need anymore information, I will do my best to provide it.

Thanks in advance!

A.E.

[theWIFES_S70]

Hey A.E.!

Many ways to go about this. You probably need a new front end: control arms, tie rods (inner and outer), sway end links, and new struts (and all associated pieces). This is what our car needed. When I drove it for the first time home (about 40 miles) the car was floating all over the place!

FCP makes it easy with kits like these. https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... 50cakit-oe. (Though, you might also want to get the appropriate inner tie rods to be on the safe side.)

As for struts. You'll get a lot of insight here about going Sachs or better. I've been using Gabriel QuickStruts from Autozone for two years now. And they've been fine. In fact, everything else has failed outer tie rods, sway end links, and control arms except the Quickstruts. KNOCK ON WOOD!

Quality ranges all over the place here... You really do get what you pay for with these parts: Volvo, Lemforder, TRW... and then everything else. Good luck!

[kahl]

Plus 1 on the parts the wife provided. One note on the inner tie rod when ordering you will need to know what steering rack came with your car. The info can be found on the car's data plate on the left fender.
I am not a fan of quick struts but with you being new to the car world it may be the way to go. If you know righty tightly lefty loosely you can accomplish this job. You may want to post in the helper section of this site asking for someone close to you to act as a coach.

[101]

Messerschmitt101:

I just finished this job yesterday on the S70. I did everything on the front end except tie rods since their boots looked good and there was no play in them. My car has 180,000 miles on it and was riding like an old minivan towing a large boat. It was uncontrollable in curves and over potholes.

I found the removed struts and control arms were the original ones from 1997. There was absolutely no resistance on the struts, the right spring seat was torn and the right control arm ball joint was very loose. I also had a bad wheel bearing on the left so I did those at the same time. I also did the rear shocks (they were also the original ones). I cleaned and painted the front knuckles and calipers while I was at it just to make it all look sexy.

Like mentioned above, I did not use the FCP kit as there were a couple of lower quality parts in the kit (bellows and bump stop I believe). Here is my parts list:

Front end:
9140072 Sachs - Front Strut Assembly (x2)
30683637 Rein - Front Strut Spring Seat (x2)
30683637 INA - Front Strut Support Bearing (x2)
9140068 Volvo - Front Strut Dust Bellows (x2)
9140067 Volvo - Front Strut Bump Stop (x2)
8628495 Lemfoerder - Front Control Arm - Left
8628496 Lemfoerder - Front Control Arm - Right
31212730 Lemfoerder - Front Sway Bar Link (x2)

Wheel bearings:
274378 FAG - Front Hub Assembly (x2)
1387892 Volvo - Bolts - Front Wheel Hubs (x8)

Rear shocks:
9173851 Volvo (Sachs) Rear Shock Absorber (x2)
9461524 Hutchinson - Rear Shock Upper Mount (x2)

I might get skewered here for using the white label Sachs struts and the Rein spring seats, but they seemed like decent pieces and they're covered by FCP in case something goes wrong. When I did the V70 at 100,000 miles I did not replace the front strut support bearings as they looked and felt fine.

To say that these cars are totally transformed with a front end rebuild is an understatement. It is an expensive investment in parts and time, but if your car is a "keeper" like mine, it is well worth it.

[JRL]

You made one big mistake.
You should have use OEM VOLVO spring seats, they're the best, by far.

[mecheng]

You made one big mistake.
You should have use OEM Volvo spring seats, they're the best, by far.

Completely agree here, the spring seat takes a beating and is not easy to replace. OEM only. You can save money on other items but not spring seats or shocks.

[WhatAmIDoing]

Since you say you are new to this, it would probably be best for you to find a trustworthy mechanic and have him/her inspect your suspension ($100 max). Then you will know exactly what is bad and what needs to be replaced. There is no sense in spending hundreds/thousands of dollars overhauling the entire suspension if half of it is still good.

When I got my S70, it felt very floaty in turns and the rear end would clunk over every bump. It turns out it was just the rear delta links. I did not even discover the problem until they were so bad I could shift the entire rear axle by hand. That was just 2 parts and it made a world of difference.

[bugs11]

+1 on having a mechanic take a look at you cars suspension.

But since you asked...here is the list of front end suspension parts I've replaced on my 96 850 Turbo. Full disclaimer; I'm no mechanic but rather a dedicated DIY'er that gets perverse pleasure from working on an old car. I've also have benefited from borrowing specialized tools from my neighbor, who is a mechanic, when needed. E.g., the spring compressing contraption that allows one to safely remove the front coil springs or a huge torque wrench to torque the huge axle nut. But those tools can also be rented or borrowed from auto parts stores like O'Reillys. And of course the advice from this site is invaluable as well.

1. Front struts, spring seats, etc... (Sachs 9140072) and sway bar end links (Meyle HD 31212730) from FCP Euro. Loud front end clunking noise went away. The spring seats were totally trashed/destroyed.
2. Both CV axles (Part #'s 8251510 and 8111310) from FCP Euro Volvo - OE rebuilds. Really smoothed out the front end feel at speed, a lot. 20 year old original CV axles were simply worn out and the boots was torn.
3. Control arms (Lemforder KIT-P80CAKT2P2) from FCP Euro. Further ride refinement, only reason I replaced them was because one of the control arm ball joints was shot - found that out when replacing the CV axles. In hindsight I should of replaced the control arms when doing the CV axles, since I had everything apart as it were. The ones I removed were Meyle, so not original.
4. Calipers, rotors, and brakes shoes (A1-Cardone calipers and Powerstop pads) from RockAuto. An intermittent pulsing on braking went away.

After all that, the car rides much, much smoother and quieter - really a night and day difference. Even my kid who just wants a car to go someplace commented on the improved ride - "Like, what did you do to the car? It, like, feels, like, all smooth and quiet now on the highway. Kind of nice to drive, you know."

[erikv11]

The car feels very floaty, and whenever I go over even a minor bump, there are audible clicks and clacks.

My question is this: What set should I get? Or even further, what parts should I get?

This sounds VERY much like bad control arms. I only buy Lemforder when replacing control arms.

JRL is right about the spring seats - aftermarket will fail, and it is a big big hassle when they do. Volvo on that part.

[Covert]

The car feels very floaty, and whenever I go over even a minor bump, there are audible clicks and clacks.

My question is this: What set should I get? Or even further, what parts should I get?

This sounds VERY much like bad control arms. I only buy Lemforder when replacing control arms.

JRL is right about the spring seats - aftermarket will fail, and it is a big big hassle when they do. Volvo on that part.

are we talking about the top spring rubbers , or the metal bit that holds the bearings ?
only reason i ask is ive just done the whole back and , and had to drop the subframe down to replace the anti sway bar , so next years summer plan is to renew the front end as above . thanks Mark.