1995 850 turbo wagon - front end springs

chuckcintron · Post by **chuckcintron** » 13 Sep 2007, 09:28

whaaa...no way...only a broken spring would allow those coils to rest on each other. And, you're tires would be married to the fender.

Using 100 psi of air at the impact wrench and my largest set of compressors I am still nervous as heck trying to compress them down to 11" for the strut job -- and even at that none of the coils are touching.

You need to find a new mechanic.

-Chuck

jbm · Post by **jbm** » 13 Sep 2007, 10:13

what they said. Unless an elephant sat on your car there is no way the original springs would "go bad".

jks1259 · Post by **jks1259** » 14 Sep 2007, 06:31

so ... if it wasn't the springs (it was hitting before the scantechs) and 2nd mechanic said the struts are fine (and don't have anything to do with lift) and the size of the tires isn't the issue ... what is the answer?

I love the car but she is starting to break my heart.

chuckcintron · Post by **chuckcintron** » 14 Sep 2007, 07:51

Tough to say without seeing the car. I suppose there's an outside chance that a combination of slightly larger tire diameter and a set of springs that have somehow been compressed beyond the point where they can return to their at-spec size, then maybe you ended up where you're at.

There are only a couple of things I can think of that would cause a tire to rub the fender. I'd assure myself that each of this is in good shape before giving up. Remember, the car was designed correctly (in this regard) -- so you should be able to get it back to where it needs to be.

1. Tire size. If you're tires should be 205/50 then put 205/50 on the car. If you've got 205/55 on there, get them off.

2. Springs. You need either OEM Volvo springs on the car, or a known good replacement set.

Although I can't picture this next thing as causing the ride height to be wrong, it's probably worth also checking the top-of-strut hardware to make sure a spring seat or bump stop hasn't broken. I suppose if it were bad enough to allow the spring to be a few millimeters seated into the strut tower than normal, you could see a corresponding ride height reduction.

Also, I could see where a completely failed strut might allow a good spring to oscillate to the point where you get enough "bounce" to get the tire to smack into the fender.

I think step one is to get the right sized tire and the right spec spring on the car, and to carefully check the strut hardware. Maybe just start with the tire, since that would be the easiest...outside chance the scan-tech springs are okay.

-Chuck