1997 850 front strut self leveling confusion

[moses3]

I see many front struts listed as "fits non-self leveling cars only".

I was under the impression that the self leveling suspension aspect only applied to the rear shocks?

[scot850]

Correct. I am not aware of any relationship between front and rear shocks in terms of P80's other than the V70 XC has different front shocks.

Volvo has a bunch of variations in spring stiffness or damper/shocks depending on the model variant which can be identified from the last string of numbers on the RH bottom line of the VIN plate beside the battery on the LH inner fender.

Where you have a car with the self-leveling (Nivomat) rear shocks it used to be you could not swap self-leveling to regular rear shocks and vice versa. However there are companies which I believe now offer an aftermarket option on doing the Nivomat to regular swap.

Neil.