I followed the simple and seemingly self-explanatory IPD directions, but I had some trouble, and maybe those were written for several different cars with variations. Oh, yeah, it says S60AWD, V70AWD, XC70, S60R "trac spec", rear bar upgrade V70R, and "trac spec" V70R. Many of the socket sizes in the text were not correct on my car.
Their recommended list of 6 tools needed was a fraction of the things you'll reach for.
SO...back of the car up as high as you can get it safely, blocked and jack-standed well. I often put a floor jack up snug as an extra back-up. It appears that it's pushing up - it's not.
Midship exhaust strap loosened and spun to clear the main exhaust trunk.
Pull the wheels.
Pop the two parking brakes cables loose - there are bolts into the subframe and some clips on the rear toe link arms.
Pop off the three rubber donuts on the exhaust (I sprayed some silicone spray in the holes), and carefully lower the rear of the exhaust onto a jackstand. Leave the front connected.
My car has no "plastic lower control arm covers" to remove. So I didn't.
Remove the big bolt holding the bottom of the shock tower to the control arm. Slide the shock mount off the tubular mount arm on the side of the control arm. This took some force with a deadblow hammer and blunt chisel. BOOM, it popped.
They suggest you might have a helper stand on the hub to press down the suspension. That would mean holding your foot on an inch and a half of round brake tophat and holding onto the roof rack for balance (that's with the parking brake on). Nope.
Remove all the sway bar bracket bolts from the subframe.
Remove the end link hardware from the bar. I'd say you'd have an easier time doing this before the subframe brackets are loose and the bar is flopping around. And you'll need a #40 torx bit and a big box end wrench (18?).
Looking up with a light to the top of the shock tower, remove two 14mm bolts that hold the aluminum casting to the body. You'll need a long extension to reach them. Mark their position first, they have slotted holes.
I used a spring compressor thinking this would take load off the tower, but I'm not sure it helped. It also got the shock and the spring off-center from each other and they conflicted with other things under there. A coil kept binding on a steel tab on the trailing arm.
Make a mental note or a picture of the bar orientation before it comes out. Don't bolt it in upside down just FYI.
They then say the right side end of the bar upward and forward to clear the right control arm. Then the left side moves past the shock tower (under the shock tower?) and clears the control arm. Wiggle the spring tower around to help. It did not clear anything. I found this was a wrestling match, twisting and banging things around. But it came out, sideways out the left side.
Shoe box to rest your head on while looking up, spare plastic lens LED shop lights to point light up where you need it.
Use their green silicone grease in their syringe, splitting it evenly between the left and right bushings. The bushings are split, so you can open them up to smear it around evenly and pop them over the bar from below.
Here's where it got fun! Maneuver the shock tower up and line up the bolts and re-install. Line up your paint marks around the washers. Torque them up.
Install the lower end of the shock tower over that big pin mount on the lower control arm. Except that location is now 3 to 4" apart vertically and there's big tension on the hub and control arms. I tried to compress the spring with my compressor, but it wasn't shortening the tower much. My "helper" wasn't going to stand on the hub and move it down that far. I tried everything, I had big crowbars pulling every which way with my three arms. I tried a floor jack under the shock tower but it just lifted the car up. I couldn't get them close enough together to dream of popping the shock mount on. I undid the top shock tower mount again so it would drop down - nope, everything was in the way and it didn't help. I used a long crowbar from the top of the spring tower to a flat spot on the upper control arm and stood on it, and got them within an inch of each other......
So I went home to eat dinner and sulk. Am I doing it wrong?...they sort of skip over the tension involved.
I asked Mrs BB if she'd come over and help pull on one of the crowbars. We figured out that if one person set out on the end of the long crowbar with all their weight, hoping it didn't slip, we could get it low enough while I pried to keep the two pieces from binding on each other as they passed. After a half hour of this, I got them to pop together and quickly grabbed a deadblow hammer to bash it onto the mount and put the bolt back in. I seem to fix cars with perseverance, not because I know what I'm doing.
The rest of it was just bolting everything back up. The end link bolts had to nearly fold 90 to get them through the holes - I would have connected them while the bar was still loose. I found that my end links are pretty much shot - should have ordered those with the bar, duh. Plenty of anti-seize because they'll be off again soon. Note the end links rub on the parking brake cable housing - don't like that.
Wheels on, lugs torqued tight, down boy!
And wow, it goes around corners flat!
I'd like to know if I was missing something and it shouldn't have been so difficult to get the shock tower attached.
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