spring options for 850 wagon

Post by **stone36** » 25 Apr 2009, 09:50

I am looking for suggestions on what to do about my 94 wagon with 124K miles, within the last 10K miles shocks, struts, front mounts and spring seats, sway bar links, and a bunch of other front end stuff.

I think I my springs are bad, when I replaced the shocks the car seemed like new, but now it is back to all kinds of bumps, it has a lot of side to side rock and it sinks down when even my 6 year old gets in it.

Does anyone know what the OEM spec is for distance between top of tire-wheel well, or center of rim-wheel well?

Assuming I need new springs, I am not interested in lowering, but others seem hard to find, Anyone know about FCP's stock springs? Are there other models I can replace with, for instance, used from an 00 V70R (I assume they would be stiffer than my stock 850)?

Also do you think I will have to do another set of shocks all around it they have been over worked due to nad springs?

Sorry for the 20 Q's, any recommendations are appreciated.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 25 Apr 2009, 10:05

Very odd... I've never seen spring go bad (others' mileage may differ).

Post by **confused_al** » 25 Apr 2009, 11:13

Very odd... I've never seen spring go bad...

+1

...it has a lot of side to side rock and it sinks down when even my 6 year old gets in it...

Have you checked your rear shocks?
I just replaced the front for my ML and noticed the rear having more side to side roll (watching from rear, it dances like a Hula girl). Got under my truck, sure enough the rear shocks have to go as well!

Post by **stone36** » 25 Apr 2009, 11:25

The rear shocks are less than 2 years and 10K miles as well. I replaces with the OEM? sachs if I remember right, they are the black with the light blue label.

I bought it from NJ and I have this feeling that the one owner had never worried much about avoiding potholes, the whole front end was trashed, springs are about the only thing I haven't replaced yet.

How long shoudl the car "bounce" when I step hard on the front or rear bumper?

Also for fun I took some measurements, they are approximate base on the center of the wheel to the bottom of the wheel well.
FL-13.5 inches
FR-13.6
RL-13
RR13.25

I know this is eyeball approximate, but the difference is noticable, and I think measuring (even eyeball) should be relatively close, and meaureing from the center of the wheel should take out differences for wheel size/tire pressure. etc.

Any thoughts?

Post by **confused_al** » 25 Apr 2009, 12:28

FL-13.5 inches
FR-13.6
RL-13
RR13.25

My front is about 14 and rear is about 14 1/4. Now it is interesting that after replacing my rear shocks the rear end now is 3/4 inch higher than before.
I dont know exactly how much the car would bounce, good shocks/struts should dampen all of that. I had bad spring before on a honda it felt hit the bottom of the car all the time.
BTW, NJ is the capital of potholes not to mention everyone drives like they own the road here.

Mike-Halewai · Post by **Mike-Halewai** » 25 Apr 2009, 13:42

I doubt this is your issue, but I bought a new set of shock for all four point on my wagon last fall. I ran into the issue of having Nivomats in the rear and replacing them with shocks... that created an issue as the nivomats are made to hold wait unlike normal shocks.

What I did however find out related to you issue is that wagon 850/V70 springs well into the 2000's work well. The springs I picked-up were off of a 2000 V70 with 60,000 miles... very rigid, I paid $30 for the pair used.

If you can find a good cheap pair, they are easy to change (a good time to replace your rear overload bumpers) and would help rule out that issue.