2003. S80 front suspension rebuild

[kahl]

hi Guys, we just did a complete front suspension on a 2003 S80 2.9 non turbo. I could not find to much info in the S80 forum so I wanted to share changing each of the parts. There is a lot of similarity if not the same design with the 850, V70 and S70 cars. We jacked up car and put on jack stands. Removed tires, speed sensor, caliper, rotor and axle bolt.

struts Removed the struts by removing top three nuts in the tower and removing the two bolts attaching the strut to the hub. Remove sway bar link. pushing down on the control arm the axle pops out and the stut is easily removed from the car. Changing out the strut is the same as outlined for any other strut Volvo.

sway bar links are removed the same as the 850 V and S cars. The only note is there is a top and bottom to the sway bar link that I do not remember the 850 or V and S cars.

Tie rod ends are the same as the 850 and V and S cars. The only glitch we ran into was our replacement tie rod ends came with a course threads. The car had fine threads. we had to get different ends

ball joint was pretty easy to replace with the hub in a vice. one bolt holds the hub to the control arm, joint easily popped off the control arm. two bolts hold the ball joint to the hub. using a chisel we were able to remove ball joint. We were very careful to avoid any impact on the hub casting.

Control arms. the control arm on the right was easy to get off. we had good clearance to remove the three bolts. the control arm on the left was tough. the two horizontal bolts going through the subframe are blocked by the transmition pan. we removed the two bolts for the round engine mounts. we then used the jack with a piece of wood to raise the engine and transmition up about an inch. this gave us access to the hidden bolts.

We have two S80s in the family along with 850s, C70 convertible and a V70 AWD. We do as much as possible our own maintenance using this wonderful site to do our research before we jump into a project. Each of the S80s have over 140K on the clock. So far neither car has bitten us in the ass.