I picked up a set of used Nivomats from Erie Volvo, they charge $125 per side but offer a lifetime warranty. If they fail just call them up and they will send another.
To start out this is what you are going to need. A impact makes the top mounting nut a breeze to take off and put back on so I can't recommend it enough. You are also going to need a jack that is capable of going up high, my jack can lift up to 20". You need this in order to get the shock out of the control arm.
19mm Socket for the lug nuts
18mm Socket for the top shock mounting bolt
15mm Socket for the bottom mounting nuts
12mm socket for the top mounting cover
10mm socket for the rear cover/3rd row seat bolts
Torque Wrench
Hammer
If you are going to be replacing the top shock mounts you'll need
Volvo Shock Mount 9157321 and 9157320, one of each part number for each shock you replace.
Start by taking out the covers on each side of the cargo area
Flip the rear seats forward
On my car I have the 3rd row seat so you want to flip that forward, the same applies to a regular car you will just have a board with no seat on it.
Flip up the carpet on each side and remove the 2mm bolts that are under each flap
The panel is now only held on by some metal clips and all you have to do is give it a good tug towards the back of the car, it will pop loose and you can remove it. Now you can see the access panels to get to the top mounting nut on the shock.
Remove the 2 bolts on each side that hold the cover plate in place. These are 12mm.
Now you can see the top of the shock
Head out to the outside of the car and jack it up using the jack point directly in front of the rear wheel.
Using your 19mm socket remove the lug nuts and the tire.
look at the bottom of the control arm and you can see the 2 15mm nuts that hold the bottom of the shock in place. Go ahead and remove these nuts.
Head back inside and remove the top mounting nut for the shock.
You can remove the top bushing while you are there and set it aside if you are reusing it, otherwise toss it because your going to be putting a new one in on reinstall.
Now the shock will drop down and you can see the mounting studs that it was bolted to, using your hand just shift the shock over to the side a bit and gently tap the stud back up a bit, you have to do this since the mounting bracket will keep the shock from dropping out of the hole.
Top of the bracket.
Once you tap each stud up a bit and the bracket shifts the shock will drop down through the hole.
Now the fun part, you have to jack the car up higher until you can drop the shock all the way out of the hole and have enough room to maneuver the new one into place. For my jack it was pretty much all the way extended. Goes without saying here, please be careful!!
Install the lower shock mount onto the top of the shock.
Thread it back up into the hole.
Now on one side of my car I was able to push the shock up and had enough threads on the studs to get the nuts started, the other side the shock must have been pumped up a bit from whatever car they took it off of and I had to use my jack stand without the insert to push the shock up onto the mounting studs. I did this by very slowly lowering the car onto the jack stand, not the ideal situation and if I had a bottle jack it would have been much easier.
Reinstall the bottom mounting nuts and torque to 80Nm or 59 ft/lbs
Go inside the car and install the upper shock mount and the nut, but don't torque it down yet, you have to lower the car first. Once you put the wheel back on and lower the car you will torque the nut.
If you have a m12 nut then the torque setting is 40Nm or 30ft/Lb
If you have a m10 nut then you have to use a new nut and the first stage tightening is 20Nm/15ft/Lb and then angle tighten 90 degrees.
I found it was easiest to just use the impact do the first tightening on the nut and then finalize with the torque wrench.
Thats it! Enjoy your properly working Nivomats.
