Hello,

Just got the front struts and rear shocks replaced, but my 1996 volvo 850 sedan rear ride height is about 1 inch lower than the front (front ~ 14.5", rear around 13") and when loaded, the rear drops a few more inches and the top of tire is hidden inside the top of the wheel well.
To me sounds like the springs are old and causing sagging? However when I ask the volvo mechanic, they are saying you shouldn' have to replace springs unless they physically break and they have never seen a case where the springs actually wore out to cause sagging.

Any suggestions?

 

Shocks dont control ride height, coils do.

 

Replace them anyway. For fun, see if your mechanic will admit springs hold the car up.

 

agree. springs being metal can fatigue and sag. This is more common in vintage cars with leaf springs than coils. With that said, gas pressured shocks can have some influence on ride height but it would be minor (ie half inch). Some people say Bilsteins raise the car up - I never noticed when I did mine, but did notice changes when I replaced springs on my 2000 S40 (Gen1 S40s are notorious for having springs break).

 

Thanks for the replies.

I am now noticing some extreme tire wear on the front tires after the new struts were installed and after a 1000 mile trip (tires seemed fine before the trip and rears look fine). The center tread remains fine in the middle treads but both edges are bare (and metal wire is showing on the outer edge). The pressure wasn't under inflated (~39).

Was the alignment not done properly? I also read something about the steering knuckle and torquing the struts while the weight of the car is on the ground is necessary.. The steering wheel also is not straight at the center wheel position. Can old rear springs cause the castor to be off on the front and cause wear on both edges of the tires? The car does (and always has) pulled slightly to the right.

 

I don't think it's possible for mis-adjusted alignment to wear out the tires on both edges.


My car does that too.

 

Update:
Replaced the rear springs with ipd overload springs and the ride height is much better! Huge improvement and I recommend them. Now I can heavily load the car, and the rear won't sag even to the point where the old springs sat with no load. The car has a nice rake and looks much better.

Turns out the front tire wear was due to the alignment not being performed on the front after the struts were installed (they forgot? oops!).

Thanks

 

yep, any time you replace suspension components up front you should get an alignment (ie struts, control arm bushings, tie rods etc). As a policy, I always ask for the print out which shows the numbers when they racked it up and after they did the alignment.