So I am going to be replacing my shocks/struts in the near future. I see recommendation of replacing the upper spring seat as they regularly go bad. However I have a problem I wonder if anybody knows.

Generally my 850R tracks pretty straight. I had an alignment and the guy told me the passenger side may have impacted something and the caster is slightly out. Its not adjustable and I might feel it pull slightly but no uneven tire wear should result. Thats ok, and generally seems to be the case. The problem though is that sometimes when backing out of my driveway I here a clunk, when this happens the car will pull pretty good to the right once I get going. Usually the next time I am backing up with the wheel cranked it will pop and whatever was wrong is back in place and the car tracks straight again.
I just replaced the front right tire that was worn down to about 40% while the other 3 are still at 80%, so this effects alignment significantly.

Whatever it is seems to be tight enough that I cant move it by hand. I have had the front end apart a couple times recently to replace axels and everything feels tight.

Any idea as to what might be my problem? And what else should I replace when doing the struts? I think I will go with the Koni Yellows and maybe Eibach springs. Get upper spring seats as well, should I do the upper strut mount? Any of these items have the possibility to affect alignment in the way I am experiencing?
thanks

 

If you are changing the struts do the spring seats for sure. The latest trick I've heard is to buy XC90 spring seats instead of 850 spring seats. I have not yet done this but I intend to change out spring seats and strut bearings on my son's car and on the Platinum in the next couple of weeks. Others swear they fit fine and they are like 10 times stronger than the standard 850 seats and you will never need to change them again. Whatever you do get OEM spring seats - the aftermarkets are terrible.

As far as the alignment problems goes, I don't know. Did you get a 4 wheel alignment? The rear toe is adjustable and it is critical on our cars.

...Lee

 

Sounds exactly like a bent/damaged strut and you should look at the steering knuckle, they can bend. The xc90 spring seats are a perfect fit, very much worth the extra cost.

 

Thanks, I indeed had a 4 wheel alignment.

I will look into the XC90 spring seat. Hopefully in the next month or so I can get some parts together.
Struts, spring seats, upper strut mounts, and check out my steering knuckle. Anything more must-do's?
thanks

 

If you can swing it, FCP groton is having a 10% off sale on parts this month. There is a thread about it.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about that! I got an email from them the other day. Thanks for the heads up!

 

No Problem!

 

So the strut mount is $75 each, how important is it to replace those?
Ordering the spring seats from XC90 and koni sport struts and rear shocks. Anything else I need? I didnt get a chance to call them this morning so now its 8 minutes too late for 10% off and nobody is answering hte phone... I will beg and plead tomorrow and submit my order online tonight.

 

I guess I am about to find out. I am getting ready to replace the struts and shocks on the Platinum along with the spring seats. I am also replacing the spring seats on the other 96 since both of the cars have busted seats and clank a bunch on any bump. I ordered 2 strut mounts/bearings from FCP today and I'm hoping that, between the two cars, at least 2 of them are good or good enough.

What is weird is the shock life between the three cars. The 94 has a fuzz over 200 k miles and the handling is great. I think the rear shocks are getting weak since I tend to bottom out on a tight right hander at the bottom of a hill when I have a full load - particularly if my "left tackle" son is in the back seat and I taking the corner at 70+ MPH. As far as I know they are the same shocks and struts that it left the factory with.

The struts and shocks are just pure trash on the Platinum at 134 k miles and I have not driven the other 96 enough to know but I think his shocks and struts are near junk at 141 K miles. His problems may well have been aggravated by the sway bar end link that had come apart at some point before I got the car.

I think I have some three day old Bilstein Touring class coming at some point for the struts and I ordered a pair of TC shocks for the rear on Friday from some outfit called Shockwarehouse.com. I've never dealt with them before so I will let you know how they are. Surprisingly, IPD is very competitive on Bilstein shocks and strutsas well.

...Lee

 

I just went for the spring perches and no strut mounts, worst case I will get it all torn apart and have to leave it for a week while I wait on parts. Probably will have to do that any way as I am sure I will find more parts in need of replacing.

 

The Koni Sport shocks and struts just arrived today, got the spring perches a few days ago. So I decided to tear into the car finally and wouldnt you know it, both strut mount bearings are shot and the spring perches are perfectly fine. Oh well, guess I will probably order a set of OEM from FCP Groton. Their price on OEM is about the same as the aftermarket at Checker and Pep Boys and about 1/2 the price of the local Volvo dealer.

 

Your experience was the opposite of mine. The spring seats were shot but the mounts were more or less OK. I bought 4 of the XC90 seats and 2 of the strut mounts hoping that I would be OK. I changed one on my son's car as it felt a bit rough on the bearing but I saved it for my car in case it was worse.

The XC90 seats are indeed beefier.

Here is the comparison:

OEM 850 spring seat:




XC90 Spring seat:



Aside from the old one being all rusted out notice how much thicker the XC90 part is around the bushing.

I think I just changed them for the last time.

...Lee

 

ended up replacing strut mounts, they were shot. Got it all together tonight with the Koni Sport's on all 4 corners. Rides very nice! A little stiff but handling seems better and I think I have finally eliminated the front end clunk. If I had to guess I would say it was caused by the strut mounts, those bearings were dead!

Look forward to tomorrow when I can drive it a little harder. Its raining now so kind of hard to test out handling.