Hey all, first time poster, long time lurker here.

A couple of things. My S40 is the first car that I've owned that is actually new off the lot. That being said, it's also my first time figuring out how the age of the car progresses from youth to maturity. I've never really had a car that I could follow a schedule on when it comes to maintenance and care. Everything prior had always been something along the lines of "Hmm, there's a leak. . . oh crap that was never changed by the previous owner. . .wtf did they do here??"

For the first 30-40k miles on the car I noticed a couple of things. The suspension was rock hard and unforgiving, and that the tires went out ultra fast (replaced the michelin pilots at 35k. . . ). Since about 50-60k the suspension softened out and now it's so smooth that it makes my wife carsick when she rides passenger.

I'm thinking that something is going out or that the springs/struts have become too loose. The gas piston is always audible when driving at low speeds and my car ducks and rolls with turns a pretty great deal. Also, it should be noted that for the past two years i've been driving about 130 miles a day on the weekdays for my commute. I live in California, and I take the I5 every day. It's not too bad, but really has some hairy parts. I think that the highway is prematurely aging the suspension.

What gets me is that I have no idea where to start. Do I suspect the springs/struts or perhaps something in-between? Also, the rear wheels have a terrible camber/offset that seems to be slowly growing. The tops of the wheels point inward just enough to be noticeable. Volvo forums, what do I do? Where do I start looking? What needs replacing?

 

Tires have a lot to do with ride - check your tire pressure to make sure its where you want it (I tend to run 36 PSI on my cars) before going deep on mechanical parts. Note changing tire brands will impact noise, ride quality and handling so...)

Next is to inspect the suspension parts - do you see any oil leakage from the tops of the struts/shocks? How do the sway bar end links look/feel (you need to lift both wheels to unload the sway bar for this)? Look at the end of the springs for broken bits (the Gen1s are prone to springs breaking 2-3 inches from the bottom end). Not exactly sure how you can hear a gas piston in a shock when driving...are the dust boots in place or rubbing? are there score marks on any of the shock piston shafts? Most struts last 100K+ miles at a minimum - and fail by leaking oil - they will soften a bit over time, but not to the extent that you'd think you were riding in a NYC taxi... usually its more subtle like when driving a canyon you notice the handling is not quite so sharp. Noises can come from bushings/end links etc as well - a common point of failure is the strut mount (the spring seat/bushing up top) - typical test is going over a speed bump or RR tracks to see if you hear clunks. Regarding the handling - does it behave the same turning left or right? Finally regarding the angle you see for top of the wheels - that's what's called negative camber. As the car rolls during a turn, this allows the tire to be square to the road when you need the most traction. Generally most cars don't have adjustable camber - so unless you have bent or broken components, that's how the car was designed. Have you had an alignment done recently to measure up? If you are getting close to 100K miles and want to freshen the ride, you can have the front struts replaced - but I would have a shop inspect all the other parts prior to or as part of the job.

 

Thanks for the quick response. I'm running Pirelli Cinturato P7's with about 32 psi. I did notice a HUGE difference from the stock Pilots.

Is there a IPB for the front end suspension that I can look at and cross reference? I know what the strut and shock looks like, but things like tie rod ends and bushings aren't that easy for me. There is no clunking (I had that on my wife's car, bad strut mount, replaced whole assy).

The handling is the same left and right. Lots of roll. I'm thinking of getting the alignment done to figure out if there is a camber issue. I made the mistake of not getting it done when I had the tires swapped.

 

if you have lots of roll, I'd suspect a problem with the sway bar - if you pull a wheel, you should see a short rod with a ball joint on each end going from the control arm to the anti roll bar (the 3/4" or so sized shaped metal bar that connects to both front wheels). There should be two C shaped brackets holding the bar to the sub frame. Make sure both end links are still connected and the those brackets are not broken. You can find a diagram on some of the dealer parts web sites like Tascaparts.com or Volvopartswarehouse.com to get an idea what the parts look like...

 

The basic test for worn out struts is to push down on each corner of the car one time. If the struts are working the car will rebound exactly once. If the struts have failed it will bounce multiple times on the springs. There should be no noise.

Since you have driven the car from day one I'd guess bad struts. Super soft bouncy ride?