I have a 2001 S60 with around 75,000 miles. From what I have read I believe my front suspension needs replacing, a lot of low speed noise and a harsh ride. I am looking to return to the stock ride.

I plan on replacing the front Struts, strut spring seats, strut bushings and links, and possibly also the control arms and ball joints. To date I have only purchased the struts which are OEM Sachs.

My questions?
I have looked at both IPD and FCP Groton for parts. I have seen parts offering by several manufactures; Karyln, Uro, Sachs/Bog, Scan -Tec, etc. and finally offerings that just say aftermarket.
I gather the general opinions is scan-tec is considered junk.
Any recommendations on what is good and what is junk?????

Are the IPD heavy duty end links over kill for a stock ride?

Did I say I was going to take on the repairs. Don't mind buying tools if needed.
Is the spanner nut tool IPD offers a necessity for replacing front struts?

Thanks in advance, I can't stay online but I will return!

 

Stay away from scan-tech yes they are junk.
Sachs/Boge is OEM parts.

You can make the tool your self if you really wanted to. I have made 2 different ones. You can take an old socket and cut the grooves in it to make it work.

 

Tech,
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I don't see allot of offering from sachs/boge. I keep reading about suspension parts that fail prematurely and hope to avoid them. I like the socket trick!
I am new to the site and attempted a search on this subject without any sucesses. Any other insights on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think Moog makes pretty decent suspension parts.

 

I have a picture of the socket I will try to find it.

 

hello I just completed a complete rebuild of my front suspension including strut assembly (strut, spring seat, mount), control arms, inner/outer tie rods, brake pads rotor. I have a word document with pictures including tools and specs that show the steps which I would like to share.

There are a few key tools you will need. Don't cheap out on a repair you will do every once every few years. Buy the IPD spanner wrench. It works well. there are a couple of other specialty Volvo tools I show you how to make or substitute with regular tools.

Anyone interested please send an email request to chuckp@starstream.net and I will send you the word doc. I'd love to post it if I only knew how! ha
Regards,
Chuck

 

I had no problems getting the cross-shaped nut on and off using only a large adjustable wrench. There's nothing wrong with the other suggestions, but I didn't feel like forking over the money for IPD's tool and I didn't have the ability to create my own tool.

 

Don't cheap out on the strut bearing and control arms. Both should be replaced with oem quality parts. Just replaced the cheap (Chinese) bearings and lower control arms. Oh yeah, the Chinese driveshafts are garbage too. The mid booth ripped on the r/h shaft and inner bearing failure on the l/h. I drive 25K miles/year. All these parts failed within 2 years.