Gabriel or Bilstein?I have heard many good things about Bilstein's in volvos, but was also wondering about Gabriel?
www.gabriel.com

Has anyone used them before?

Also I cant seem to tell whether my shocks/struts are shot or not, the car seems to hit bumps quite hard, but on turns it doesnt lean, on braking the front doesnt go down father than it should. Could it be the engine stablizer mount?

 

Bilstein HD's or KONI yellows.

 

Bilstien HD's are too strong, or so thats what people ahve said on both this forum and volvospeed
prolly gonna get Bilstien TC's

 

Bilstein TC's are just OEM. It is just Bilstein's version of our OEM shocks/struts.

If you want a performance shock/strut you want Bilstein HD's or KONI yellows.

 

yea but i heard that they are better than OEM

 

Sounds like you have already decided, so why ask? Personally I would get the Billstein TC's also, but I have never replaced and of mine and my cars have 175,000, 145,000 and 125,000 miles. All suspension original excpet for the IPD Sway Bars on the 95 T5R. The V70 is needing something soon though in the front. I hear clunking and squealing when I hit bumps.

 

The Koni Sports are pricy, but tests I've read show them performing as well as the Bilstein's on the track (in slalom speeds), yet they are supposed to ride better.I have them (Koni Sports) and I am happy; they are also adjustable (all settings firm compared to typical shocks though). If I were buying today, I'd also be looking real hard at the new Koni FSD's, which are a new concept in shock design, and most reviews have been very positive - of course they are a little more than the Koni Sport's, but are said to ride better without taking a hit on performance.

The easy test for shocks is to vigorously push down the front end of the car - it should rise once and settle. If it bounces up and down repeatedly, they are worn out. Another symptom is easy bottoming out on speed bumps or entering upsloping driveways. My S70's shocks didn't last particularly long.

P.S. I haven't tried them, but in a "bargain" performance shock, a lot of people seem to like KYB's, and I know they make the OEM shocks for Lexus, and also make an adjustable sport shock like Koni does.

 

well I havent decided, was asking if anyone had ever used Gabriel shocks, as for Bilstien HD's or TC's yes I ahve made up my mind on getting TC's if I go with Bilstiens at all.
But somthing is making the car hit extreamly hard on the rigth side.

Also, my car has 211,000 miles on it, which is much higher thans teh cars you have.(Not to put you down or anything, as you know alot more about volvos than I do)

 

I didn't think you were putting me down at all. At 211,000 miles I would guess you do need new shocks and struts. If it's bottoming out when you hit a bump on the right side it may be the springs and not the struts though. You might want to have somebody check it out before putting money into it. I have been known to take mine to a mechanic to find out what's wrong and then fix it myself. Just tell them to let me know before they do anything, and then when they tell me I say I don't have that much money right now and it sounds like something that can wait. Then come here find out how to do it and do it myself and save money. The worst thing you can do is to start replacing stuff and still have the same problem. The independent Volvo shop I take my car to says they rarely change struts and almost never do the rear shocks.

 

haha, well im going to take it to firestone to have then check it all out. The rear shocks are fine, its jsut if I am going to put in bilsteins or w/e on teh front I would do teh rear at the same time? or would that be a waste of money?
Also thats the thing, its not bottoming out, except for bumps, but its showing no other signs like lots of bounce or banking on turns. Could be the spring, I just thought taht it would ahve been the strut going out before the spring. Eitherway ill be back at 11AM (pst) with what exactly is wrong, and would love to keep getting mroe advise once I know what the deal is exactly.

 

I would talk to the actualy mechanic at Firestone to make sure he is smarter than a fifth grader if you know what I mean. Some places like that might be ok, but in general I don't trust them at all to work on my cars. Nothing wrong with letting them inspect it to see what's wrong though.

 

so I just got back, both Tie rods are broken, left and right(outer), struts and shocks are good but are taking the impact harder due to the broken rods(not in half but all the greese is gone). Does this sound like they know what they are talking about?

"tie rod end boot leaking"

 

Wait for Tech to get back and give you an anwer. He is gone for the weekend, but he's the best at answering these types of questions, and you definitely trust what he says.

 

yea for sure, just trying to figure out what ima going to/what I need. Firestone wants $300 to replace those two parts, but online they are $33 for the pair, but dont have the sleeve? Gonna load my VADIS back onto my computer now.

 

ok so after reinstallng VADIS and talking with the the firestone people once again, I now fully understand about the Tie rod ends. They are going to replace those and the sleeves that are leaking. They may have done a shotty suspension check so they are going to re-check it. I stil dont know if the tie rod ends are whats going on with the card hitting hard or not. After they install it im going to ask that they drive the car over some bumps, which one they instpected the suspension teh first time they did not do. I think what happened was the got teh wheels off, found the tie rods broken, then just visually inspected the rest. Eitherway that will be fixed on wednesday, and I will be back on here to let you guys know what happend and if I need help with suspension parts or not.(sorry about any typos)

 

Sounds like you are getting somewhere anyways. There are a lot of variables in when something will wear out, but at 211k, if those are the original shocks, you certainly could need new ones. My shocks were truly shot when I replaced them on my S70 at just 130k.

 

man this car is starting to guzzle money almost as fast as it guzzles gas

 

Well, European cars are like that - they start off very expensive when new, then drop off sharply on the used market, but repair costs and just so-so reliability means they are still costly to own. You won't likely have any better experience with Saab, BMW, Audi, or Mercedes - they are all like that.

I will say though that on any car in the 100k+ miles range,in my opinion,needing stuff like brakes, struts/shocks, exhaust, and front end/steering parts is not unusual.

One thing Volvo really excels in is safety - they are the market leader in this area, so if that's important to you (it was *the* factor for me), it's still a great car.