Spring Seats DIY
 

Guys, is there anyway to replace the spring seats without taking out the entire strut assembly? Any tricks you could give me. I already have the seats.

My car rides like a wagon going out West. I just finished last night replacing both control arms and ball joints and am disapointed that its not smoother. I bought the seats just incase, but haven't put them on yet.

I have a 2005 S80 w/ 90k miles.

Not really, sorry. It's not hard to take out though.

Agree, you will need to take the whole strut assembly out. I did mine in my 01 S80 and it took around an hour each.

Detailed instructions i posted on another site

http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/index...1#entry1721145


Hope this helps.

Kris

Just a note of caution - auto springs are *very* powerful, and are held under significant tension while in place even if the car is jacked up and the wheels are at the bottom of travel. Be very careful that the spring compressor doesn't slip off - you can be badly injured if it does.

Typical spring rates might be 300 pounds per inch or more, meaning 300lb of force is available for every inch of compression in that hard steel. If you take the spring out, and it's compressed 4 inches from the full free length, then 1200lb of force will be unleashed if the tool slips off - fingers and hands can't take that, for example.

By the way, although your spring seats may be broken too, if the ride is rough, I will bet that you need new struts/shocks more than anything else to fix that. If the car has 90K on the original struts, you are due.

Thanks for the information guys. Even though I changed the control arms and ball joints, I guess Im just a coward when it comes to the springs. Kinda like electrical wiring at my house, I don't mess with that either.

I called a couple of places to do it for me and they all wanted $120 each to do it even with me supplying the seats. Crazy nutjobs.

Finally found one place, Tire Kingdom, I think they are a chain and they will do it for $50 each and the alignment will be 1/2 off. So to replace both spring seats and an allignment will be about $130. Im all about saving money and working on my own car, but I like this deal better.

Im sure others will appreciate the write-up. This website needs a sticky for DIY instructions and write ups. The Audi website I go to for my other car has it and its real nice.

Thanks again guys.