2003 XC90 help w REAR SHOCK Replacement

[2003XC90]

The rear shocks or struts have worn out on our 2003 XC90 after 171K miles. We get a lot of "hoopty mobile" bouncing going down the road...

Is this a repair that you can do yourself? The "shocks" are inside the spring, that I can see.
I found an "OEM/Volvo shock retaining nut strut removal socket tool" at Autozone for $24.99 part number 24365
Here is the link:
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/access ... umber=true.

Has anyone done this repair? Is it a no-brainer or do we need any special compression tools like for struts?

The Volvo dealer tells us that if the shocks are "Nivomat" shocks, then they cost $585 each. Ouch! They told us that there is a silver plate on the firewall or under the fenderwell which will let you know which shocks you have on your vehicle.

I hope that this is a simple 1-hour garage job because every repair on this vehicle seems to be more than $1,000. It would be nice to be able to do at least one repair on this vehicle myself )

Any links or diagrams would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[lleepq]

The top mounting nuts could be a problem. My 2008 xc90's nuts were seized and the hole for the counter hold were rusted. So I could not break the nut. I ended up using a air pencil grinder with dremel cut off discs to cut sufficient amount of the nuts so that I could impact the nuts away. lesson learned - diamond discs are not for steel cutting. Just standard heavy duty cut off discs will do better. Also you do not need to cut the whole nut out. Just a few deep cuts on it can weaken it and you can impact it out.