Replaced front struts, nice ride
Just a commentary. At 268K miles I had a new front suspension kit installed this past week including Sachs struts, strut mounts, XC90 spring seats, bump stops, etc. Numerous other items and bushes had already been replaced. The ride wasn't bad before, not noticeably bad at least. These struts and so on were possibly original since I have no records of service on these items. My mechanic said these weren't bad compared to some struts he was replacing the same week on a couple of other Volvos. And despite the high mileage, this car has spent most of its life in the southern US, far enough south to have been driven on nice smooth mostly pot hole free roads. I've read some of your comments about how bad the roads are in other places. I didn't hear any clunks going over bumps, only this winter on a couple of the very coldest days in single digits Fahrenheit I heard for the first time some creaking in the struts. And I had noticed recently on a certain stretch of road that I travel that the car was kind of bouncy in one area where the road sort of sinks on one side then the other back and forth in one stretch. That one stretch would get a little hairy.
Anyway, I'll get to the point. After driving it for about 5 days under various conditions after repairs, I have to say the improvement is much more dramatic that I realized at first. Initially I thought, yeah this is pretty good and definitely smoother. But now I can say after driving under various conditions that it is WAY better overall! I definitely got my money's worth. Much better travelling on gravel roads with some degree of washboard surface, WAY better going over speed bumps, smoother going over any bumps or rough places or undulation in the roads. And today at 75 MPH on the interstate I noticed it actually travels smoother all of the time at higher speeds. I hadn't realized that at 70+ MPH the little bit of vibration that I felt was not normal, which was transferred up into the passenger compartment and has always been there. But now what felt like it could have been caused by anything from subframe bushes to normal tire wear to axles to any one of several causes has virtually disappeared. This didn't really seem like an issue at all because it was very slight and very subtle, and I only discovered now after the rest of the front suspension has been refreshed that the struts and associated parts have improved the overall feel at 70+ MPH highway speeds. It is like a dream now. I think NOW for the first time I finally get it and I know what a new car Volvo ride must feel like.
I am very impressed. I had saved up for this repair because it was $444 just for the parts and it seemed like something that wasn't urgent, so I had waited until some other repairs were taken care of first. For awhile it seemed like every month or so it was one thing after another, new exhaust, new tires, an oil leak, new back brakes, a couple of engine mounts, another oil leak, front axles. This latest repair was me catching up the last of the normal wear items that had probably been neglected for years by previous owners.
But man am I happy now that this repair is done and I'm feeling real results from it.
Last edited by tmcmilli; 04-23-2017 at 07:07 PM.
Tom McMillion
2002 V70XC 278K miles bought Dec. 2013 w/ 156K
This replaced a '97 850 with 401K miles
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