Rear Strut Installation at 100k miles

[howardc64]

Front struts went in like 10k miles ago. The car would still seesaw a little going over these long (10 feet?) speed bumps around neighborhood. Just put new shocks in the rear and rides a lot nicer now.

But the job is harder than the front in my opinion. Here is what I ran into.

1. Volvo's directions (http://www.volvoxc.com/resources/how...rear-shock.pdf) calls for removing a screw+washer under the floor hatch for V70. This applies to V70XC as well. Here is what mine looked like

DSCF4080

2. The mud guards on my car is different than VADIS. Mine is a single piece and looked like this

DSCF4086

Mine was held on by a metal clip and a pushed in plastic push pin type fitting. The fitting is one of those that has a center pin to expand it. I pushed my center pin in and the fitting seem to break. I noticed one of the center pins had a piece of plastic tube hanging below it. I'm guessing the right procedure is to pull it out.

I couldn't get mine to fit back in correctly due to the broken fitting so used a zip tie instead. I thought about getting some fittings to to repair it but you don't want to plug up that hole on the bottom since water drains out of there. Just a single long zip tie that goes into the hole and exit the brake rotor side of the control arm.

3. VADIS calls for retaining straps, pretty useless. These straps can't generate enough force to get the control arm low enough during reassembly. However, straps are good for lower the control arm just enough to allow the strut+spring assembly to move in and out of the car easily. But if you have a friend + crow bar... much quicker.

4. Before you disassemble the shock+spring assembly. You need to make some alignment marks before disassembling. There are 3 basic pieces: The aluminum housing on top, the rubber seat, and the spring itself. Make sure you find/place a mark to make sure they are lined up the same way and reassembling. This is necessary to make sure the bottom of the shock has the hole oriented correctly to put back in the control arm. Here is a picture for reference. Generally, you can see clear lines where rubber seat is clean (under the the aluminum housing) and dirty (exposed). But probably good to mark all these 3 pieces with chalk like the direction says.

DSCF4081

5. VADIS calls for a special tool to take out the center nut on the strut. I did it this way instead. A strap wrench would probably be nicer to my socket But hey, it was late and I was doing this the second time because didn't tighten the nut enough the first time and got lots of funky rear end noises.



When you reassemble the strut, make sure you feel the upper plastic housing on the strut to make sure it is nice and firm. My was loose by maybe 1mm an the rear end sounds noisy driving around.

6. Connecting the bottom of the strut to the control arm. This is a major pain of this job. I used a crow bar and experimented with all kinds of leveraged points but it takes a lot of muscle. The strut also won't cooperate as it is under tension. I think the best trick is probably

- Use a crow bar. You can try the leverage points I used. Using the spring as leverage point is nice... it has the effect of pulling the strut assembly upwards.
- Have a helper to push down on the crow bar while you work the strut to fit it onto the control arm.

DSCF4088

Thats all and will be submitting the VADIS direction for this job soon.

UPDATE: A follow web forum member sent me this pic of his nifty trick to use car's jack to keep the rear control arm down to give plenty of room to work with.

488

[n00bkiller944]

Awesome post! I am sure I will be doing this soon this will really come in handy.

[RockitShip]

Nicely done Howard! Did you use a spring compressor or just the weight of the vehicle for decompressing spring? In other words... Is it a singular strut unit like the fronts thereby requiring a compressor to deconstruct the setup?

[howardc64]

Did you use a spring compressor.... Is it a singular strut unit like the fronts thereby requiring a compressor to deconstruct the setup?

Yes and yes. Its a single unit and have to compress the springs and use that 18mm socket+something to hold it and I think Torx socket bit to take off the nut. The problem is the nut is inset inside the rubber seat so you can barely get a wrench on it. Not enough contact to tighten all the way with a wrench.

I just held the socket still and turn the torx socket to take the nut out and reinstall.

Here is a pic of the top of the shock/spring assembly when removed

DSCF4081

[javaxc70]

Wish I would have had instructions on how to do this before I spent a whole day a couple months ago replacing the rear. I second the opinion that the rears are harder than the front; it was definitely a PITA. Ride was also vastly improved; and I feel much more comfortable on the highway. Thanks for the writeup!

[Huzer21]

This will be coming up for me as well. Thanks for the write up. Now I know what type of headache I'm in for!

[gibbons]

I've been reluctant to do this because I have heard it's about impossible to get the right struts either aftermarket or from the dealer. What did you use?

[howardc64]

I've been reluctant to do this because I have heard it's about impossible to get the right struts either aftermarket or from the dealer. What did you use?

Shock Rear AWD from IPD. According to this link, fits all P2 XC70s.

http://www.ipdusa.com/Volvo-V70XC70-...-388-500-2187/

Mine had a Volvo label on it. Perfect replacement.

[Jorge-789995]

Howard,

Did you also replace the spring, spring seat, bumper and support plate at the top of the shock?

Has anyone else done this and replaced these parts?

Thanks,

Keith

[Ars Gladius]

When I did the fronts, everything was replaced (spring [because mine was broken, did the other side too], spring seat, bumper, bearing, etc). For the back I am just looking at doing the strut as the rest looks ok.

I have the parts, just need to find the time, as well as decide if I want to swap the springs for stiffer HD ones.

I sorta want to get it done before winter along with the new sway bars.