850 front strut

Help! I have a '93 850 with 103,000 miles on it. This past winter I got a
crunching sound from the right front of the car. I finally found that it
seemed to be coming from the top of the strut. As it was extremely cold
(and could not bear working in a cold garage), I applied a liberal amount of
oil in this area and it seemed to eliminate the problem. It occasionally
comes back as a kind of clunk/rattle from the same area. When I throw my
weight on the front end, it seems to have a normal response for a good
shock.

Could it be the bushing in the top of the strut? Sounds like that it could
be it. My question is, do I replace the whole strut when I work on this?
If I do, should I not replace both of them? The parts are expensive, but I
want to have a safe car. Any thoughts out there.

Cheers,
Randy in Pittsburgh

 

I think that's the problem. It's a wear item. Not too expensive, about 20
per side. I would replace the struts if you plan on keeping the car to 150K
miles. Otherwise, just change the bushings/strut mounts.

 

Thanks for the input Jeff. I may go ahead and replace the struts as I do
want to keep this going for the kids for several years. The car still runs
great and I hate to sell out the dough for a new car. Would you go original
Volvo struts or aftermarket?

Cheers,
Randy

 

Hi there.
I had the exact same problem with my V70 front struts.
I had a knocking/groaning noise on one side when driving over rough ground.
I removed the suspect strut (very easy really), and compressed the spring,
so I could remove the top-mounting assembly.
The top-plate can be removed without removing the spring, (remove the
top-most nut which holds a rubber-bonded disc on) but you need to compress
the spring to remove the other nut on the top end of the shock.
Once the spring is held, and you remove the nut, you can remove the top
spring-seat. This seat is a mostly-plastic part which has a steel-tube type
bush bonded in the centre. The bonding fails, causing the centre tube to
come loose. This is what makes the noise, the strut rattling up and down,
separately from the top mounting.
I paid £20 at my main dealers for a new, Genuine spring seat. Another 15
mins, and the car was ready for use again.
About 12 months on, (at 210,000 miles!) my front shocks began to leak. When
I replaced them, I also replaced the spring seat on the other side, while I
had it all apart.
Good luck with replacing the seat. It's not difficult. three small nuts
holding the top-plate into the wing, and 2 larger bolts holding the strut
onto the hub. You also have to remove the anti-roll bar connection, which
may require some levering to take the strain off before you can disconnect
it from the strut.
Hope this helps.
P.S. The spring seat wasn't availabe from any cheaper sources, and I used
Branded shocks (which turned out to be made in sweden, and had identical
stampings to the original genuine ones. Been on for a year with no probs. at
236,000 miles I'm not willing to spend out on genuine parts if not
necessary. I still use genuine oil filters, belts, brakes though.
Cheerio.
Joe.
Peterborough
UK.

 

Hi Joe,

Thanks very much for the help. I have already bought the spring compresser
and it was good to hear from some one who has been through all this already.
I have just about decided to go ahead and replace the enire strut assmeblies
on both sides, if for no other reason than to avoid having to do again
somewhere down the road. I hope this will put an end to the problem we
seemed to share. There are aftermarket dealers here in the states that I
will have to compare against what the Volvo dealers want. I have always
used Volvo parts in the past, but working for a shaky airline, I am starting
to consider less costly options to keep things under control. I hope this
is not false economy, but I assume that there are some legitimate options
out there. Maybe better than the original!

Cheers,
Randy in Pittsburgh