SharkGTS

OK I took an impact driver to the top nut - thing was on tight! The strut expands on it's own so there is no worry of the strut arm dropping. Car has wheels on the ground so it's got +/- 1000lb of compression at each spring in case you are wondering. Findings: 1. There is no cross nut installed (of course!) The Cross nut is there just to elevate the top strut/retaining washer. The whole system is supposed to float - you know why? In order for the sway bars to act properly, and the inside wheel to stay connected to the road in a turn (or say on washboard bumps) the wheel needs to deflect or travel downward, when unweighted. This mojo is critical of course for proper handling - as are your sway bar links (replace every 60K miles) and sway bar itself. 2. The <insert> mechanic, who was quite creative, but completely bonkers, silicone sealed a strut washer from ????? with a rubber bushing, over top of the strut bearing!! In shop re-design if you can believe it! He then cranked the top strut washer to that rubber bushing washer to slam the strut rod and prevent any downward travel! I guess he knew better lol. He did not - it handled like cheap GM Cavalier Now what the heck to do. I grabbed a nut from my stock that fit over the strut and used that in place of the cross nut. Then installed the strut washer and nut so it is in the right location. I left the sealed rubber washer in for now. I can't see that hurting the situation, actually looks really nice. Handling is back to normal. I'll order the cross nuts and probably go from there.

I should be able to inspect and fix (assuming I get the cross nut) without having to remove from the car. The tricky part will be to prevent the strut plunger arm from retracting! If it does that then it will be a gong show.

The system is supposed to float (on the spring) with some downward travel available. Now in this setup I am losing the downward travel, which explains why the suspension is not reacting properly and also my handling is affected (sway bar won't operate correctly either!)

strut shaft>spring mount>Cross Nut> washer> Main nut. Parts are from Rockauto, ordered up like last time. If there was a problem with the part they should have alerted me right away. Looks like they missed the cross nut. I went in and said Hey guys this is bonkers which prompted: "you supplied the parts" "We have to torque it down otherwise it's loose" and on and on. I need to get time to take it to the dealer, do the proper chassis calib too.

I do have a good pix - had to upload to our webserver. Now the problem with this is the spring is more compressed, ride height is probably a bit lower, spring "pre-load" is increased so the ride is stiffer (which it is). With no chassis calibration, the previous calibration is more "off" than if the dimensions/spec were closer. Just drums over rough pavement and I'm getting some oversteer particularly in the wet which isn't too good!

I just got my Struts done in a local shop, I supplied the parts XC90 mounts. The ride over rough pavement sounds like someone hand drumming on a table top. Told the shop about it. Now this weekend opened the hood to check oil and my eyeballs popped. The have about 1" of thread exposed at the top of the strut. ie If the plastic cover caps were installed they would look like a joke. Did these guys absolutely crank the nuts to achieve this?? The spring must be really compressed correct? I didn't think it was possible to do something like that without eliminating a washer or other part. I seriously looked at my hood liner wondering if this poked a hole in it.

My 2006 120K miles spring seats were fine, totally reusable. Maybe the early models were worse. the XC90 ones I got were Identical to what I took out save the ID of the bushing. From the top of the assembly you have the nut, the washer plate, the bearing plate (w/3 nuts), the spring seat jams into the bearing plate., the spring and the strut through the spring. The top washers lift off the bearing plate when the suspension is laden. I have no difference with that gap from what I removed to new what I put in. Still about 0.2" of float there. That is from the strut shaft bottoming "up" onto the spring seat, which engages the damping action of the strut. From this position it is all spring and strut compression or decompress under damping, unless you unweight the wheel then it will contact that washer up top. A spring seat shouldn't cause knocking. The spring has 900 lbs force on it driving into the tower. A failed strut is undamped spring action and under movement is unstable - resulting in dangerous high freq bouncing and oscillation. Downunder is correct the only culprits for knock are 1. the links ( I guess this knock sounds like it is coming from the firewall like mine does - |I have new links on order) .2. Tie rods or inners - this knock should be sensed in the steering wheel 3. the ball joint would be a deeper knock at much lower freq since they are under much more load. No more joints to knock I should clarify (lol) that the 0.2"float disappears when you unweight the wheel

The strut to steering knuckle is a compression fitting, at least for camber retention. The camber may move on you (me) in a high enough impact. So what's the procedure when you go for an alignment?? New nuts and bolts every time according to spec.? I am going to replace while the fasteners while they are still "fresh" because I am concerned about the nuts they are a bit rolled off due to the impact. Those suckers were on tight! PS I've got a TT convertible that our engineers toot around in and the camber was way off , one wheel pass side, probably what happened to that car - improper torque or impact moving the strut.

Just did mine this weekend, including a wheel bearing. Pass side, yesterday - the strut was completely shot. D side was actually pretty good. Got the driver side done this morning. I reused all nuts and bolts. But wish I had the strut nuts at least. I beat them up with the impact going off. And torquing those puppies up I didn`t go the full 60 deg, I just went to 110 n-m and then some. Brake bolts are also a high torque setting I was afraid I`d snap or round them off. I got a new spring compressor for $85 came with locking pins, worked awesome. SPRING SEATS from Rock Auto DID NOT FIT out of the box!! Exact part but I had to hone the inside diameter about 0.02` in order for them to drop over the strut shaft. Used some grease there too because unfin metal = rust.`I could have reused mine they were in great shape (120K miles 2006 MY) Had to reuse the bump stops the ones from Rock were wrong. The 2501 struts, washers, bearing, bellows were good. I used the witness marks, eyeballed the camber. Pretty close might be a shade too negative on the one side. Still have my dull rattling over jiggly bumps so that must be something else loose in the front end. I does feel a lot like our LR3 did but that was an issue with the steering racké bushings. WIth the V70R doesn`t feel like a rack issue but could be. Also I did not have to do anything too freaky to get the strut back out and in. Just used my knee I think,& maybe one hand to push down the control arm the other to work the strut in place. Then put a screwdriver in there, but one side I went right to the bolts.