where is the best place to buy sport springs and shocks? when changing the front struts do I need bearings and anything else?

Thanks
Ed
--
1993 940 Wagon 'the shagon wagon'

I got Bilsteins from IPD, which may or may not be the best option, but they were on sale, so the price was right :-)

I'm putting them on tomorrow (keeping stock springs); I'll be replacing the strut mounts and spring seats, both of which I got locally for $185 for all 4 parts. You can probably save some $$ by getting them online, but I didn't find that outrageous.

There are excellent (I hope :-) instructions for V70 front strut replacement at http://members.shaw.ca/heeeeee/strut/index.htm.

- peter
'98 v70 t5 5-sp

So I replaced the struts and shocks yesterday.

Major observations:

1. The 2nd strut takes a lot less time (3.5 hrs vs. 35 min)
2. A lift really helps
3. Air tools *really* help

It's not a hard job at all.

I replaced the spring seats and strut mounts in the front, left the ones in the rear (they looked fine). Actually, the front mounts and seats looked good too, but there was enough residue from the seats on the top part of the springs that I'm glad I had the new ones ready.

I (stupidly) didn't take one of the rear wheels off before loosening the top bolt on the shock, so I got a lot of suspension drop very, very quickly. Not a real problem, but a surprising reaction :-P

Oh, and the front sway bar link was hard to get back into position after I replaced the strut. I ended up using a long wrench as a "breaker bar" to lever it into place against the frame rail.

And, oh, do those Bilsteins feel good :-)

- peter
'98 v70 t5, 5-sp, now with bilsteins all around

Which Bilsteins? Do you have the sport suspension? I'm getting ready for a similar job on my 96 850T, but am concerned that the Bilstein HDs will stiffen it too much...

I believe they're HDs (ipd only carries the one kind of Bilsteins).

They're really, really comfortable. Keep in mind that I had 107k miles on the old ones and they were *gone*. It's amazing how much damping makes the car feel better ;-)

- peter