On my 95-850 I had occasion this weekend to replace front strut spring seat and steering bearing on one side.

In the Haynes manual the description of this and similar repairs (such as lower control arm) state always to replace the bolts holding the strut to the steering knuckle with new ones, when removing a strut.

A dealer parts man said they don't normally do this. On this car the lower control arms on each side were replaced by 2 different shops (which based on the appearance did not use new bolts).

It also occurs that on this car whenever the camber is to be adjusted during wheel alignment you need to loosen and retorque the lower strut bolts. It seems to me unlikely an alignment shop would replace these every time they did this adjustment.

I can think of 2 reasons to replace the bolts - 1) the bolts might fatigue over time or from repeated loosening and retightening. 2) A used bolt would have different resistance or be a little deformed so that tightening to the stated torque and angle spec would not be accurate.

Any experience or opinions on this?

thanks to all.