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Strut Advice Please 850

The Bilstein HD's will knock your teeth out. They handle great but the ride is very harsh. Bilstein Touring Class, however, are very nice - Good handling and a good ride. I put Monroe Sensatrack struts on my son's 850. They ride OK but the handling isn't that great. The Koni struts are supposed to be great but they are out of my price range.

Avoid aftermarket spring seats and strut mounts like the plague. You will be doing the job again in 6 months or less. For the spring seats buy the XC90 seats, they are only a couple of dollars more, they fit perfectly, and they are much beefier. Used OEM strut mounts from a junk yard are better than brand new Scan Techs.

The same thing applies to all of the suspension and steering parts, particularly the control arms - go OEM. The prices for Scan Tech and Hamburg Technic is seductive but they will not last. The only place where aftermarket is OK is on the sway bar end links. IPD and Quickbrick motor sports make heavy duty versions but they are expensive.

Unless you have a '93 the sway bar bushings are not replaceable. If they are bad you must change the entire sway bar.

One last tip, when you replace the control arms it is important that the suspension be at its normal resting height before the bolts to the frame are torqued down. With the car on jack stands I use a floor jack to raise the hub to a point where it is centered on the lower door seam and then torque them down.

My 2ยข,

...Lee






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