Matthews Volvosite.com estimates 6 hours to do the job on the front struts and that's what it took me. 4 hours for one and 2 hours for the other. On the first strut, I forgot to reinstall the bumpstop at the top of the dust boot. I thought it was part of the old strut. um,... no.

So I had to take the strut back off the car, recompress the coil spring and disassemble the strut to the point where I could get the bump stop back on the strut. And the strut went on the car OK fine.

The second one went much faster because I didn't repeat the mistakes of the first one.

Observations:

1. The instructions on MatthewsVolvo site are excellent, but you do need a Haynes manual for all the torque values and position tightening info.

2. The IPD spring compressor is a good thing; very strong and safe. You have to get the compressors 180 degrees apart for it to work properly. On the first strut, one side sort of got slanted while compressed which got a little scary. So I uncompressed it and started over.

3. The IPD spanner wrench for the star-shaped nut is a nice to have, but you could probably use some other type of tool to remove it. I bought it because I was a total noob on doing this job and didn't know the nut even looked like
(4 hrs for one strut.)

4. Lots of discussion on the board about whether or not to change the strut mounts. I did it because I wanted all matter of rattling noise to be gone. It's gone, so those dollars were well spent. Front end is nice 'n quiet now. I love this car even more now.

5. At 140,000 miles, both struts were toast. There was no dampening at all on the left strut. I think I was riding on the springs. The Bilstein TCs give an smooth OEM sort of ride. I ride over bumps ON PURPOSE now, because it is so cool.

Finally, with the reassembled strut off the car, I got the strut top lock nut as tight as I could get it with a box end wrench and a torx driver. The spec is 50 in./lbs. Now that the struts are in the car. I'd like to use a crows foot and a torque wrench, but when I turn the nut, seems like the strut cylinder and the coil spring are both turning. That torx recepticle doesn't seem strong enough to hold it still up to that torque level with out stripping it.

Question...Do I just keep turning the nut until I hit 50 in/lbs with the torque wrench? It drives fine, is quiet and I just got the front end aligned.

If I have to remove the struts again. I'm just going to leave it as is.

Comments...?