Correct on the disassembly order. Having the Haynes manual is helpful, if not critical. Under the top cover of the strut is a large cross shaped nut. There is a special volvo tool for this. I removed it using a 12-inch adjustable wrench. Someone else mentioned that they removed it using a hammer to tap it loose. There are some bolts that are supposed to be replaced with new. Depending on how strongly you feel about this, you could scan through the manual beforehand so that you would be prepared with all the necessary parts. If you have any clunking in the front end, you might want to replace the sway bar links at the same time. It's only one more bolt on each side. I did the struts, spring seats, sway bar links and sway bar bushings all at the same time. It stopped all the clunking coming from my cars front end, but I can't say which of those things was the primary culprit.

This is really a pretty straight forward job. It is a bit time consuming, however. Good luck.

Phantom