Subject car is a 1991 940se w/190k miles.

The front strut cartridges have about 130k miles on them -- I am replacing them with Bilsteins in the next week or so. Question is: Front end is fairly "tight" for a car of this age, but is feels kind of clunky/mushy in corners. It's hard to describe, but it just doesn't have that new Volvo feel.

While inspecting the top of the strut towers, I noticed that when I pushed down on the fender to "rock" the car, the top of the strut would move up/down against its mount (the 15mm or so bolt that holds the strut to the strut bearing - as seen from in engine compartment) about 1/16" - not a huge amount of movment -- but movement nonetheless.

Does anyone know what is going on here? When I replace the strut cartridges, I want to make sure I replace the part(s) that are causing this "slop" in the struts. There is a large inverted cone shaped rubber piece (Volvo calls it a washer) that attaches to top of the strut between the nut that goes on the top of the strut and the strut mount -- this is where the movement is most apparent.

Hope I've described my symptom accurately -- any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks