After realizing that I didn't need a spring compressor in order to remove a front strut, I decided to finally tackle this job and get rid of the clunking on the passenger side. This link: http://members.shaw.ca/heeeeee/strut/ was most helpful (a few pictures are worth a couple thousand words.)

My indy mechanic offered to comp his labor to replace the spring seat if I brought him the strut. He has a floor standing spring compressor which makes the job go really fast, about 10 minutes.

Beware that if you only jack up one side of the car in order to get the wheel off, you'll torque the front sway bar and it'll be tough to disconnect the upper swaybar link from the strut. (My neighbors floor jack would only raise a few inches before refusing to go any higher). I solved this with a crowbar.

Fortunately I encountered no rusted anything, no frozen anything & no stuck anything. In all, it took 20 minutes to remove the strut.

I usually order parts from Brentwood Volvo in St. Louis, never had a problem with them. I noticed their website doesn't have S/V/C parts listed & I didn't call. This opportunity came upon me quite fast, so I bought the part locally from the indy shop. Cost was $35.98. Fcpgroton has them for $20. Still, my mechanics labor was free. I usually bring him the parts.

He wonders why none of these spring seats are made of urethane, they'd sure last longer. He says he's replacing them all the time. I now wished I had positioned my car so that I could have gotten the other strut out as well even though it wasn't "clunking", as I was figuring on having to get the alignment done. When I mentioned this to him, he replied that an alignment wasn't necessary and that the only thing adjustable on my car was toe-in. One less thing to worry about!

I picked up a new floor jack on my way home and reassembled everything in short order. The crowbar helped get the upper sway bar end link in place.

After tightening everything firmly and reinstalling the wheel, I went for a ride. . . . . NO CLUNKING, NO BANGING, NO NOISE! Geesh, I forgot how quiet it used to be. Wish now I hadn't waited so long to fix it.

This was one of those rare DIY projects where everything went far smoother than I ever could have imagined. It's nice to have one of those!

Enjoying the quiet ride . . . . .
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1998 V70 T5 110Kmi; Previous car: 1985 SAAB 900T, 254kmi