I have two V70's in my driveway, one 99 and the other year 2000. One is destined to go to the junkyard soon because of accident damage while the other will take its place as "the car". On board the car going to the junkyard are a set of Bilstein Heavy Duty struts with new spring seats and other strut hardware. These struts were installed by me about 23,000 miles ago. The new V70 still has the factory installed Sachs which are pretty weak at this point. Is it worth it to do a major operation and swap the struts in one car for the other ? How long do struts last?.

Struts are usually good for 130K miles, less in pot hole cities. Keep the newer struts/shocks, if you swap them there will be no need ffor a spring compressor, just new strut bolts.

Klaus
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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

What are the strut bolts and why do they need to be replaced ? Are these the bolts that go into the arm to hold the bottom end of the strut in place ?

Correct, 2 large bolts and nuts. The torque spec is 52lbs + 60 degrees, which is enough to stretch the bolt and it should not be reused. I ordered the bolts from FCP and they were puny compared to OEM, so I bit the bullet and got bolts and nuts from the dealer.

The three top nuts were reused and are holding nicely, thank you.

Hint: If you replace struts with OEM, scribe the location of the bottom of the strut before removing. That way, whey you put the new ones on, the alignment should be close to what it should be. This only works for OEM.

Klaus

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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

Thank you Klaus for that info. I didn't know that and reused the bolts when I did the strut upgrade. I also guessed the torque by feel. I'll go to the dealership tomorrow for those bolts because I've decided to do this switch-off. The brake rotors are also new on the soon to be trashed car so I'll get those back as well. Is it true that I won't have to borrow a spring compressor? I thought I needed it to take the tension off the two fastening points. Also there is a nut at the top of the strut that is shaped like a cross. How tight is that supposed to be? And then the nut with the nylon bushing; is that supposed to keep the cross shaped nut form turning?The last time I did this, one strut rattled as it hit bumps. I tightened that cross-nut and it stopped

I was close: strut to steering knuckle, 51 lbs + 90 degrees.

Both the star nut and top nut = 52 lbs each.

How anyone can use a torque wrench with the star nut is beyond me.

The entire strut comes off the car BEFORE the spring is removed, so you won't need a spring compressor. Just take it off one car and put it back on the other.

Remember how the ABS sensor comes off the strut? A plastic push pin keeps it mounted. Push the pin out and it falls right off. Don't loose that little pin.

Klaus
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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

I went to the dealer today and got four bolts that are "flange screws" in their estimation. The bolts were $4.50 each and I skipped the nuts for them at $5.29 each ! thank you for mentioning that because I put the old ones right back on there. But I wanted to ask; are you sure that no spring compressors are needed? Doesn't the strut want to expand right into the ground? Or won't the tension of the strut make removing those knuckle bolts impossible without some kind of explosion?

Check out the beautiful pictures, especially page 4:

http://members.shaw.ca/heeeeee/strut/

You don't need to loosen the large center top nut if you are swapping the whole assembly.

This is from Volvospeed. It is very easy. I made a 'breaker bar' with a 1 inch pvc pipe to get the nut to turn 90 degrees after torquing it to 51 lbs.

Klaus

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Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

not related to any further assistance as Klaus has really helped already...but what is your opinion on the Bilsteins?

Regards
Steve

Not related to any further assistance as Klaus has really helped already...but what is your opinion on the Bilsteins?

Regards
Steve

This is as regards the Bilstein Heavy Duty model ; the yellow and blue ones. I like them but they are a bit of a surprise at first. They transmit the force of a large pebble or crack in the road but they are incredibly stable at highway speeds. They were unfazed by the time when I had six passengers in the car. I go right over those speed bumps at mall parking lots at 15 MPH and there is a bump... bump sound but the car barely goes up or down. I laugh as I watch SUV owners come to a complete stop at those bumps and ease their "Sport Utility Vehicle" over them. There is some reduction in sway though not miraculously so and I have the Bilstein rear shocks as well. I'd get them again. They control any incident in the road to a very high degree but they don't afford the puff cloud ride that my grandmother loves in her Buick. A stiff , stern shock absorber that is supposedly activated by as little as 2 mm movement.

Thank you very much Klaus for your help. It is people like you that make this board work. I've learned a few things including the fact that I shouldn't have reused the bolts that I did when I put the struts in. Also I couldn't find that info on volvospeed but your link got the job done here in Clearwater , Florida. Thank you

I wouldn't send the struts to the junkyard. Either swap, or just take them off and store them till you're ready to do the operation. I'd put the car on blocks if I have to and take pretty much anything I'll need in the foreseeable future. Most junkyards will still take it (usually you won't get much if you gut it first, but you might get scrap minus towing cost if you look around) and winching it up a flatbed tow truck will get it there. You might want to put the car on something that it can be dragged upon so it doesn't scrape the driveway.
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If you're not driving it "like its stolen," are you really driving?