Ok so for better or worse I now own a one owner 120k 93 850.

Travelling over bumps there is a 'small' slapping or thumping noise from the right front suspension.

Any guesses as to whether it is a sway bar mount, shock mount etc?

I went to the only Volvo dealer in town today with my log book. I now have records of every service ever done on the car.

It seems even light bulbs changes were done by the dealer. I knew the car was cared for, but wow.
It makes for good reading for Volvo geeks.

Anyway the answer is.............

At the last service (Jan 16 2003 to be precise), there were two items of mention. The evap (surprise) at a cost of $1,600Cdn and a left front sway bar link at $80.

Sounds like the front bushings need to be replaced. Same thing just happened to me in San Fran.; I spent about 345.00 getting them replaced--worked like a charm.

Just a guess that it may be your rubber strut mount. If the other suggestions don't work, it may be that the rubber support mount(it lies underneath that metal bit that you can see when you open the hood and look at the places where the strut bolts to the car frame ) are shot. My friend had this problem. When he went over bumps the rubber mount that was worn would let the top of the strut bump up and down and make a lot of noise.

New ones are are like 20 bucks each from online parts places and have a reinforced edge around that is thicker that keeps them from wearing out where the silver metal strut(top) bit pops thru the top and is bolted to the frame.
You may also want to put in new struts while you are in there. My 850 wagon (150 k) needed new A arms. With new A arms, boge struts, and rubber strut mounts, the car is as tight and wonderful as the day it was made. Total - like 450 bucks online for all the parts plus a day or two of weekend time. In the shop it would cost a be a lot more! One frozen bolt on the A arm was a real problem.

If I am not mistaken you can remove the strut and replace the rubber strut mounts pretty easily (Big bolts on the strut ) and w/o messing with the spring. Just be sure to follow the book(Haynes) on getting the right bolts off on top. It is the 3 outside ones I believe, but double check. Three up top,and two big ones , put the brake, abs lines to the side and the thing pops out. Put new rubber in and it goes right back in and up. Rebolt , tighten. Follow Haynes.

I am sorry I may be mistaken in my previous post about how easy it isto change the rubber strut mopunt. You may need to take the strut out and use a spring compresser to get at the rubber strut mount at the top of the removed strut. I am doing this from memory and cannot recall, but want to say that the rubber strut may be under the star nut on top of the shock (UNDER SPRING PRESSURE), and if it is you have to compress the spring with a tool take the star nut and another one off to get to it and change it. Read the Haynes book for a better answer. It is not that hard actually if you have the tools. Sorry.

Thanks. Sounds like a five minute job.

It might also be the sway bar links. They tend to go at that mileage. they are z shaped metal bars that connect sway bar to the suspension. $20 a piece, very easy to fix. 14" bars. you can inspect them very easily. they have two balljoints on the ends, most of the time the rubber around the balljoint at the lower end tears and the grease leaks. That ball joint makes that klunking sound when passing on the bumps.
ihsan

PS: try to get the haynes manual if you don't have. you can get it from barnes and nobles for $17.99.

It's probably the anti-roll bar bushes. Apparently it's a design weakness on the early 850s, I've had mine done a couple of times now. They're not expensive to get done (under £30 for the parts) but don't seem to last very long. On early models the bushes are separate from the anti-roll bar itself, later on they're galvanized to it.