Hey Klaus,

I did mine on the S70 two weeks ago. Bought the Sears spring compressor and found it to be easy and well-made. I agree with not going with the rented one.

As for getting the top strut nuts off, I just used a moderately long heavy adjustable wrench on the actual nut and a pair of vice grips on the tip above the threads (very carfully, I might add, didn't mar the tip noticably at all). The trick is that the nut is really torqued. I removed the strut from the car, compressed the spring, laid it on my Black & Decker workbench, lodged the vice-grip handle (clamped onto the strut tip) in the metal railing of the bench, and used my body weight on the adjustable wrench to loosen the nut. Sounds (and was) very hillbilly, but it worked-- it's all I had.

Getting the strut out of the car isn't too bad. Couple of tricks I figured out (used 2 different jacks, removed the swaybar link, etc.) I didn't have an assistant available, so had to do it all solo. Interesting. Be happy to detail those if anyone wants to know.

You absolutely have to compress the spring correctly and scrunch it down to take the pressure completely off the spring seat for all this to work. Treat the compressed spring like a loaded shotgun and don't let anyone get anywere near the business end of it. Do not attempt this without much research/reading or if you have any doubts about your abilities.

Overall it worked out very well. About 1 1/2 hours per strut removal/seat replacement procedure. Did the swaybar links while I was at it. All for about $160.00.
--
I luv me bricks!