Hiya Steve A.,

That would be really cool to compare the rides of all these dampeners. I'd only heard rave reviews of the Tokico shocks when they were available. I'd not ever seen or ridden in a RWD Volvo that is or was Tokico-equipped. (Or if I did, I forget now.)

Volvo sourced mostly their range of dampeners from Boge of Germany (or Europa, generally). They had and have quite a range from purely hydraulic to gas charged. (Well beyond the Boge hydraulic, automatics, and Turbo Gas that used to be available in North America.

I have a set of Boge OEM Volvo-stamped rear gas charged shocks with built-in overload (or assist) springs I pulled off an '83 or '84 240 Turbo wagon about four or five years back. On my 1990 li'l red DL wagon now.

de Carbon was resurrected, yet no longer produced for Volvo. With the demise of Volvo in competition (and I guess the R-Sport group), even finding any NOS would be hard. I've seen them described in posts and threads on Volvo enthusiast site like our brickboared.com. Though about only on the European (again) Volvo sites.

I've heard only rave reviews on Koni, also. The last Koni catalogue I looked at shows Koni still builds for RWD Volvo. I had a set of orange or red adjustable hydraulic front struts on my now passed 1979 242 GT (grey market from Netherlands), just B21F and M46, though. I got it in 1989 in the US Midwest. Sometime later I found they were adjustable and cranked them all they way up. Matched them nicely with KYB rear Gas-A-Justs. (The KYB Gas-A-Justs were way, way firmer then. (Unlike what I bought in 2000.)

I've had these Boge by Sachs As "Sachs Advantage" strut cartridges, made in Mexico, and with a red sticker on them proclaiming them to be Boge Turbo Gas on my 1990 245 Dl wagon. Made in Mexico. Bought from iPd. (Don't blame iPd, they help us old import auto owners.)

Some i-net posts compare the Boge by Sachs "Super Touring" as "Boge Automatics". The Automatics are low-pressure gas charged. Dunno what "Super Touring" is like. Boge Automatics, at least rear shocks, would click as they were getting long in the tooth.

I do remember Made in Germany Sachs clutch kits for RWD Volvo, though, and install them. They seemed of excellent design and build.

I've installed real Made in Germany Boge Turbo Gas in the 80s and 90s. I'm sure you have also. Worlds apart from the Made in Mexico "Super Toruing". These were easy to compress and slow to rebound. They feel like purely hydraulic and are floaty. Yet after five years they've been solid.

I found a set of front strut orange de Carbons made in the early 1990s in an 84' 240 turbo sedan or wagon. They still have charge, yet they are old. They also won't fit the shorter later 240 strut tubes, when they became shorter inside with big square headlights and B230 changes. The the same way Bilstein HD won't fit inside these 1986-88 and later front strut tubes.

I hope they are better now, yet the Sachs by Boge Made in Mexico "Sachs Advantage" gland nuts that came in the box from iPd were useless when installing on the 1990 240 wagon in like 2011 or so. I reused the 30-year old made in Germany Boge glad nuts. I let iPd know. The German steel is so much better. You could tap the German steel gland nuts and they make a pure, clear chime sound.

Else, as an alternative, I put (still Made in Germany) Bilstein Touring on my green 240. Perfect fit and the ride is nice. I have a set of 175 65 R14 tires I got off craigslist on a set of Corona alloy wheel. The wheel are corroded and one wheel is bent. The tires were unused, yet defective as they were badly made. I want the good old 14" steelies and some used Michelin or Conti tires. I'm tired of alloy wheels. They can cause corrosion after many years inside and around the carbon-steel hub parts, as they have on this 92 green 240.

If you want Made in Germany Boge, you may have to go to Volvo, if they are still available anymore.

I forget the zero-mile info you mention. Glad to help. I'll look it up.

It would be swell if you could find some sort of Maker's Mark on them green strut cartridges. I'll see what I can find through google. I did not spend too much time looking. Could record an image and post it through the brickboard.com BrickPix through your account. There is no size limit though the image may need to be under 1024 kilobytes (one megabyte), or use your gave image hosting service and paste the img src link they provide you.

A beautiful 240 wagon you have there!!!!!

My wagon is all denty and faded and rusty. I hope to have a large garage for them all, with room to spare, to complete the mechanical restore and treat the rust.

Sorry to go on so long, I see now. Oooop!

Happy Sundae!

Bruce C.
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Jonathan Harshman Winters III: The Mightiest, Greatest, & Most Powerful North American Comedian & Comedic Actor in Perpetuity