I love you guys' advice. Now if I were to hook up my 1993 Volvo 240 with a sports car like suspension, where should I start?

What order do these sporty suspension parts belong in:

Chassis Braces

Anti Sway Bars

Front suspension bushing kits

Rear suspension bushing kits

Front shocks

Rear shocks

Upper Strut Mounts

Sport Springs

I know that if i were to change my springs, it would be a good idea to slap on the shocks at the same time. That's what i'm looking for now.. in what order should i work on this new sporty suspension?

Volvo MOE

P.S. Are anti sway bars the same as Strut braces (tower to tower)?

I have put all this good stuff on my car. The first thing is to make

sure your car is up to this so if you have any marginal bushings(more

than 80k on your car) you should at least replace the bushings that take

most of the stress. This would be the rear bushing on the front A-arm.

In the rear suspension the torque arm bushings and the rear trailing arm

bush arm the ones in my opinion. Also IPD makes poly torque arm bushings

and I am very happy with them. My order would be:

Good stock bushings

Anti sway bars

Wheel and tire improvement

Sport shocks that can be used on a lowered car(Bistein,Koni,Tokico,Boge Turbo Gas)

Chassis braces

Sport Springs

Personally I like the ride on my car more now than when I had sport shocks

with the stock springs. I'm using Bilsteins and IPD springs and the

wheel and tires are 15x7 with 205/55-15 tires. My tires only rub on

the rear inner fender when the car is twisted like when going up or down a

steep driveway. And they don't rub hard. My 70 year old mom thinks the

ride is OK. Put all the good stuff on and you'll have a car that handles

very well and still has a good ride in my opinion. Let me know if you

would like any other details.

Dave 242ti with improvements

Moe,

Just one man's opinion but here we go:

1. Get all stock components up to original; bushings, upper mounts, etc. On a '93 they might be ok depending on mileage.

2. Sway Bars

3. TIRES AND WHEELS. You didn't ask but...15" Turbo Wheels are very cost effective and look nice.

4. Shocks. There's Bilstein and then there's not Bilstein.

5. Sports Springs. Tradeoffs here. Nice handling and looks but harsher ride and clearance problems. Do at the same time as shocks, of course. Cost effective alternative is R-Sport springs on front. Came on '79 240 GT and increases spring rate without changing ride height. Check ebay and B'board or ipd classifieds.

6. New steering wheel. Smaller wheel from Turbo or GT quickens steering response. Measure your wheel first. Older 240s had steering wheels like a bus.

7. Chassis braces: Strut to firewall, strut-strut and lower chassis. Nice finishing touch. I feel it ties all the other mods together and lets them work to their max. Best strut-strut braces are straight. Bends weaken them. SAM makes best but no one is importing them at this time, I think. Good luck

Skip

'80 242GT ProRally

'93 850GLT

I've always believed in the start simple strategy. take care of all the little stuff, then slap on the major items.

So I'd slap on the lower chassis braces and upper strut braces (both do help) first. the upper braces are direct bolt on. 5 min each. The lower braces require you to punch a hole in the control arm bracket, which requires you getting under the car and deal with copious metal filings coming down, and the metal is thick/hard. Get a good titanium bit for this!

I'd do the major items all at once. Make it a mega-PIA weekend project break everything down, replace all the bushings you wish to, slap on the new shocks/springs/mounts when you put it back together.

If you're having a shop do it, it's also logical to get the parts together (assuming you have a bring-your-own-parts friendly auto shop) and have the labor done in one swoop, minimizing how broke you go.

Be very selective in the parts you purchase. they will ultimitly determine the sucess of your not-so-cheap project.

So you've decided to throw quite a bit of cash into your car's suspension... I dont blame you, these cars handle great with some simple upgrades.. However, do NOT forget the tires and wheels. Make sure you have good high performance tires with appropriatly sized tires. 240's seem to love 205-55R16's. Same size tires the S70 T5's come with, and many other volvo's. I upgraded my 240 to this size and was glad I did so (was running 14's!)

And of course, make sure you've got properly tightened, greased, wear free wheel bearings. Seems the 240 like to develop a clunk if the bearing is not preloaded properly (aka loose) or worn.

iPD also offers two other interesting items you might like.. Have not tried either, maybe on the next order!

There's a tower-to-tower brace, which looks nice. I'd guess it would defintly add some support but I remember it being a bit more $$ than I want to spend (yet)

There is also a plate that braces the top of the strut tower. This type of plate is part of the tower-to-tower, but is also offered seperatly to make the top of the strut tower more rigid. Seems like it'd make for a more solid upper strut brace installation too. accoring to IPD people have complained of cracked strut towers, and they believe the plate reduces stress on the tower and increase rigidity. anyone tried them?

You'll hear a lot of debate as to which shocks and springs to get. Base this decision on your personal taste, how you'd like your car to handle, vs public popularity. There are actually quite a few options for both springs and shocks... ranging from gabriel, monroe to koni's and bilstiens.

A few less choices for springs, but you'll still spend some time comparing!

I've rode with too few varieties to compare... currently running volvo-OEM in the front (as the prev owner had the dealer replace them 5 months before I bought the car) and KYB GR2's in the rear.

The GR2's are fairly stiff, but with stock springs they are certainly not excessive. With lowering springs i'd imagine they'd feel much more stuff.

Considering OMP springs myself... Havn't made a firm enough decision to plunk the cash down. I also need to find out if my wheels and tire combo has the proper offset and size to be compatible with a 1.5+" drop. The rear wheels are already close enough to rub the wheelwell when the axle moves down on one side. Consider this type of thing if you upgrade your wheels/tires. The 240's dont have tons and tons of wheel space, as much as it looks like they do.

good luck!

-Nate