How Do You Say "Unicorn" in Swedish? 1998 Volvo S70 T5 Manual

[Jake]

Alright so we got it all fixed up. New radiator, new end links up front, new pads/rotors all around. Added a GROM Bluetooth unit to the factory head unit, which takes the place of the CD changer in the trunk but gives me a totally stock look with Bluetooth streaming (and calls, if I run the microphone somewhere). It works great and the factory audio system bangs. Nothing is blown out and it will rattle the mirrors at highway speed. Nuts.



Took some time last Friday to pull the suspension all apart and replace the front struts, rear shocks, and all four tophats/bearings/whatever you call them.

First of all, the Koni Yellows were all rusty and nasty:



All three of them were crumbling as we removed them. This one pictured is the front right and it was the worst. The front left had been replaced with a no-name strut about 30k miles ago.

The front right strut bearing/tophat*had some pretty big play in it, which I suspect was the source of my consistent clunking noise over any road imperfection.

Ran into an issue with compressing the front springs to get the new stuff bolted together. Auto parts stores are not renting spring compressors due to COVID, but Zach had his own spring compressor that looks just like what you'd rent from AutoZone. It got the old struts apart, but could not extend tall enough to compress the springs back down. Turns out he had cut the threaded rods to allow them to fit on his Mk4 Jetta, years ago. Oops.

Some panic-calls later (this was 5 PM on Friday with my car in the middle of their two-car garage where two projects normally live) and I discovered Matt was still at work for the day at the local Volvo dealership. One of his techs was working late and said "bring 'em by" and assembled everything for free in about 10 minutes.



We got everything back together, I got the car aligned this morning (it's easy to knock the toe out when you pull the struts, I guess) and it's all back in the green now according to the printout. Noises are gone and it rides really well now on all new Sachs stuff.

Yay.