Waiting for Spring(s)

"PowderHound" (PowderHound) 04/23/2020 at 21:20 • Filed to: None

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The rest of the struts came today. Kind of weird that the fronts are compressed and the rears aren’t. I’m reusing a few things from old struts like bump stops, upper rubber and metal seats, and conical washers. I was going to reuse the lower spring seats but they were further gone than expected. Easy $20 for piece of mind. I’ll need to shave down the rear bump stops a tiny bit, about a 1/4",  to get rid of some wear and probably not the worst idea with going lower. Springs, rear top hats, and a washer to make the 04 springs work with 03 struts should show up tomorrow. At a bit of a standstill until then although it hit me that I will probably need to get some camber bolts for the rear to get them in spec…

I have four of these tiny screwdrivers used for adjusting the struts themselves

facw > PowderHound 04/23/2020 at 21:40

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I’m not changing my springs, but I am waiting for it to be above 60 before I go change the shocks and struts. Want it nice out so I can take my time.

PowderHound > facw 04/23/2020 at 21:46

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What is it you are changing the struts on? It’s been pleasant outside but also since most of the parts are new I don’t mind assembling inside then going to install mid day. Getting them on will be “easy” it’s the rough alignment before going to the shop that will be tricky for me

facw > PowderHound 04/23/2020 at 21:56

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Volvo S60. Have Bilstein B6s going in, and will be replacing anything made of rubber in the assemblies, since at 14 years old and spending most of it in the Texas heat, I imagine the rubber bits aren’t doing so well. I know the upper spring seats have separated, which is a common problem on these in any climate.

I’m not lowering or doing anything else that should significantly alter the suspension geometry, so while I will get an alignment done afterwards, what I’ve read has indicated to me that things shouldn’t be wildly out of position. I imagine it’s a much bigger problem if you are lowering the car, but hopefully still manageable. I was looking at getting shorter springs and Bilstein B8s to lower mine, but then I remembered that there are some huge speed bumps around here (one I can’t go over without scraping at stock height), and I learned that apparently there’s no safe way to get the rear springs out without some super expensive spring compressor. I could pay a shop to do them, but I’m already spending more than I want. The “at home” methods I saw seemed incredibly sketchy.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > PowderHound 04/23/2020 at 22:28

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Had a front spring break on my MINI last week backing out of the garage