OK, first of, I love this platform. It's one of the best laid out for maintenance I've worked on. We have an 07 S60 I got for me youngest daughter. This weekend I set out to change the front wheel bearings and shocks all round. The front was a joy to work on. Not one single stuck fastener, every is designed with service in mind.
The rear I have an issue. First off the rear shocks I got are wrong. I blame the FCP Euro site for that. I know I have the vehicle in as an AWD, not a FWD, but it managed to let me order the wrong parts. No matter, I'll swap them, that's not the issue.
All the pics and video's I've seen online all show the same thing for the upper strut mount access in the car. They all look like these screen grabs I took below.
Makes sense right? A three bolt upper mount that attaches to the floor pan with the shock rod coming up through the middle. No problem.
But look what I found when I went in, this is before noticing I had the wrong shocks.
Weird as berkeley right? It looks as if it's too far forward in the vehicle and someones added another single hole and bolt to hold it. That doesn't make sense though. The car has only had one prior owner since new. I know them, tangential friend we see a few times a year. Totally meticulous guy who either does things himself or goes to the dealer, so no dodgy hack mechanic. Also it's never had the shocks or struts replaced. They are all original 100k miles, hence the fronts were shot and I figured I'd do all four at the same time. So what's going on here? I can find no reference to the procedure being different between the FWD and AWD. Did this somehow get borked up at the factory? IS there some model year change that I'm not aware of?
One more thing, the car has a rake to it as can be seen below, I figured it was the front springs sagging. But maybe it's something borked up at the rear. What should I look for / at?
TIA
First thing that came to mind was accident damage. But that would have been known. Are any of the suspension parts bent? Are both sides the same?
It looks like the original shock mounts, but moved rearward and only held in with a single bolt. The rusty stud in the middle of your home is one of the other mount studs that should be in one of the three mouse ears. The shock shaft is peaking out from the bottom of the big hole.
I'd wager that a dealer hack did it wrong and that's why it has a rake. It's screwed up, fix it right.
Maybe you have the correct shocks and those "originals" are wrong?
Either way, it looks like you'll need to find some of those washer-looking things when you do fix this situation.
Edit: Is it me or are you missing more stuff? Like those aluminum upper mounts I've seen them use?
https://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?583373-Rear-shock-mount-and-body-cracked&s=efbd74d5a854a5ead0d6b0688dd70618
Edit of an edit: this shot looks very similar to yours doesn't it?
Woody
MegaDork
1/26/20 4:41 p.m.
What’s the other side look like?
In reply to ebonyandivory :
Wow. That looks exactly like mine. So it may be correct. I need to do some more digg. Thx.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
No problem. I was amazed when I found it.
Undo the one bolt up top, then undo the two bolts from under the car. Then, get a sturdy ratchet straps and connect it from the outside holes on the lower control arms, and pull the rear suspension down as far as you can. Take the bottom bolt off the shock, and weasel the unit out the bottom of the car. The spring then has to be compressed and switched to the new shock.
Assembly is the opposite of removal.
Bad day on the assembly line? I've seen weirder...
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Streetwise, is that the recommended way to do the AWD version or is that your assumption?
I know I can take out the bottom bolt on the shock as I did that before I discovered the issue at the top. I see the method for the FWD cars is to just remove the lower bolt, remove the shock tun and drop it out. Here it is. It's an interesting joint. There is an internally threaded sleeve that passes all the way through the control arm. The lower shock mount slides over it, then the bolt goes into it.
What the hell is going on here? Why is every instructional video showing the same upper mount sheet metal and bolt pattern but the shocks are dead-center and not offset like yours?
I've gone and posted on the 'R' subforum over at Swedespeed as a) it get's more traffic than the base S60 forum and b) all R's are AWD and the pic ebonyandivory posted came from there. Hopefully I'll have my answer in a few hours.
https://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?614799-Rear-shock-replacement-Q-s&p=7502905#post7502905
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
Done dozens. If you undo the bottom bolt, and the top shaft nut, it will fire the shock out and break your arm. In the picture, you can see the stamped hole in the bottom of the lower control arm. That is where you install the come along or big ratchet strap to pull down the suspension. Then one bolt up top, two from under, bring out the shock/spring/mount assembly. It's a bit of a squeeze, but that's the way its done.
Its also important to clock the spring and top hat to the bottom bolt when you re assemble. They don't rotate well once its together, and you need all the bolt holes to line up.
And by big ratchet strap, I mean a two inch unit used to tie cars onto trailers, not a one inch unit for holding a tarp.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
What do you attach the other end of the ratchet strap too to pull down, the ground somehow?
Adrian_Thompson said:
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
What do you attach the other end of the ratchet strap too to pull down, the ground somehow?
The opposite sides control arm. You can do both shocks at the same time.
Streetwiseguy said:
Adrian_Thompson said:
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
What do you attach the other end of the ratchet strap too to pull down, the ground somehow?
The opposite sides control arm. You can do both shocks at the same time.
Ooo, I like that. Much better than what's being recommended on Swedespeed.
That looks sketchy as berkeley!
The ratchet strap method is actually called out in the service manual for pulling the front control arms down.
PS - It's weird seeing your name without Danger Mouse and Penfold attached
Knurled. said:
The ratchet strap method is actually called out in the service manual for pulling the front control arms down.
PS - It's weird seeing your name without Danger Mouse and Penfold attached
Yup. Someone on Swedespeed posted a pic with the rematch strap between the two LCA's
Bork, what's happened to DM and Penfold. I can see them. I better call Colonal K, I bet old Greenback is up to his old tricks again what!
OK, so the correct shocks and new flex lines are on their way. Could this be moved to the builds section and the title changed to 'Daughters 07 Volvo S60' or something so I can keep this as a build/history thread?
