Four in fact:
All well hidden of course. After getting some help with a suck nut (that I managed to turn into a nice circle), I completed the task today getting the passenger side strut installed. These are Bilstein Performance B6 shocks and struts, which are probably overkill, but back before the stock market tanked I had money burning a hole in my pocket. I had considered going with the B8s and lowering, but there seems to be agreement that there’s no safe way to get the rear springs out, short of an expensive dealer visit. I also remembered that there’s already one nearby road I can’t drive on because there’s a speed bump that scrapes at stock height, and going lower seems like a poor choice since that speed bump has friends.
I had been concerned about how necessary this was, since the shocks and the driver’s side strut seemed to be in good shape, working well, with just a little surface rust (though the driver’s side upper spring seat was cracked, a common problem on these, and the real reason I was doing this). However, the passenger side strut stack was a mess, with a heavily corroded and somewhat crunchy strut bearing, a cracked upper spring seat, a completely missing bump stop (the driver’s side one was worn, and no longer hooked into the plate above it, but still mostly there), and a torn dust boot. Most importantly, the strut itself was totally done:
The plastic top piece was cracked and bent, and as you can see, oil had leaked everywhere. Not surprisingly if you depress the top of the piston, it doesn’t come back even a mm. I wonder how long it’s been like that? My PPI said that all four corners needed to be done, but two different Volvo specialists disagreed, so maybe this is a newer development, though I’ve never been happy with how the car handled rough bits of road.
In any event, look at that pretty yellow:
