Volvo Community Forum. The Forums of the Volvo Owners Club

Forum Rules Volvo Owners Club About VOC Volvo Gallery Links Volvo History Volvo Press
Go Back   Volvo Owners Club Forum > "Technical Topics" > S80 '98-'06 / S60 '00-'09 / V70 & XC70 '00-'07 General

Notices

S80 '98-'06 / S60 '00-'09 / V70 & XC70 '00-'07 General Forum for the P2-platform S60 / V70 / XC70 / S80 models

Information
  • VOC Members: There is no login facility using your VOC membership number or the details from page 3 of the club magazine. You need to register in the normal way
  • AOL Customers: Make sure you check the 'Remember me' check box otherwise the AOL system may log you out during the session. This is a known issue with AOL.
  • AOL, Yahoo and Plus.net users. Forum owners such as us are finding that AOL, Yahoo and Plus.net are blocking a lot of email generated from forums. This may mean your registration activation and other emails will not get to you, or they may appear in your spam mailbox

Thread Informations

Suspension refresh at 135k

Views : 1708

Replies : 20

Users Viewing This Thread :  

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old Jun 14th, 2021, 14:54   #21
ilmiont
VOC Member
 

Last Online: Today 16:57
Join Date: May 2020
Location: Oxfordshire
Default

The new shocks are finally in the car and I've been about 500 miles on them. I can now provide some description of the new feel, for those in this thread who said their cars felt similar to mine.

They ended up going in just before 137k; PartsForVolvos were extremely helpful in replacing the defective rear shock, but it took a while as they had to get more stock.

Was it worth it... yes.
Is it transformed... yes.
Is there still further room for improvement... I think so.

Remember I've only had shocks and drop links.

The primary issue I was addressing was the perception of crashiness on rough/uneven surfaces. That has been vastly improved.

The thump-thump-thump is gone completely. The ride is much more supportive and the car glides softly along. Minor bumps appear in my vision, I hear the tyre drop into them, but feel nothing at all. Bumps I know well have disappeared entirely.

Tyre noise is also reduced, presumably because they're no longer bouncing up and crashing back down all the time. The overall feeling is of greater stability and support. Body roll around bends is considerably reduced.

It's much more enjoyable and relaxing to drive. The whole car feels tighter. It was definitely worth doing.

As some said above, it's not a complete transformation though; there's still a degree of wallow and nose dip/lift. I should probably have had the springs done too, but I couldn't really budget for them just yet and it was the crashiness that I most wanted to resolve. That has been successful and the car feels much better for it; the ride's just so much more supportive than it used to be. I'll probably reconsider the springs next year.

I understand that some people consider the S60 ride to be a bit harsh and unforgiving and I will say it's definitely stiff and I notice it most over multiple successive bumps. I haven't been along a very poor surface yet - and don't really want to - but I suspect it would still be jarring. Overall I like the balance though; I've said it before and I'll say it again, a lot of people even on these forums seem to see the S60 as a bit of a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none car but truthfully I want that little bit of everything and it serves me very well.

I'm glad I chose the Sachs shocks; I wouldn't want it any stiffer than this. My car's mainly used as an all-day grand tourer for 300+ mile road trips so I'd prefer to bias the suspension slightly towards comfort. Although I've only done one such trip so far, it now feels like I've been wanting it to - smooth over worn surfaces, resilient to holes, drain covers, rumble strips, etc., stiff enough to feel secure in the bends.

Summary - worth doing, car feels much better for it, softer over bumps, stiffer in the bends, smoother overall, also much quieter.
__________________
2005 S60 2.5T SE (Manual, Magic Blue)
>170k miles.
ilmiont is online now   Reply With Quote
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to ilmiont For This Useful Post:
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 16:58.


Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.