Volvo 480 Club Europe

I'm looking to do a complete overhaul on my ES suspension.

Am I best off going for 'turbo' items? I presume KYB's are generic 480 items and don't differentiate between normal ES' and turbo?

I'm also considering forking out and going for Bilstein or Spax, in this case, are there any differences between specs for ES or turbo?

Thanks for your help!

I have a Turbo but no idea what the difference is between suspension parts, if any.....

http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/volvo480/downloads.php

Maybe you can compare part numbers??

I would reckon as does James that the parts are the same. You can upgrade the spring ratings and spring length if you want to go lower. The big difference is that turbos have vented disk brakes.

TBH it wont make any difference unless you change the spring ratings. Oh and I am certain that I had trouble with bilstein rear shocks on one of my sons early 480s as it was slightly loose in the lower mount and when you drove the car you would hazve thought it was a bag of loose spnners in the back - very disconcerting. You would need to loof up the early pages of my diary thread to get more details.

My solution was to use a washer not very gratifying . I ended up just getting bog standard wherever was on the eurocarparts shelf suspension damper and I never had the problem again.

on the subject of springs again do a search of catgroom 's posts for about 4 years ago as he had a defintive post on spring colours and strengths.

there is a big mistake people make with suspension.
now what you are forgetting is that your old dampers i guess are decades old probably with substantial mileage on them. now given that its reckoned in the motor industry that dampers start to go down hill after 50 000 miles, some even reckon to keep it as was intended to replace at this mileage. you have gotten used to the feel of your caR and become to know the 480 suspension as it is now, which is well shot. just dont forget standard new dampers will be way firmer than they are now and dont forget that was lotus tuned in the first place and the car could pull 0.96g round corners (measured) which happens to be very good even by today.
on todays broken roads i doubt you will improve on lotus set up. Yes i have gone lowered with bilsteins and its easy to think its made a big improvement simply because there is a quite noticeable difference, but different doesnt neccesarily mean better, in fact i got on my nerves more because it was bumpy, something to consider if you do any long journeys, also less planted in corners on broken surfaces where it cant absorb it as well.
aftermarket lower springs are of crap quality and the paint will crack off right away and quickly start rusting your springs. also without knowing the rating of your dampers and springs you dont know they are properly matched, and guess work will not match the lotus setup. underdamped and it will be bouncy and poorly affect the handling, it will also overheat the dampers and wear them out faster. yes not many people consider, the energy that dampers absorb to firm your over a ton of car from bouncing and firm it up is turned into heat.
i changed my setup back to standard springs with boge standard dampers rear which will maybe slightly firmer, and was lucky to find some new koni red adjustable front at very cheap, they are brilliant. i didnt got mad and crank them up only made them slightly firmer and its very good. i reckon standard spring and dampers or aftermarket dampers at maybe 10% firmer if you believe their spiel is the best.

Good comments

Off topic a little: I got rid of my V70R cos the ride was too hard, the S70 is softer but much more useable on our lovely bumpy roads must be getting old

im turning into an old git. hard springs need smooth roads and i dont see many of those.

thanks for the replies people!

it's looking like an expensive job... all the bushes, new lower arms, shocks and springs are costly!! eeek.

...and that's just for stock replacemennts, I was considering upgrading.

might be better off trying to find a donor car with recent suspension changes... needle in a haystack anyone? lol

Hi Aron,

I have been thinking the same as yourself regarding using turbo suspension on my Celebration, my suspension is pretty tired but added into the fact I hammered a fresh pothole just last week and this has left me with a nasty rattle from my N/S shock.

I was wondering if you got any further with this?

I was considering using turbo suspension as I had seen a post on here some time ago claiming that turbo suspension was 15mm lower than standard, does anybody know if this is the case? I don't want to drop to the 40mm that I only ever see advertised as I do want to keep a level of comfort, I use the car as my daily transport to work

Thanks