I recently took my 2001 v70 non-turbo 140,000 miles to the mechanic that I have been going to for almost 15 years. They replaced both front struts and a bottom motor mount and the car felt great. A week later I was driving the car on the highway I noticed a vibration that I never had before the tires were recently new only about 8,000 miles on them and I never had a vibration issue before. The longer that I drove the vibration eventually turned into a thunking noise out of the front end and the steering wheel started shaking badly. I took it back to them and they admitted to me the left front lug nuts were not tightened properly they checked it out and told me there was no damage but now I have a bad vibration/shudder over 30 miles an hour that when I accelerate makes the car shake especially between 45 to 60 miles an hour. And now has a constant vibration the vibration gets noticeable worse the higher the speed. Could not tightening the lug nuts properly cause damage to the left front wheel any ideas?

 

I suppose it's always possible that a severely loose wheel could damage an axle or bearing that was on its way out anyway (lots of extra stress on both). The vibration you're seeing now certainly sounds like an axle, and at 140,000 miles, it's not at all unusual to be replacing them after they die from normal circumstances.

New Volvo axles are hideously expensive but last a loooong time, and new Chinese aftermarket axles are dirt cheap but might not last very long (if you can get Empi (Empire) axles, you might fare better). They're not very difficult to install, but you might be able to talk the shop into cutting you a better deal for having contributed to your car's problems.