Hey all, I just bought an '88 240 DL. Proud to be a Volvo owner! I have one thing I need to fix on it, however. Around 45-50mph I start to get a pretty intense vibration in the right-front wheel. Now, it does need new tires up front as well as an alignment, so I plan to get that done and am wondering if that would fix it.

But I think it might be something more, and I'm having trouble diagnosing what that might be. I had it up on jackstands the other day, and there is some play in the wheel. But I can't figure out if that means it is the ball joints, tie rod ends, or wheel bearings. As far as I can tell, it could be any of them (although, I don't have any grinding noise or anything so maybe not the bearing?).

So should I just get the tires and alignment and see what happens? I'd kind of like to figure out if it's more because if I then have to replace, say, the ball joints, I'm going to have to shell out for another alignment. Any advice?

 

You might want to swap the fronts with the backs and see if it follows the tire.

 

Thanks for the tip. I did that tonight. Also noticed that the tie rod ends are pretty worn, so I'll be ordering replacements.

 

I was just about to type tie rod ends. They can make wheels that are tolerably well balanced behave like unwieldy monsters.

Regards, Andrew.