Hey everyone. I'm a newbie to Volvo but am very happy to be a Volvo owner! Bought my '96 850 R Turbo with 126,700 private sale for about $2k, 50% of what BB Good value was. It has some exterior damage but the engine and trans run/work beautifully. Just had my mechanic replace the rack and pinion as he had recommended because it was cracked and leaking profusely. Prior to this fix, it drove like a champ! No alignment issues. Straight as an arrow. During the fix, my mechanic found that the frame has been "wrinkled" pretty bad on the driver side due to an accident in 2002(Carfax). He aligned it as far as he could to compensate for the frame damage and because of that, my steering wheel is cocked to the right somewhat like this \ when driving straight. Is there any way to take the steering wheel off and re-orient it? How much of a pain is this? The alignment is also off to where the tires are angled to the left slightly like this> \-\ so the tires will wear faster on the respective sides. Tires I'm not worried about. The steering wheel is just bugging the crap out of me. If I have to deal with it, then so be it. I wish I had just dealt with the leak but I nor my mechanic knew about the frae damage until well into the repair. I knew I was taking a chance buying this car but regardless of the frame problem, I still love the car! Questions, comments, suggestions welcome. Thanks!!!

Anthony

 

You can pull the steering wheel off and put it on straight, just make sure the airbag is disabled and you will have to rent a steering wheel puller from AutoZone or somewhere similar. But let me again stress the danger of the airbag deploying.

 

Ok. Not sure if I'm up to dealing with the airbag though. I know what damage those can do.

 

Honestly it sounds like your mechanic might not have been up to the job. I'd take it somewhere else for an alignment and see what they say

 

i agree. these cars seem difficult to align for some reason.

 

You're gonna need to take it to a frame shop where they can fix it correctly and do a four wheel alignment. Not getting it fixed properly will eat tires and make it unsafe to drive; seriously.

BTW: don't need a puller for the steering wheel; it will slide right off the splines once the nut is removed. But yes; be careful of SRS; disconnect the battery while doing this or you will set a code (or worse ).