I am in need of some advice where to look, my 96 850 wagon has a terrible shake up front, and it's eating the outer edge of the driver's side tire. Yes, this would seem to point to a bad tie rod, but I've checked the tie rods and they are fine. I've also had it aligned, replaced the axles, and checked the control arms. The shake is bad when accelerating, and then is kind of intermittent at highway speed, seems to be really dependent on the road. Sometimes it's so bad the whole dash shakes violently. The only other symptom is when giving it gas from a stop, there feels to be something loose that is taking up slack. Not sure how to describe it, but there is kind of a torque feeling in the steering wheel, it's not huge but it is noticeable, and I think it may be related to the shaking issue. This must have been going on for a while, because the passenger rear tire is worn on the outer edge too, which would make sense because when rotated the front drivers side tire would end up there.

 

How long ago did you have it aligned ?? How many miles ago ??
Did it shake before the alignment and continued after the alignment ??
Is it still eating up the outer edge of the tire ??

It doesn't point to a tie rod end any more than it could be a bent strut or loose wheel bearing or belt separation inside the tire or bent rim. A tie rod will change toe and cause a tire to scrape a little sideways and you can feel that as the tires tread edges will "feather" in one direction. Us "old" guys used to feel tires to determine if an alignment was needed as indicated by that feel. The guy who did the alignment would be the one to question as he was under there and should have done an examination to see if the vehicle was in a good enough condition to align. Well ,,, that and to see what he could sell you before he did one. His desire to make money would likely have given you a better examination of your front end than a desire to keep you safe

Did they take it for a test drive? Did you mention the shake to them? I don't want to sound prickly but their ability to spot a bad component should be way more accurate than yours if you're only doing weekend repairs here and there. They do it every day and it made it past them.

The fact that it's eating only one tire makes me think you have a bent strut but it's not the only possibility and it should have been caught when it was aligned as it's the "Camber" angle that would have the most effect on that edge to wear and not "Toe" from a tie rod end.

 

Drive axle. How many miles on car?

 

You copied his post but you might have missed the part where he posts he's replaced the axles.

Hopefully they were new or rebuilt ??

 

My bad.

Still sounds like drive axles. Maybe the replacements were Chinesium.

Next best guess. Engine mounts.

Followed by: cheap tires, bent rims, ball joint, control arm bushings, steering rack bushings.

 

How do I check for a bent strut? I don't think it's a wheel bearing, I've been through that before and it doesn't feel like a bearing issue. I don't think the axles I put in are bad, considering the vibration was the same before and after replacement. I wouldn't think it would be a bad wheel or tire, considering it looks like the problem was present before the wheels were rotated and now is eating up the 2nd tire. This car is my spare car, so I don't have a lot of drive time on it, but my other car is getting repaired right now so I've been having to drive it more and this issue is really annoying. The odd thing is I take it to a reputable place to get it aligned, it's a mom and pop place I've gone to for years and they always do a great job. I thought the problem with the tire was due to it pulling to the right, but even after getting it aligned it pulls to the right. And the vibration is still there (not that I expected the alignment to fix that).

 

Once again, how many miles on the car?

Why the focus on a bent strut? The only part of the strut that can "bend" is the shock piston. This is an uncommon problem, imo.

How old/how many miles on the strut? If the struts are worn out this will allow an out-of-balance problem to become a severe vibration.

You need to be systematic about this. Carefully visually inspect tires for bumps and bulges and rims for bends. This is easy to do by jacking the car and spinning the wheel while visually inspecting both sides for asymmetry as the wheel rotates. If you have older Continental tires they may be contributing to the problem even if they look good.

What axles did you put on the car? The cheap Chinese axles can be as bad out of the box as the worn Volvo axles you took off. Install only high quality rebuilds from raxles.com or similar.

 

I would take it back to the shop and just tell them about the problem you are having with it eating the edge off the tire. It might be that the alignment is set correctly when the wheel is straight ahead but changes due to a bent/bad part that changes the angle once you start turning.
I'm not good enough at alignments to know if there is a way to turn the wheels and know what angles you should have.
It sounds like the one wheel is changing camber beyond it's spec though.

 

So tonight I took the wheels off and switched them around to see if that makes any difference (haven't road tested it yet though). While I had access I looked over everything again, and everything looks good. I spun the wheels before taking them off and they are indeed round with no obvious issues. The only thing I could find that was even remotely worn looking was the front transmission mount. The rubber on the larger section looked okay, but on the smaller section it looked ripped. I put a flat head screwdriver in there and wiggled it around and the mount did move easily. But I am wondering if this mount could really cause so much vibration? It doesn't seem like it holds much weight at all from the transmission.

 

On an old car like yours there are probably several mechanical issues contributing to the problem. You just found one. Replace it and go from there.

 

I found the problem, it was the wheel apparently. Last night I switched the wheels from left to right, and this morning I could still feel the vibration but it's not in the steering wheel now, and it feels like it's coming more from the right side. Now the really odd thing is the car was pulling to the right before switching the wheels, now it's pulling to the left! The tires are the same brand, same size, and don't say anything about being directional. What would cause this? Could a tire be so out of balance that it could throw out the alignment at high speed too?

Edit: Well, just checked the tire pressure and it turns out the tire that is now on the drivers side was low, so that is probably the cause of the pulling to one side. Hopefully it's not also the reason why there is less vibration, I'd imagine less tire pressure would mask any issues, but we'll see on the drive home.

 

No. You obviously have cheap, low quality tires on this car. The Continentals found on many Volvos are prone to odd balance problems at speed. Buy a set of Michelins. And not the low end X-radials.

And fix the mechanical issues like the torn transmission mount.

 

You likely have a couple things causing the problems.

If the tire starts to come apart internally you may not be able to see it at first but it will run oddly causing pulls or vibrations once it's spinning faster and it can't hold it's shape. As the tire spins faster it's shape actually changes from the centrifugal force trying to rip it from the rim. The faster you drive the more it wants to collapse and get "thin". If you have a broken belt inside the tire then one area doesn't react the same as the rest of the tire and you get an out of round condition you might actually feel or might be so bad it shakes the hell out of your car.

Cheap tires are more likely to give poor performance but I bought a set of high end "Z" rated directional tires for my supercharged Thunderbird and ended up with a bad tire. It would pull and had a slight shake like a warped rotor would cause. I too had it aligned but it would still pull. I had changed tire diameter and width to a fatter smaller tire so part of the new feel I attributed to more rubber area on the road. The tires looked OK so I moved on. I took the brakes apart, spun the wheels, examined everything I could get to at least a couple times and never found anything and tried to live with it. One of the tires finally came apart with only 5K on it. I replace the set and it rides like a dream again. The car doesn't come out of the garage that often so it took almost two years to find the problem. Bad new tire. No way to really know for sure when it started but the way it looked I'm pretty sure it has a seperated belt inside it and may have come that way brand new.

Once you get the transmission mount replaced let us know how it "feels".

 

I think you are right about the tire. Last night I took it in to a tire shop to have the offending tire checked for balance. The guy said it wasn't too bad, said it was "50 or so out" (whatever that means), but I had him put that wheel/tire in the back anyway, and this morning there was very little vibration, and the small amount that was there may have been coming from the rear. I'll probably just leave it this way for now and not go replacing tires as I have bigger fish to fry with this car, the radiator needs replaced, and the timing belt is due.

 

Sway bar link?