I have an 1996 850 NA wagon with about 165K miles. Newer brakes and rotors all around, half-shims under the pads, newer inner and outer tie rods, newer struts and mounts. Recently I've noticed that when I pull up to a stop sign I get a slight shimmy — a vibration in the front end. If I shift to neutral before stopping it disappears. It's more in the annoyance category than a problem at the moment, but it has me wondering if this is the beginning of a transmission issue. Ideas?

 

Do you have any vibration under acceleration?
Maybe you have an inner joint on one of your axles starting to go bad.

 

You might also want to check the motor, transmission mounts.

 

Thanks. I'll start with the mount theory. Now that I think of it, there's also a rattling sound at low speeds while accelerating, which I suppose could be the engine shaking around.