Hey fellow Volvo owners!

My wife's 2005 S40 T5 AWD with 92k miles has been acting strangely lately.

Symptoms:
- When going over a bump, there's a loud single clunk noise coming from the front right.
- When accelerating hard, there's a sort of grinding noise coming from the same place. The grinding noise sounds like a the single clunk when going over bumps, but consistent until I stop accelerating hard.
- No noise occurs when turning the wheel sharply in either direction (like I'd expect if a CV axle was bad)
- No abnormal deceleration or pull in any direction when I take the foot off the gas (like I'd expect if a bearing was bad)
- I took the front right wheel off and found nothing obviously wrong. No bushings looked worn.
- No abnormal wear on the tire, it's even on both sides of the tire. (Like i'd expect if maybe the alignment was off and causing the wheel to rub on something).
- No indication anywhere of anything rubbing against anything.
- I grabbed the CV axle and it moved maybe 1/8 of an inch and made a slight clicking noise, but I think that's normal. Also, the wheel moves about 2 inches when the transmission is in park. I think that's normal, too.
- The ONLY thing that looked odd was there was a 3 inch dent in the strut. But, I wasn't able to see any obvious break in the metal, nor did I see anything leaking fluids of any kind.

WHAT IS VERY ODD, is after I took the wheel off to look at it, and put the wheel back on, I am now only able to reproduce the noise if I go over a bump. Accelerating no longer causes the noise.

So...what the heck is wrong with my Volvo?

Thank you all so much in advance for any pointers/advice/pizza!!

 

Sounds like the right side engine mount is bad.

 

+1

Mine was doing the same thing. When I removed the mount it was split in two at the rubber.

 

OK I'm going to attempt this myself. Have any tips for doing this by myself in my garage?

I plan on following this guide from a different forum: HowTo: How to replace top passenger side motor mount

It mentions it being the "top passenger side motor mount". Was this the same exact mount you replaced in order to resolve the problem?

Thanks so much!!

 

That is it. Mine looked almost identical to the picture posted. The rubber had completely split in two and wore away so that it was metal-on-metal. It's really easy. Just remember to support the engine underneath with something like a block of wood so you do not damage the oil pan.

 

Yep, that's exactly what the problem was. The car now drives sooooo much more smoothly and quietly, I'm actually amazed quite a bit. Seriously though, not only is the grinding and clunking gone, but the thing drives quieter and smooth.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for pointing me in the right direction!!!

On the left is the original mount broken into two pieces (it was broken before I removed it) and the right showing the new part.



To anyone else finding this post, yes, if your symptoms match what I posted in my first post, replace your upper motor mount.