my 98 awd R has developed a "bad bearing" type noise that seems to be coming from under the front center of the console area. It is only noticable on slow acceleration/deceleration, such as pulling away from (or up to a stop sign). Once a bit of speed is obtained (15 mph or so), it seems to disappear. It is not front drive axles or bearings as they are recent replacements. Car has 130 k on odo. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
thanks,
Mike

 

These cars are notorious for having drive shaft problems. The center bearing is probably shot. The only fix for this (that I know of) is to replace the drive shaft. Its around $1000. Sometimes the drive shaft's front CV joint can cause the low-speed vibration. There is a service kit available to replace the front CV.

The best way to diagnose this problem is to remove the drive shaft and drive the car. If the noise/vibration goes away, you've found the problem.

 

thanks for the info - not really what I wanted to hear. any "tricks" or precautions on the driveshaft removal?

 

I think he is referring to the angle drive that feeds power to the rear wheels.

mine failed at 190,000KMS which is close to the "normal" 185-200K's
unfortunately when converted to miles your is on the money for a failure.

If you can get it out quick there is a guy on swedespeed that can fix the bearings for alot less than a replacement unit from volvo.

My advice -dont drive it until it is sorted, I was on a country drive and was forced to continue home as I had family on board and no one could even diagnose what was going wrong -trip was only 400KMS (~250miles) cost me $2200 AUD to replace / exchange and my brother works for volvo spare parts!!!!.....

typically a bearing failure will present as a noise under accelleration or decellaration, if left unchecked will destroy the angle gears (like a little diff in the middle of the RHS driveshaft)

If its an auto then it runs the same grunt as the T5 anyway and the AWD system only spits 10% of the grunt to the rear of the car anyway (if everything works) meaning for arguements sake 250HP flywheel less transmission losses =20-25HP going to the back, split between two rear wheels = waste of time.

My advice- get a "normal" T5 rhs drive shaft, throw away the prop shaft, viscous coupling, rear diff and rear drive shafts.

Your "R" just became a T5.

Aleviates the tyre wear problem with AWD cars (feathering the treads and requirement to swap front to back every 3000 miles {this is done to aleviate different wheel speed front to back which can cause angle drive and viscous coupling failure}).

Take it from me, these are nice cars but making them better by removing failure points is a winning (albeit unconventional) idea.

I wish you luck -bolts holding the angle drive to the box can be hard to remove (ie snap off) and the angle drive oil costs more than liquid gold (over here $90 1L)

Karl

 

I had similar drive shaft problems with mine and it seems to be a fairly common problem with theses vehicles soo after trying a few different things I decided to replace the whole drive shaft and rather than spending $1200 !!! I ordered mine from Drive Shaft, Auto Parts, Driveshaft, Drive axle, Free shipping. I got the best price i could find anywhere which was not easy to do because i did not want to sacrifice quality! and with this option i definitley did not and best part is It was in stock. It only took a few days to get it in my hands and the shipping was free ! and that always helps. Finally after my drive shaft expierience i can say that the vibration and shaking that was driving me crazy is completely gone .