My $500 Volvo is having its first problem! Im a cheap bastard and CANNOT afford to take it to the shop, so im hoping with all of your combined years of wisdom this board can help me out.

Its a 1982 240DL wagon, and the steering is starting to intermittently "jiggle."

It feels as if the front left tire is flat or the wheel is wobbling around, but it's not, and the car drives straight.

It makes a thump thump thump noise when it happens.

If I go for a short drive around town, it usually starts a mile or two into driving and is persistent, but if I get up to highway speeds the problem goes away. I did a 240 mile trip on Sunday with no problems, except for the first ten minutes before I got on the highway.

What gives? Im thinking its a bad stabilizer rod:

http://www.carpart...lh_.html?3593=1126

The rod below the rubber bushing seen here:



(someone elses photo)

for reference this is what the steering rack looks like, though I doubt it is to blame.

are your bolts tight?

Tie rod ends?

BRB I'll get some photos of my actual car... here I am trying to diagnose without actually having looked at it

1. The wheel is straight, my local used tire place put all four on a balancer about 2 weeks ago. The nuts were tight before I took the wheel off.



2. The stabilizer looks straight, and all the bolts are tight. Its about time for some new brake pads too.



3. The shock and springs look good too, but the rubber cover is starting to crack and peel away



4. The steering control arm isn't bent, and the bolt is tight



5. The tower bolts are tight too:



What else should I check?

P.S. It feels like braking with a warped rotor

wheel bearings?

(just a guess)

It wont have anything to do with the stabilizer bar, thats just for roll and pitch. You can actually drive with it disconnected from the control arms and the ride should be smooth in a straight line.

Id first look at tie rod ends with the wheels on the ground. Wheels need to be on the ground to provide strain on the steering parts. You say its like braking with a warped rotor, so look at the caliper for sticking. I cant believe im looking at a solid rotor in those pics. You should have those replaced with vented rotors.

Id laugh if the tire shop did a shitty balancing job. It could be as simple as that.

Posted by big dave No stabilizer bar = smooth sailing Id laugh if the tire shop did a shitty balancing job. It could be as simple as that.

Good to know about the stabilizer. Im a young guy and Im still learning the tricks of the trade. In my opinion, its too intense of a wobble to just be a wheel balancing problem.

I'm going to go with wheel bearings - although the wheel doesn't jiggle by hand when it's on a jack, it seems to be the most likely culprit and the easiest/cheapest to fix. I rotated the wheels about an hour ago, and its still isolated to the front left. A quick google search of "wheel bearing symptoms" comes up with all of the problems Ive been having.

Solid rotors = bad? I had solid rotors on the other cars Ive owned - Buick Lesabre and a Ford Windstar. With parts from http://www.vlvworld.com/ I can put on new vented Brembos with new pads for about $165 in parts. I'll do that once the pad squealers start to make themselves heard.

If you put your hands at 12:00 on either front wheel and push/pull hard there should not be much or any play. Then do this at 3 and 6 O'clock. This can be done without jacking the car up. This test is for bearings and front end stuff, and is from an old classic VW repair manual. Your car being rwd should be sort of similar. At least you don't have any CV joint issues.

How to keep your Volkswagen Alive. John Muir Publications.

Posted by A. Lien If you put your hands at 12:00 on either front wheel and push/pull hard there should not be much or any play. Then do this at 3 and 6 O'clock. This can be done without jacking the car up. This test is for bearings and front end stuff, and is from an old classic VW repair manual. Your car being rwd should be sort of similar. At least you don't have any CV joint issues. How to keep your Volkswagen Alive. John Muir Publications.

actually this is still taught.
jack the car up enough where the wheels are off the ground to do this.
if the wheel wiggles with you shoving at 3 and 9, tie rod/steering related.
if it wiggles with shoving at 6 and 12, ball joints.

always worked for me...

see above two posts. Basic front end testing. 12 & 6 wiggle, 3 & 9 wiggle.




Louie, don't discount the seriousness or impact of an unbalance wheel as not being possible. An unbalanced wheel or two can make a car shake like a son of a bitch.

My truck is currently on the verge of being undriveable because the tires are out of balance.

I just did the wiggle check -

Zero movement at 12 and 6, and about 3-ish mm of play at 3 and 9.

Since it's RWD there are no CV joints... if I read right, its the ball joints now? Im tempted to replace the wheel bearings just to be safe. Should I be looking at other steering parts like the steering rack and tierods, or is that overkill?

When the wheel bearings went on a couple of my cars, I knew it by sound, not feel. It makes a very loud, grinding type of sound.

Posted by big dave My truck is currently on the verge of being undriveable because the tires are out of balance.

my 96 Beretta has a wicked vibration because the bushings on the rear pivot of the control arm are shot, gone, history, a memory... hitting the brakes is such a joy when the whole front end starts knocking back and forth.

Crappy tires? I've bought cheap tires before and regretted it 4000 miles in. Like Dave said, I've also had tires "balanced".

My sister's '92 240 does this too, and there's no front end play at all. It has cheap tires on it, so I just chalk it up to that.

i forgot to ask, how are the tires wearing?

Posted by Samurai i forgot to ask, how are the tires wearing?

The front left is worn on the outer edge, the other three have even wear. Its needed an alignment since I bought the car, and only now is it giving me real trouble.

Im going to take it to my old neighbor's place tomorrow or friday and take the whole left suspension apart... hes an unemployed/retired mechanic. Im 90% sure a new tie rod end and ball joint will fix this problem

Yes, hands at 3 and 9. (News is still at 6:00 though?) Damn Aspergers, or something

I'm glad cars still can be communicated with by a good shaking from their owner.

When buying a used car, I've often seen the rear tires have a weird half worn out pattern on one side. This is usually because they were rotated straight back from the front, where the wear happened. Probably a week before they decided to sell. Obvious stuff, but it's easy to get excited by a low price and forget to check things. And a good way to get nice even whored tires up front...