Wheel wobble - any thoughts?
 

For a little while now I've had some wobble from the front wheel(s). It was very accute when towing under higher power up hill - lead me to believe it was more like axle tramp.

Anyway, I noticed the front control arm bushes were very soft, so I replaced both control arms, inc. bushes and lower ball joints. Things were much improved, but still not right.

About this time, I investigated getting my alloys refurbed. Was advised that one or more had a buckle on the face and could not be recovered. Instead, I've now fitted new alloys with new tyres. Did both front wheel bearings at the same time. I was expecting this to fix things, but there is still some wobble. It is at higher speed, e.g. 60+ on motorway, worse when on power, but still there a bit on overrun.

Could there be an issue with the dampers, the upper strut mounts or something else? There's not too much left!

By the way, the car is 2007 Mk3 V70 D5 auto with 120k.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.

David.

I'm getting flashbacks!!!

I had a wheel wobble after replacing my tires earlier this year.

1) I put the new tires on used rim that I had not tested before and found that I had a pretty severe wobbling about 50kph. I asked the tire shop to rebalance the tires...wobble persisted. I called my friend who works at the parts counter at the local dealership and he set me up with some hub-centric rings due to the small difference in hub size. This definitely helped but did not cure the problem altogether.

I cursed myself for purchasing the used rims and replaced the rims with some new aftermarkets AND the hub rings. Problem persisted.

I brought the vehicle back to the tire shop (a very good shop I might add) and they told me not to worry and that they would take care of me. they re-indexed the tires on the wheels and rebalanced. Problem gone.

Moral of my story: there's more to tire balancing than you think! I might be tempted to get my hands on 2 front wheels that are known good. See if replacing those does the trick.

Mine had a slight wobble around 70mph (it was like this when purchased 2nd hand).

I had new tyres fitted, wheels balanced and 4-wheel alignment, but the wobble was still there.

So I changed the front brake rotors and pads, and that solved it :)

Thanks for the reply guys.

I guess I could have a badly fitted tyre(s).

Also, brake rotors/discs are a good point. They are not that old though. Think I will try with the dial gauge and check for any run-out. This costs nothing and is quick to do (as opposed to other things to investigate).

Exchange front wheels with the rear and see if the problem moves or persists ?

If the wobble is worse when under power and tyres wheels etc prove ok it could be worn drive shafts . Brake discs usually only cause a wobble when braking .

I swapped one side front to back at the weekend and today was first real test, but no improvement. Will try the other tonight.

I've not checked the drive shafts. Will take a look at this. I'm assuming it can only be the CV joints that can be an issue, plus the intermediate bearing on the driver's side.

A quick update, as I know it's annoying when people don't report back as to how they got on.

Well, I diagnosed a very worn inner CV joint on the driver's side. Holding the gearbox end of the driveshaft stationary, there was significant movement of the brake disc. So needed replacing.

Volvo quoted £472 for the part alone. No thanks.

None of the motor factors, inc. ECP stock these, perhaps due to low volume of these cars on the road or not enough old enough to fail.

Anyway, driveshaft, complete with inetermediate shaft has now gone off to be renewed/re-manufactured. Should be back in a couple of days. So will let you know how it goes.

Similar issue here, did the new shaft cure it?