Steering vagueness and wandering

I've only read the first & last pages of this thread, so apologies if it's been mentioned before, but there's an interesting thread & poll here -

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...717#post196717

on the tramlining story.

Tinpusher.

[George K]

I have had my S60 D5 since Jan 2001 and have covered nearly 90,000 miles. For the first year I struggled with poor steering response, erratic turn-in and inconsistent directional stability. I then started to experiment with the geometry and found that the car is very sensitive to tracking - a lot of toe-in (40') seemed to help, but as you would expect did not help with tyre wear.

Ultimately I found that running exactly parallel - i.e 0.00' toe, improved matters a lot. I have also changed the camber to 1.00' negative and fitted Konis set at 3/4 turn from soft and these have all contributed to the story - however these improvemnts were not so significant as the alignment.

The other factor is that the steering behaviour does vary between tyres. It is on 225/45 x 17 and was supplied on Conti sport 1 which were not very special. PZR were much better, but deteriorate in the wet when half worn. Goodyear F1 were very quiet and good in the wet, but poor steering response until down the last 2 or 3 mm - appalling wear. Michelin PS2 were a very good all round compromise. However, totally off the wall I was introduced to Hankook for my hill climbing car, and this led me to try the Hankook S1 Evo which as been a revelation with superb steering response and excellent wear -average for noise and ride - no worse than the PZR - and quite cheap through mytyres.

Hope this is all of some help. The tracking is the cheapest solution and porbably the most effective- and of course 0.00 is great for tyre wear.

[Roger Jennings]

I have just collected my 2006 D5 back from the local dealer after taking it back for some warranty work amongst which was a complaint that there seemed to be a whine coming from the back of the car which was speed related. They thought it might be a wheel bearing going but upon investigation they reported as follows:
"Carried out a 4 wheel steering alignment check and adjustment. The fronts were o.k. but the rears had too much 'toe-in'. The rear tyres were wearing in a stepped manner on the inside edges, we have changed the rear wheels from side to side to reverse the rotation which reduces the noise level produced by tyres when they wear in this manner. The front tyres will require replacement soon as they are only just above the 2mm wear indicators"
The car has done 15500 miles on the original P6000's but at least it now seems not to want to pull to the nearside. This is all after it being returned for the wandering/pulling/tramlining complaint previously. So now it looks like scouring the threads for the best tyre recommendations.

[George K]

Roger, It could well have been that the excessive rear toe-in was not equal on each side, this would contribute to the wandering problem, as a creates what is known as an offset thrust angle. Tyres - see my post - I have had many miles in which to experiment and would buy the Hankook in preference to any of the main brands, even in V or Z rating.

[Roger Jennings]

Hi George,
Many thanks for the info. I had not considered Hankook's, partly because they were not listed when I looked on blackcircles, however I will try my local tyre dealers to see if they can get the the S1 Evo. I had considered Michelin or Goodyear but I need to get in excess of 20k out of them if possible. I find it annoying when I used to get 40 - 60k out of Michelins on previous 740's. Whilst I do a fair number of miles per annum, 25k typical, the majority of them are on motorways or dual carriageways so to be at 2mm after 15k is somewhat alarming!

[t2evo]

Are these problems to anyone's knowledge only related to the S60? I've a newer V70 (03) & compared to my previous v70 (R) it too has a slight wander, most often than not on heavily cambered roads, rather than motorways, that is other than all the other problems.

(http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=33104)

[George K]

I am told that Volvo have played with the alignment so as to avoid the dreaded tyre rubbing - I prefer to live with a bit of rubbing and optimise handling.

[Roger Jennings]

Up date:
Car now travelled 31,000 miles. Front tyres changed at 20k to Toyo Proxes T1-R which were put on the rear and resulted in some improvement however the last two P6000's, that were changed on to the front have now been changed to Proxes T1-R and although the ride is slightly harder the behaviour of the car has been transformed. At least it is now not subject to the tramlining or camber of the road and feels a lot safer to drive as I was really fed up with it always pulling towards the kerb. Shame it took so long to get there though. I see that the current S60 and V70's do not appear to be coming from Volvo with Pirelli's any more. Perhaps the message has eventually got through!

[bricklayer1807]

I've had my 2001 S60 2.4T for two years now and if I can't get this problem sorted out soon it's going to have to go. Just like many other posters on here, the problem initially disappeared when I had new tyres fitted (when I got the car it had Continental tyres fitted, I changed them for Goodyear F1s) but then it gradually crept back, so I put this down to the effect of the new tyres being 'new', i.e. the symptoms temporarily disappeared until the tyres bedded in. About six months ago my garage recommended changing the front wishbones/bushes, standard ones were used as at that time I'd not heard about the Powerflex alternatives. This was done but made no difference whatsoever. I've lost count of the times I've had the wheel alignment checked, more recently I took it to a place that can do all four wheels with the latest laser equipment. My experience is in these places that they offer a 'free' check, so they always find that something's a bit out so they can charge you for adjusting it! Lately the tramlining seems worse than ever, a long stretch of road in a local village has recently had a new gas main fitted, and driving over the filled-in trench is really quite scary, the car just pulls in all directions until the road is smooth again. So, two questions.. can previous posters who cured their problem by fitting different tyres confirm that the problem didn't return? And how sure could I be that fitting the Powerflex bushes will make a worthwhile difference? Any other ideas would be welcome.

[Chris_Rogers]

Originally Posted by Roger Jennings

I have just collected my 2006 D5 back from the local dealer after taking it back for some warranty work amongst which was a complaint that there seemed to be a whine coming from the back of the car which was speed related. They thought it might be a wheel bearing going but upon investigation they reported as follows:
"Carried out a 4 wheel steering alignment check and adjustment. The fronts were o.k. but the rears had too much 'toe-in'. The rear tyres were wearing in a stepped manner on the inside edges, we have changed the rear wheels from side to side to reverse the rotation which reduces the noise level produced by tyres when they wear in this manner. The front tyres will require replacement soon as they are only just above the 2mm wear indicators"
The car has done 15500 miles on the original P6000's but at least it now seems not to want to pull to the nearside. This is all after it being returned for the wandering/pulling/tramlining complaint previously. So now it looks like scouring the threads for the best tyre recommendations.

Wear on the inside tyre edge is due to too much toe out, not toe in. This will also contribute significantly to wandering.