I’m a wanderer, oooohhh a wanderer

[Mrs Wez]

Ok folks. Our local dealer has tried everything to stop our car wandering.
Can we have your ideas on what could be causing it.
I can tell you what has been changed so far.
Tyres. Made some difference. But not eliminated it completely
Front hub
Rear arm.
Moving the wheels front to back caused the steering wheel to move 1/16th of turn around which blew their minds. There is some damage to front of the vehicle so I’m thinking it may be more hidden. The dealer has been fantastic in trying to resolve this. They can’t find anything that is wrong. It literally wanders. You can feel it moving left and right. I cover 35/40k a year and have never had a car do this. I had one that pulled hard one way at speed but not when slow. New tyres cured this. Tramlining.

The new tyres on the car have helped a lot. But it’s still moving around. We have owned the car 3 1/2 months they’ve had car 8 weeks. We have had to pay out for the tyres, a Towbar and electrics. We tow caravan with the car long distances. It’s very tiring balancing the car and van together.

Currently tracking down previous owner to find out what he did to the car

[id5]

Originally Posted by Mrs Wez

Ok folks. Our local dealer has tried everything to stop our car wandering.
...

Some questions that may help people help you to find out what is wrong.

When the car wanders is the steering wheel forced to move at the same time or is the steering wheel stationary? Does it happen when accelerating, at a constant speed, deaccelerating or all three? Also what type of car and engine is it?

[Chief inspector]

Someone else had this issue, they found swarf in the PAS reservoir and had to change the steering rack, followed by a Hunter 4 wheel alignment.

Like you they went through all the tyres and wheel alignment and 2 dealers before getting a result.

[Mrs Wez]

Thanks for replies folks.

It’s 2012 v60 d3. 35k on clock.
Feels to happen most of the time. Worse at speed
At first it feels fine but as car warms up I do feel it’s worse.


How would you go about looking for swarf in the pas?

[id5]

Originally Posted by Mrs Wez

Thanks for replies folks.

It’s 2012 v60 d3. 35k on clock.
Feels to happen most of the time. Worse at speed
At first it feels fine but as car warms up I do feel it’s worse.


How would you go about looking for swarf in the pas?

Easiest way would be to replace the power steering reservior and see what is in the bottom or in the fluid.

If there is 'some damage to front of the vehicle' then I would suspect that it may not have been put back together correctly. What is the damage and by dealer do you mean local Volvo dealer or just a local garage? If the dealer cannot spot what is wrong it might be worth having a full alignment check as this can also help to spot problems. It will also let a different mechanic look through the steering, suspension, etc whilst they are doing the checks, they might see something that your local dealer hasn't seen.

[Tannaton]

What size of wheel/tyre does the car have and what make of tyre did you buy for it?

Did you buy the car from a main dealer ? If so just reject it, if it has a problem that they acknowledge and cannot sort - just bounce it back. Clearly it’s not acceptable and this is far from the experience you should expect from owning a low mileage 4 year old Volvo.

On that basis they should also agree an amicable position on what you have spent on the towing kit.

[Mrs Wez]

Originally Posted by id5

Easiest way would be to replace the power steering reservior and see what is in the bottom or in the fluid.

If there is 'some damage to front of the vehicle' then I would suspect that it may not have been put back together correctly. What is the damage and by dealer do you mean local Volvo dealer or just a local garage? If the dealer cannot spot what is wrong it might be worth having a full alignment check as this can also help to spot problems. It will also let a different mechanic look through the steering, suspension, etc whilst they are doing the checks, they might see something that your local dealer hasn't seen.

It’s had about 4/5 wheel alignments done. After each bit of the car was replaced they took it down.
Main dealer.

[Mrs Wez]

It’s 6 year old, but still is not what we should be experiencing. We have Avon zv7 235/45/17. It’s the option tyre. 215/50/17 is the other size listed for the car.
The car was fitted with 225/45/17 by dealer. As this is what was on the car originally when they got the car

[AndyV7o]

Originally Posted by Mrs Wez

It’s had about 4/5 wheel alignments done. After each bit of the car was replaced they took it down.
Main dealer.

The post was referring to body alignment, not wheels. The wheel alignment can check out ok even with the body being out of true, infact its possible that correct wheel alignment could exacerbate the problem, or rather make it fully evident.
People can repair damage and make everything technically good, but if the chassis alignment hasnt been checked, and the car is distorted, no amount of wheel alignment ir suspension components will fix it. Sometimes chassis' can be forced back true, but more often than not, once its bent, its bent, hence the other advice to return it.
If you bought it knowing it was accident repaired that might bring complications to returning it, but if you found out afterwards then you have more than reasonable grounds to reject. If they knew and didnt tell you at time of purchase, then they should compensate regarding the towing kit as you would not have invested had they been upfront.

[id5]

Originally Posted by AndyV7o

The post was referring to body alignment, not wheels. The wheel alignment can check out ok even with the body being out of true, infact its possible that correct wheel alignment could exacerbate the problem, or rather make it fully evident.
...

As AndyV70 has said my post suggested a full alignment check. A chap at work brought a car that had been in a accident where it had rode the end of a low wall or something similar. It had been repaired without the insurance being invlolved, looked fine, had all the bits, everything worked but had similar problems to yours due to a slight curvature in the chassis from left to right.