Good day everyone.

After 2 or 3 hours of driving on the highway at constant speed the steering wheel will pull to the right a little over 1/16 of one turn. It'll do this at the rate of the speed we're going. If we're going 70 it'll feel like more of a pulsing vibration that pulls the car to the right. If I'm coming to a stop, the pulls will slow as the car slows. It won't do it if I'm accelerating. It won't do it if I'm coasting. Once it starts doing it, I can make the car do it if I hold speed steady on flat roads or use cruise on flat roads.

A tech and I figured it was the ABS because I also keep getting a faulty brake pedal sensor error on that computer. So yesterday when it began doing this I pulled into a gas station and removed the ABS fuse. The ABS light on the dashboard came on but the problem persisted.
If removing the fuse (ABS main supply) completely disengages the ABS from doing anything, then we can rule it out, right?
If it isn't the ABS, is there a way the transmission can be delivering power to the wheels unequally and causing it to do this?

Ideas anyone?
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-Hector

Once it starts does it still happen when you put the car in neutral and coast? If so I would suspect a dragging brake shoe.

You mentioned this happens after driving awhile, and one wheel was found to be warmer than the other when this happens (warm one on the side it pulls to?). This sounds like the caliper is sticking slightly, but people with a lot more experience than I are going down the hub route. Maybe I missed a detail. Good luck and Merry Christmas.

Since it takes 2 or 3 hours before something happens, that tells me something is heating up and causing the problem...can you rule out a faulty Hub bearing or a sticky brake caliper? You might want to pull off the right wheel and take the caliper and brake pads off and see how the pads are wearing........Are your right side CV boots intact? How many miles on the car?

both hub bearings are new as of ~ 30k miles. CV's are also about that new. Car should have about 215,000 on the clock.

The brake wear sounds like a good idea to check. I'll do that soon.

One time that the car did this to me I checked temperature on wheels on both sides of the car and the right side was definitely a bit hotter but not by much.

So you're thinking the brakes are still the culprit?
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-Hector

If the CV's and Hubs only have 30K on them I wouldn't think they would be a problem. I would also check the steering rack inner tie rods....any loose play or leaks in the rack?

Did you put the hub bearings and CV's on? Just wondering if you tightened the hub bearings and CV outer locking nut to the proper amounts. My thinking is perhaps the hub is wobeling a bit.

I would have thought that the right hub is on too tight, so that after it heats up it will start to sieze up.

Klaus
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Proud owner of a 220S. If I had more room, I would have more Volvos.

Right......maybe not the hub itself but the carrier bearing cap that supports the passenger side CV shaft.....

Thanks for the input guys...

the hubs and the cv's were put on by two different independent shops. I know that the A arms have been replaced within about 50k miles so I think everything is nice and tight.
The steering rack also was replaced by an independent shop because it started leaking. That should have been at most 45k miles ago.

I e-mailed my independent mechanic and she said she suspects a CV joint since I'm not asking for torque when coasting.
This reminds me of something. When I first bought the car I had the the right CV axle replaced(I think it was the right one, I have to get home and check the paperwork). The previous owner had just had both of them replaced before I bought the car but the guy at Tire Kingdom who did the work put two left CV axles on the car and the right one was stripped (or something like that, it was 4 years ago) so I had to have that fixed.

If my memory is correct and it was the right one that I had replaced, is it possible that the keyed output part of the transmission (the splines?) have been damaged?
I don't know that that explains why this only begins happening once I've been driving it for several hours.

Hmmmm...
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-Hector

Good thinking, if the splines are worn too much the differential will cause the car to go nowhere and you will be motionless. Same it true for an axle that is not installed properly.

What you need is a real mechanic that knows his stuff and Volvos.

Klaus
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Proud owner of a 220S. If I had more room, I would have more Volvos.