Hi All,

A friend's 98 S70 T5 has developed a very odd alignment problem. The problem is actually a "PULL" problem while the wheel alignment is perfectly fine.

-When driving forward, the car pulls hard to the left and you have to fight it to make it go straight.

-When driving backward, the car pulls hard to the rear right (as if you are turning the steering wheel to the right).

As I mentioned above wheels were aligned and re-aligned with no solution. Wheels are perfectly aligned to within specs.

I'm thinking someone out there may shed a light on this problem.

Recent work done on the vehicle:

-Front shock changes
-Strut spring mount changes
-control arm changes
-stabilizer end link changes

All work appears to be done right...

Thank you in advance for your inputs.

-Kef

No pull before new control arms and an imediate pull after?

Who made the control arms? I have had a situation where a badly made control arm caused this type of problem. There is a reason why every Volvo forum says OEM control arms, only. Are the old control arms still around?

If you go to Tire Rack, they have a diagnostic process to determine if it is the tire causing a pull. But, I doubt your problem is a tire pull.

One more thought:

Have the alignment checked at another shop. So many alignment 'techs' are just hacks with racks. Like the guy who cured my pull by running one tire up to 55 lbs of air.

Mr, Norm,

You were right about the tires being the source of the "pulling' problem. Thank you!

It turned out that my friend had rotated the tires after the control arm work. And the root cause turned out to be bad tires. We re-rotated the tires, and voila, no pulling in any direction. We actually rotated one side first, and severity of the pulling reduced. We then did other side, and the pulling was gone! The original pull were really severe.

And yes, tire rack has this info regarding tires contributing to 'pull'. Here is the link: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=12&

Thanks again!

-Kef