I'm starting to think about trading my 2000 V70 XC. The Volvo dealer took it around the block and asked me if I had noticed the shimmy in the wheel. I said yes and thought it was the alignment (I live in Maine and the potholes from this winter are huge). He said it wasn't the alignment, most likely the drive shaft. What am I looking at for maintenance on that issue - expensive I assume. Any insight would be helpful. And is this a known problem with my model or just wear and tear?

The rear driveshaft (prop shaft) will never cause the steering wheel to do anything. An alignment problem will cause the car to drift right or left when driving straight. A shimmy is usually a bearing or control arm problem.

My 1998 has a 'rumble' in the rear after driving straight for a while and then stopping and making a right/left turn. This is due to a fault in the viscous coupling sending power to the rear wheels when not needed, or, a fault in the rear diff not releasing and causing both wheels to turn at the same speed.

Klaus
--
Always willing to listen, just not able to take direction.

There are however a number of things that can go wrong with that driveshaft, all of which CAN be replaced/repaired by a local driveshaft place or by you if you have a little DIY capability.

The driveshaft setup looks like this:

bevel gear
front CV joint
front shaft section
center carrier bearing and bushing assembly
center u-joint
rear shaft section
rear CV joint
Torque Tube which consists of :
- viscous coupler
- freewheel
rear differential


There are a lot of bearings and joints and bushings in that chain of components and a fault in any of them could easily cause a little shimmy/rumble/etc, though KlausC is right that it would not likely affect the steering wheel. I could see if the steady bushing on the torque tube were bad it might let the back wheels move (alignment wise) and cause the stress to show up on the front wheels which would probably cause some funny sensations.


Good luck with your new 2007. IMHO one of the best cars available from Volvo.
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1998 V70 AWD->FWD->AWD Turbo 215k+

Thanks Klaus! I am pleased to report that after all my posts in the past weeks about my 2000 XC, I am about to become the proud owner of a 2007 XC. I'm super psyched!