Sorry in advance for the long post.

We have an 850 (96) after driving for an hour the steering wheel started to shake side to side. This would come and go some maybe 30 min at atime. Some of the time you would think some thing is really wrong with this car. The shake would really do it when crossing over the steering center point. This goes on for 2 hours, I miss a turn and pull a u turn. It pops, jerks and completely returns to normal.

The axles were replaced 15,000 miles ago with napa Chinese parts. The front end issues would clear up when changing lanes but come back when going straight.

It has been driven 150 miles with no issues.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Just wanted to post back. The car has been driven about 3,000 miles since this issue can up and it has never happened again. Everyone I talk to think the CV joint was bound up and when I performed the tight u turn it freed up.

For now I am leaving it as is and take a wait and see approach.

Hawk

A very good possibility. It happened to me, but for a shorter and wilder time. I managed to lift the right rear wheel during a right hand turn under full boost in my 98 R. The wheel bounced for a quarter mile before I came to a stop, then was quiet for the next 65K miles.

Klaus
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There is no present time, just the past and future

"...The axles were replaced 15,000 miles ago with napa Chinese parts..."

No chance you still have the original axles laying around your garage, eh?

It sound to me that under certain loads, the CV is jamming up and causing a bad vibe. Then in other conditions, like changing lanes, the load is thrown a different way, freeing-up the CV.

Is it a case where, for instance, turning left always induces the vibration and turning right always smooths it out? (or vise versa)?

Make sure the center axle bolt is still good and tight otherwise the outboard end of the axle may be backing out of the hub and allowing the CV to collapse too much.

Inspect for other suspension components that may be severely worn, allowing the wheel to shift laterally, although if that was the cause I think you would be experiencing other steering issues.

If you loose a tie rod going down the highway it might be the last trip you or your volvo take. I would get your car into a front end shop asap. Certainly wouldn't drive on the highway anymore.

Did this problem suddenly start?
It can be loose balljoint or dented rim or even deflated tire.
Check the front tires/rims and adj tire pressure.
If that doesn't fix it take the car for an alignment.
They should find the culprit easily.

Bill

That is a strange problem. It came, then it went away as fast as it came!

My first thought was wheel balancing or ball joint but those type of problems should be constant. Not come and go.

I'll second the alignment idea. I recently bought 4 new tires. When the tire store went to do a 4 wheel alignment they discovered that 2 bolts were frozen on the rear trailing arm so they couldn't adjust the rear toe. This explains the unusual wear on the outside edge of my old tires. Again, check your tires/wheels and consider a visit to a good alignment shop.