My '86 245, it seems, may be nearing the end of the line at 241k miles.

Not long ago I started noticing a low-speed vibration that was pronounced at 10mph and went away completely by about 30mph or so. I took it to my friendly neighborhood one-man-shop import specialist, who put it on a lift and found a couple of issues. First, the four bolts securing the front U-joint to the transmission were loose. He tightened them. He also noticed that the torque rod bushings we'd installed last fall were already shot. Otherwise, nothing seemed obvious. Most of the vibration seemed to disappear after tightening the front U-joint bolts, so I drove it home.

I didn't drive it much over the next couple of weeks. When I did it was just short runs around town, and I noticed an occasional thunk, clank or clatter from the back which I attributed to the bad bushings.

One day, I took it out on the highway and noticed that, while the original low-speed vibrations were gone, the car now vibrated at higher speeds. I could feel it in my seat at 30 mph, hear it at 40 mph and felt like I was risking some sort of mechanical disaster at 50 mph. I took it back to the mechanic, who drove it up and down the street, shrugged and suggested the rear end might be shot. He was busy with another customer's car, and seemed to be losing interest in my problem.

Anyhow, I ordered new torque rod bushings, crossed my fingers and installed them and... no dice. Still the clanking, still the scary high-speed vibration.

The car has some serious rust issues and my wife wants me to junk it, but I'd hate to throw it out if there's a simple explanation / fix. Anyone care to venture a guess?

I'd take the driveshaft out of the car and check the U-joints by wiggling each joint both ways. I had a local volvo mechanic tell me once that you can only do this correctly with the driveshaft out of the car. I recently had a bad vibration similar to what you are describing and I jacked my car up on jackstands and then put the trans. in neutral. I tried to spin the driveshaft by hand and everything spun smoothly. You couldn't tell that there was a problem there. I then went ahead and removed the driveshaft and did what the mechanic told me and found that my rear U-joint at the differential was severely worn and binding. I think there's something about the angle that 't's locked into on the car that doesn't allow you to check it properly. In short, I replaced the U-joint and the problem went away. That's what I would check. Good Luck!

Thanks for this one -- you hit the nail on the head. It was the last U-joint, right in front of the differential. $15 and a little work later, all is well.

Thanks! I searched the archives, and got the feeling that driveshaft might be a problem. I also remembered that the center bearing started squealing a couple of years ago, and my mechanic just squirted some lubricant in it and sent me on my way. Perhaps it is seizing? Both U-joint and center bearing seem like plausible explanations for the vibration, but the clanking still mystifies me a bit. It's most noticable after backing up, then shifting into drive and proceeding at low speed.

Emergency brakes also come to mind...

The clunking may be the rear trailing arm bushings but could also be a badly worn u-joint. Dan