my 760 wagon sometimes now more frequently makes a knocking or soft thumping sound when taking off or turning usually slow. i just had new front struts and inner tie rods put on. the front wheel bearings where repacked as well. do you think this could be the famous front bushing problem that IPD always talks about? The car on the interstate handles well but there is a slight vibration or looseness in the steering. nothing extreme at all but i can notice it. i know ball joints can make a sound when bad but i dont know what. this sound seems to happen only when turning slow combined with going over a bump, or taking off from being parked. thanks for the help
will

There's nothing to worry about I own three volvos and all of them make knock on take off.

Chances are, if you had a shop redo the suspension, they would have told you if the bushings were bad.... that said, if it was the cone bushings, believe me, you'd know! ANY bump you hit would give a nice audiable "clunk".... my guess is it would be your steering rack, if it is original. Mine was clunking and no one could find out what was clunking.....that was until i shook the steering rack input shaft, it moved BIG TIME.... a small clunk from the front end after stopping and driving off could be caused by lots of things, anything from the spring "popping", etc. My car does it after reversing out of our driveway (really funny angle) but it's nothing to worry about...
Az

It's hard to tell sometiems where the knocking is coming from.

The usual suspects are the cone bushings. They are easy to check by slowly going over your driveway entrance with the wheels turned.

The intermediate steering shaft can have work u-joints.

The upper strut mounts can go bad.

Ball joints and tie rod ends.

Steering rack. Reach down and try to move the input shaft. If there is movement, it's going to need replacing.

Check the rack boots for splits. If split, water and dirt can get in and damage the inner joint.

The shocks can be bad as well.

So, to recap, pretty much the whole shebang can cause a knocking.

I'm chasing a knocking right now. I've replaced the tie rods, ball joints and cone bushings. I still have one. I also need to replace the steering intermediate shaft.

I also need to replace the brake rotors. they became warped after the local tire jockies overtorqued my lug nuts to the tume of 150 ft-lbs. Boy and I pissed about that.
--
Warren Bain - '86 744Ti M46 >285Kmi, '96 965 >99Kmi Wifemobile near Manassas Va.. I get e-mail replies to my postings.

Does your car makes the sound when not moving and you turn the steering wheel from side to side ? I have the same problem after replacing struts - I was told by Good Year that the upper strut bearings are shot....