Recently I had all new tires put on my 88 240 wagon. I also had them do a front end alignment.

They did the alignment but told me I need new strut cartridges, and that the car will pull slightly to the right until I get the struts fixed. The car does pull to the right. I did the bounce check for bad struts, they dampen fairly quick but it is a very subjective test.

I switched the new front tires to eliminate any problem with them and the car still pulls to the right.

Can bad struts affect the alignment?

Thanks

Mike

I would think that a bad strut mount bushing would be more likely to cause pulling then the strut itself.
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1990 240 Sdn 277K,tach,strut brace,turbo sway 1990 240 Wgn M47II 157K,tach,strut brace,poly bushings,IPD sways

If the struts are worn differenly, which is almost in all cases, it can. On a bump, one side will move differently from the other.

Still, it shouldn't pull on a level road. That's more an indicator that they didn't do a good job aligning. Or that other steering components are worn, like the tie rod ends or ball joints.

-- Kane ... who does DIY alignments with a tape measure. So far so good.
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Blossom II - '91 745Ti/M46 ... Bubbles - '74 144GL/BW35 ... Buttercup - '86 245GL/AW70 ... The Wayback Machine - '64 P220/M40

I think Kane is right on when he says ball joints, tie rod ends, or tie rods. After going through all this on my 83, I found the steering gear can be adjusted. You take off a cover plate, remove a nut that holds a "tabbed" washer with 8? tabs, bend down the tab that is up and bend up the tab on one side or the other (trial and error), reinstall, test drive, and repeat if necessary. Apparently, this balances the power steering fuild pressure on each side of the steering gear. I know on 83's there were two types of steering gears used by Volvo and only one type had the above adjustment. It could easily be you just got a bad alignment job too!