I'm having a front end shake problem on my 90 240. It had 250K on it when I bought it about 2 years ago. It rode very smoothly from 0 all the way to 80mph with absolutely no shake at all. The tires were almost bald, the brakes were shot, and the passenger control arm bushing was clunking so I decided to get new tires and fix up the brakes and suspension. I installed all these parts at the same time:

Passenger rear control arm bushing
Front sway bar bushings
Sachs Advantage Shocks
Brembo Rotors
$50 apiece, made in China, low end Tires

After all the changes there was a shake in the steering wheel at any speed over 50mph. I took the car back to have the tires re-balanced and could never get it right. I just blamed the shaking on the cheap tires decided not to fix it since we rarely drive it on the highway and just make short trips around town.

Fast forward 2 years and 10,000 miles later the shaking got so bad that we were afraid to drive it on the highway. I checked everything out again and found that the passenger side inner tie rod had about 1/16" play in it. I replaced the tie rod and had the tires re-balanced and it still shook just as bad. While I was replacing the tie rod I noticed the steering rack had a slight leak and had a little slop in the passenger side. I replaced the rack this week and bought a new set of Expensive Premium Tires and had the car re-aligned. The shaking is now about half as bad as with the cheap tires, but is still there above 60mph. Its drivable, but I'm afraid that the shaking might wear out my new tires and steering rack.

I took the car back to have them check the balance and they re-balanced it with the Hunter Road Force balancer and then they test drove it down the highway. The tire guy told me he thought my shocks were worn out. I told him that they were only two years and 10,000 miles old. He really didn't have an answer other than that they may be defective. Would shocks cause a shake? I have noticed that the Sachs Advantage seems a little mushy compared to Bilstein TCs that I had on another 240.

I read on the Brickboard that brake rotors could sometimes be out of balance. I had a spare brand new set so I swapped them out and it didn't make any difference. However, I did notice that the Brembo rotors came with small pan-head allen screws to attach them to the hub. One of the original Volvo hex bolts has a pin that sticks out to index the tire. Would this pin add enough weight to cause a shake? I did re-use the original Volvo bolt/pins.

I checked front bearings and all were tight. Any ideas on what else to check?

Thanks,
Preston