Please don't get discouraged, the tranny can be a real PITA some times. I got a 92,960 for my Mom because of two simple tranny problems that nobody could fix in lower Conn. Two things to get you pointed in the right direction. Replace park, neutral safety switch, with the updated one which elininates the second conn. Flush your tranny with dextron and drive it for a couple days then remove pan, clean out any sludge, clean filter and refill with Amsoil synthetic transmission fluid. Oh, Maybe a third thing clean all trans conn. and fill with silicone grease, check the ground wire at the back of the cylinder head to make sure it is not broken. For the plug issue, I have never had any luck with bosch plugs. Volvo gets sixteen bucks for the right plugs so I don't bother farting around with other manufactures. Check to make sure the fuel pressure regulator is not dumping raw fuel into manifold, just pull the vacuum line and look for raw fuel, if present, replace. Also check to make sure that your ECM temp switch is working properly. Lastly check the wire from the O2 sensor to make sure the wires are in good shape and have not chafed on the exhaust heat shield. The O2 sensor should be changed now anyway. The injectors are so good you will probably never change them if you run a good grade of petrol. I'm talking 270,000 miles and the set on my 93, 960 still working great. As for your tire wear I would check the strut rod bushings, and stabilizer links. The body is either leaning a lot when you turn, or the tires are getting pushed back when cornering and braking at the same time. Find a front end shop that only does front ends and tires, with a good rep., stay away from a chain store, Firestone, Merchants, Sears, Pepboys, most Goodyear shops, K-Mart, you get my drift when I say chains. Your last Question is yes. Stearing racks will wearout and not leak causing stearing to be hard, not out of alignment. I hope this helps. I am on my 9th 960 so far and Mom, Dad, Brothers and sisters, myself and my girlfriend all drive 960s'. All they did was drive my first one and got hooked. So I have been learning a lot about these cars in the last year. All of them have over 100,000 miles and only one ever came with service records. I just patiently go through the car, make sure everything is right before I send it to its new owner. I also use synthetic everything. I find it makes it more reliable.