Hi there,
I would check tie rods first, they may be worn to the point where you have a lot of play in them.

If your tie rods are worn, you may well find your inner edges of your front tires are wearing faster as it allows the wheels to splay outwards wearing in inside edges.

Neil.

Yeah in the process of replacing the control arm, although im not so sure it could be causing the deadzone in the steering. It would have to be really sloppy to do that, agreed. If the ball joints are worn out, its a cinch that the tie rod ends have gone through a life cycle or two - maybe both inn...

Easiest way to test the inners was when they were disconnected. Disconnect them again. If the tie rods can hold themselves without dropping the inners are good. If they flop down immediately they are done.

Neil.

Usually you get the car up on a rack and grab the wheel and pivot it back and forth in a 'steering motion' While you do this, you watch the tie rods for movement and see which end has 'slop' or if both ends have slop. You can have an assistant grab and hold the other wheel. In the driveway you can j...

For the wheel issue. Check the simple stuff. In this case, look at the brake dust shield. They can get bumped and so rub on the brake rotor. Wheel bearing is possible, but what you describe could be the support bearing has lost it's grease. While I know it is not conclusive (as I found out), find a ...

Retiming a VVT engine is the same as timing any other Volvo engine - about an hour under the hood removing covers, etc. If you search for 'understanding cam flank angle ' I wrote a Bible on it a few years back. https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=93792&hilit=cam+flank+angle ...

You don’t really need the cam locking tool to set timing , unless you get the VVT hub off, then you need it to tighten the bolt.
ECM-644A seats on the restart after the cam angle problem is logged, so if you clearcodes after resetting, you need to start twice to check for it.