Alignment/ handling questions.

AlanS · Post by **AlanS** » 14 Sep 2014, 13:01

2006 XC70- OR
1. Getting new tires next week...alignment to follow. Do I just let the shop use the Volvo spec alignment? I never questioned their adjustments on my other cars.
2. I was caught in a situation today that required quick handling and cornering. Yech...It was a fast right turn to avoid incident. The car wanted to continue straight, really resisted the turn at a high speed. It also had a lot of body roll pulling it away from the turn. Any 'inexpensive' adjustments/ mods that I could do to improve handling?

Post by **oragex** » 14 Sep 2014, 16:35

The xc70 is not the most agile car out there.. On top of it, the control arm has two important bushings known not to last past 60k miles. The bushings on the front and rear sway bars are also known to give up prematurely. But the control arm should the fixed in the first place (and before the geometry is done). If the front tires have uniform wear, the geometry is good and needs not to be done (the geometry is independent of the tires being old or new).

Finally, along with the control arms, the shock absorbers are expected to last about 80k miles. They still rebound well, but get softer which doesn't help in emergency handling.