2000 v70 awd grinding sound from front driverside

[bwills82]

Hello, I very recently bought my first volvo 2000 v70 xc awd with 226000 miles. Thing runs great on normal driving conditions. Had gotten into a bit of snow and ice and problem was noticed. The front passenger side tire would only spin. The drivers side tire would not move and a pretty loud sort of grinding/rough ratcheting sound would emerge with the press of the accelerator. Was told the car was no problems when i bought it and that it had had a new tranny put in around 200000 miles or so. I had taken it back to the mechanic who had vouched for the car and done much work on it over the years, had said it could be the abs control module? Im a bit skeptical of the guy and his honesty. I had also jacked up the passenger side front wheel with car running and put it into.drive an the same sound is very apparent and the driversside doesn't move a bit. On another note, not sure if it would be connected to.this problem, i have a slight shutter and vibration at speeds 35-50 mph only during acceleration. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, i'm wondering if i have stepped into a big ol pile of poo with this thing
thank you

[Ozark Lee]

It does sound like the TRACS is kicking in but there shouldn't be much wheel slip with an AWD car. Is the prop shaft (drive shaft from the front to the rear) actually installed. It is very common for the CV joints and/or the carrier bearing to fail on the prop shaft and a typical remedy is to simply remove the prop shaft and thus convert the car to a FWD instead of AWD.

The TRACS function is controlled by the ABS module but the behavior you describe is what the system is supposed to do. TRACS applies the brake to a spinning wheel to create a rudimentary traction control system. The TRACS system really doesn't work terribly well but I suppose it is better than nothing.

...Lee

[Matty Moo]

What Lee said, that noise is normal when TRACS engages. The only time I've found it to be semi-useful is when making a right hand turn and there's ice on the right hand side. The rest of the time it's mostly useless.

[BEJinFbk]

TRACS has a defeat switch.
Turn it off and see what happens.

[Matty Moo]

That car doesn't. The 99-2000 xc's don't have the switch. They should though, and I'm pretty sure the plug to add one is behind the switch blank.