2000 V70 XC vibration at 15-20mph

[scot850]

The front end of the car is prone to wear. The youngest P80 is now 15-16 years old. No matter what your climate is it will cause damage to some parts, especially rubber and plastics.

The struts could be going, but check the ball joints, top spring mounts, and control arm bushes in the front. Also check the anti-sway bar bushes have not seperated from the anti-sway bar, and the end links are good. Check the inner and outer steering links for wear, and movement in the steering rack and the wheel bearings for play.

Even check the bush at the base of the steering column. They dry out.

Even though you have pulled the rear prop-shaft, you still have the diff, rear axles and bearings.
I have the rear sub-frame out of my car (approx. 165k miles) and there is significant wear in the front stay bar bush, and the lower control arm inner and out bushes. Look at condition of upper control arm outer bush.

Lastly, I have had 2 cars with annoying steering vibration. The 93 850 GLT was fixed by dumping the after market drive axles and replacing with used OE shafts. Car ran like new!

00 V70R, I had the winter wheels balances, and the local shop pointed out 2 of the rims were out of round. Not bad enough to dump yet, but advised to use on the rear only to reduce vibrations.

Neil.

[scot850]

Reason your fuel gauge is wrong is you have 2 fuel pumps (1 pump and one Volvo call and Ejector pump). Both have level gauges and the system averages the 2 signals from each side of the tank. The tank is like a saddle that sits over the prop-shaft, and hence the reason for the 2 pumps or you don't get a tankful of gas, maybe about 2/3rds of the capacity if the LH (drivers side) pump isn't working.

To get to the pump you either have to drop the rear sub-frame to get to the pump(s) or carefully cut a hole under the passenger seat to get to it, and then re-seal the floor afterwards. Read my post on the V70R rear suspension and sub-frame replacement I am working on!

Try checking the connections and use electrical cleaner. The connections are behind the rear passenger seat under the floor plate. To access, lift out the rear storage cover in the floor, and then you need to remove 4 x 10mm bolts to slide the front portion out. Under that are all the connectors for the electrical stuff under the rear floor area.

Neil.

[goVolvo]

Thanks for the fuel gauge advice. I have not looked at it. However the gas pump light still works as expected. So I am not in hurry to double check the fuel pump connector.

Today I actually found what caused the vibration started this topic. The front struts are overdue and causes noise over bumps. So I decided to replace them. I spent some time replaced the strut shocker and top spring seat on both sides. Now struts are good, no noise any more, and you know what, the annoying slight vibration is also gone! It drives as smooth as a normal car now. I am more than happy and actually feel quite confident to put back the AWD propel shaft. Though I am not in hurry, I can live with FWD, and the AWD gears in the back seems quite worn out anyway. Maybe before I eventually want to sell this car I'll put the propel shaft back.

[Ozark Lee]

Was the problem in the front CV joint on the axle? That is the usual culprit since the heat gets to it.

...Lee

[goVolvo]

The front axles were replaced when I took it to a shop before I took off the propel shaft early this year. No difference.

[Ozark Lee]

I meant to say prop shaft rather than the axle, my bad. The front CV joint there is the one that usually fails first. There was a recent thread that identified a source for the joint at a substantially better price than Colorado sells them for:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=73435

The problem that you can't really fix yourself is the carrier bearing but you can change the other joints. What I do like about Colorado Drive Shaft is the balancing that they do after the replace everything.

...Lee