2004 S80 - Vibration during driving

[SuperHerman]

I assume your car is not AWD. If it is you have more items to look at - if so provide engine size (not sure if it matters).

Shocks should not cause vibration, but will cause bounce. Regardless look for signs of oil leakage and push down on the car and see how it returns.

Other items to look at are your rims and tires. You may have bent a rim, thrown off a balance weight or damaged an internal belt on the tire (look for a bulge on the tire walls of both sides of the tire).

Proper maintenance - fix your CV boots. If you cannot try sourcing a used part.

Next look at your shock spring seats for signs of damage as well as the control arms and tie rods. The impact may have damaged the shock spring seat on one side.

[oragex]

That wood piece was strong enough to blow the end link... that may have serously kicked the whole wheel assembly. The axle is just there and was spinning fast at the moment. The control arm bushings also took a solid hit. All this, the only thing I'd say is try with used parts and never throw your original part until 100% that was the issue. To give you an idea, my axle has play inside the transmission (worn carrier bearing) which causes floor vibrations and some steering wheel shake (a weird shake, unlike a wheel balance shake).

I'm yet to see a shock causing vibrations - but I know many mechanics think it can. Really don't see how a shock would cause vibrations. But check the coil spring to be sure it's not cracked. Check the tire as well on both sides, in and out for any 'bubble', along with a bent rim

[Cees Klumper]

I had a vibration like the one you describe and it was a slighty bent axle, passenger side. I rebuilt it using scandix (german company) parts but within a year the vibration came back because of the bent axle wearing out the new bearings. So I bit the bullet and got a new Volvo axle. Cured it permanently. I did replace shocks and struts in the process, but that wasn't the problem.