Turning circle differences - V70 and XC70 - Why?

[scot850]

Well now that we own one of each, the issue is obvious, but not until last week with the winter to summer tire swap with the cars taking turns on the hoist. The realization was so simple it hit me like a 2" x 4" length of wood to the back of the head!

First tire size, well more width. XC70 standard tire size is 215/65/16 tires, or 215mm wide tires.

Now the rims are the same offset for both cars at 49mm.

The tire size for the V70 is 235/45/17, or 235mm wide. This means the tire on the inside sits 10mm closer to the inner fender. The inner fenders on both side front wheels still show rub marks when on full lock at the front of the tire.

By looking as both front lower control arms, it became more obvious why the V70 has a poorer turning service. Volvo have added a bump stop to the control arm to limit the amount of turn the steering can do to try to prevent the rubbing of the inner fender.

Makes me think this winter I might try removing the stops and see how the car behaves as the winter tires I have are 215/50/17 tires.

Clearly I have too much thinking time...........

Neil.

[DavidE7]

I found a trick for fixing P2 Volvo tire rubbing without having to buy new bump stops: The left and right side bump stops fit on either side but wear on only one bump stop edge. If you remove the two bump stops and flip sides of the car with them, there are new surfaces contacting the steering arms and these new contact surfaces haven't been worn down from use and keep the tires from rubbing.

The 2007.5+ steel control arms have either metal rivets or plastic pins holding the bump stops. Replacing the pins with small bolts, washers and nyloc nuts holds the bump stops much more securely.

[volvolugnut]

Graduating from 240 Volvos to P2 V70 caused me to complain a lot about turning radius.
volvolugnut

[ToyoToyo]

Interesting find, never thought about how much the wider tyres on the V70 would reduce the lock compared to the XC70, makes sense when you see it laid out like that.

[abscate]

Always keep going forward and never turn around. Problem solved.

[erikv11]

The turning radius of an AWD S60 (or of an S60R, anyway) is even worse, easily a few feet larger than the XC70.

[scot850]

Basically the same issue. Wider tires than the XC. Was just working on one of the young guys I help with their car maintenance today. It is an 06 S60 2.5T AWD. Same front control arm issue with bump stops and 235 wide tires as our V70 AWD.

It would be interesting to see how big an issue running 215 tires (like I do for the winters 215/50/17) in summer and removing the bumps stops. I might seriously look at this next year when we will likely replace the aged summer tires.

Neil.

[rolsen11]

The turning radius of an AWD S60 (or of an S60R, anyway) is even worse, easily a few feet larger than the XC70.

That was one of the big things I noticed right away when I bought mine. "Holy crap, this turning radius is terrible!"