1999 XC70 Heavy Shimmy at all speed

Dynamic D · Post by **Dynamic D** » 28 Mar 2014, 20:41

Hello,

I have a XC70 with the drivesahft removed. This week I began to experience shimmy. My front left wheel had free-play in it. I took it to a mechanic and found that it was the outer tie-rod. Changed it and made an alignement. Everything else is solid, except I have a strut that is leaking. The problem is still there.

The problem itself: The steering wheel oscillate left and right and the whole car shake as hell. When it does it, I pray that I can keep all wheels attached to the car until I stop. Not fun. It doesn't happen all the time. It can happen at high speed (80 kph and more) as well as low speed (40 kph). The only difference is that at high speed the frequency is much higher. When it starts, I tried to hit the brakes, hit the gas, put it in neutral but nothing seems able to stop the shaking unless I slow down to an almost stop.

It seems to start more often when I lift my foot from the gas pedal, but it also happened when I was maintaining speed. Sometimes it starts after hitting a poth hole, but other time it started when the road was as flat as it can be in Montreal in Spring..

It is funny, because when I have it at low speed, I can see the steering wheel being strait and then kicks to the left and then come back strait.. I'm sure it is not a ghost that is doing that !

The mechanic took it with me to a road test on the highway and was not able to make it shake, so he could not help me.

Any ideas ?

Thanks !

Post by **MoVolvos** » 28 Mar 2014, 22:15

_

Perhaps a tire out of round or has a blister? You need to lift the car up and slowly spin the tire and very carefully take a look. It is not always obvious.

Blessings,

BKM
_

Post by **scot850** » 28 Mar 2014, 23:01

BKM is correct to check the obvious first. With all the pot holes this time of year it is easy to damage a wheel rim or tire. Try looking at the wheels and spin the front wheels (you will need both front wheels of the ground at the same time). Look for bulges on the tires as the wheels turn. You can try swapping 1 front tire with a rear one on the same side, take for a run, and see if the vibration moves to the back. If not, try the other side and do the same. This will help which wheel or tire is the possible culprit. If one is bad,t take it to a tire shop and get them to remove the wheel and spin it on the balancing machine. They should be able to see if the wheel or tire is bad.

If you do the checks and the problem is still there, then, you will need to check the drive axles for failing cv joints, check the lower ball joints, control arm bushes, and for sure change the leaking shock. Finally, check the inner and outer track rods for play.

If you are still having problems, post back, and we can look at other ideas.

Neil.

Dynamic D · Post by **Dynamic D** » 06 Apr 2014, 11:09

I've changed the tire (put on my summer tire and wheel) and the problem was still there. When I changed my tire, I saw that the right wheel was harder to rotate over half of its rotation. Therefore I lubricated the caliper now the wheel rotates freely all around. The day after that it shimmy again, but no more incident since then (2 days). Crossing my fingers it is gone for good..

I'm looking to replace my car and the seller at Volvo told me that the shimmy is probably a problem with the steering rack, which he said was a common problem and the part to replace is about 1500$. This seems expensive.. If it is real, is there another cheaper way to fix this ? I'm wondering, because if I can fix my problem I could sell my car for more..