Undiagnosed Steering Pproblem
 

Six weeks ago I bumped over a traffic island where the bollard was missing and I didn't see it while making a left turn into a side road. Of course the council are denying all responsibility but before I can take the matter further I need to diagnose the exact nature of the problem.

The front right (offside) wheel struck the 6 inch kerb while at almost full left lock. The steering then was left pulling to the left and the wheel was slightly off centre, down slightly to the right.

I took the car to the local dealer who are helpful and go out of their way to be so. They have a Hunter steering alignment rig and put the car on it and said that the steering angles, front and rear, needed realigning, which they did. They also inspected the steering and said that they could find no actual damage. I test drove the car and all seemed well so I paid the bill and took the car away.

Over a period of a couple of weeks I felt that the steering was not as stable as it had previously been and by the time three weeks had elapsed the steering wheel was off centre by about an inch at the rim.

I took the car back to the dealer and said I was worried that they may have not found something as the wheel was off centre and the steering felt as if minor adjustments needed constantly to be made to hold a straight line. They put the car back on the Hunter rig and confirmed that the angles were out of alignment and readjusted the set up and again inspected the steering but could find no damage. They said that they could not charge me for the work as it might be that they hadn't done it properly the first time although they were confident that they had.

Within a week the same thing happened again and after a 200 mile round trip the steering wheel was again an inch out of true, down on the right and the car was drifting slightly to the left and needing constant micro adjustment to hold a straight line.

Back to the dealer for the third time and back on the Hunter rig where the read out inexplicably showed that it was now the rear tracking which was more out than the front which was also out of alignment. The technician said that rear wheel misalignment can have a significant effect on the steering and handling of the car. The tracking all round was again adjusted, again at no cost, but I now have little confidence that it will stay as it hasn't before and no one can say what the underlying fault might be.

Since the tracking adjustments cannot all loosen themselves at random in this way, I am left with a couple of possibilities. Firstly that the problem is inside the rack where, of course, things are supposed to move but that doesn't explain the rear tracking. Secondly, more sinisterly could the chassis be out of true? The technician offered the thought that the bushes needed replacing but that seemed unlikely that they would all fail immediately after the impact on one wheel and that the car has only done 55K miles.

This car has been my most successful car over a lifetime of driving all manner of cars. I had intended to keep it for the indefinite future with great confidence. That confidence has suffered and I don't know what to do when within the next few days the problem reappears, as it is likely to do judging from recent events.

This is not something that VIDA can check and the Hunter rig is acknowledged to be the best in the business. Do these symptoms ring any bells with anyone as I am spiralling into a depression about the state of this car. :shocked:

Sorry I can't shed any light, but interestingly you say it pulls to the left, but the steering wheel is down on the right? OR is it down on the right, because you are holding it there to keep it in a straight line?
I would go trough your insurance company, as then whatever it costs, will be covered, and you keep sending it back until its right. Have you damaged the tyre casing, maybe swap fronts and rear over, see if it makes a difference.
Also take it to one of those multi storey car parks, with the polished floors, drive in a straight line, with the windows open,and see if you can hear the tyres squealing at all, (out of alignment).
Are the steering rack bolts tight? Is the alloy wheel damaged?

Update :-

Possibly got to the bottom of this, 3 sets of front tyres later!

Seemed it was reasonably obvious though I'd thought about it before and taken a measurement but obviously not well enough!
Haven't driven it yet as still in pieces on the road.

Right hand track rod was adjusted to about the min limit point, let hand rod threads were bottomed out. Seems that every alignment shop has done the same thing and just adjusted one end. So the rack is trying to self centre, and that centre point is off to the right, hence wheels ate pushed to the left.
Had trued to diagnose this earlier by running with front end off the ground but maybe I wasn't looking for the right thing



Found this on a post from 2016

Has the offside front suspension been forced back and inwards by the impact of the wheel against that kerb? Has the suspension strut been moved? Has the lower control arm been forced back and inwards so slightly deforming the subframe where it is attached. I guess it would only need to be by a few mms. and probably not apparent to the naked eye.
My brother had an incident decades ago with a mk1 Cortina. Over enthusiastic on a right hand bend on a country lane causing the nearside front wheel to mount the verge with some force. Pushed the Macpherson strut suspension inwards slightly. Still driveable but not right and needed to be sorted.
Just random thoughts from a distance.

I would agree that this is probably a job for your insurance - you could be chasing down the fault at great cost to yourself otherwise. It is likely that the front wishbone, strut, tie rod or some other component (or combination of) has deformed whilst absorbing the impact - they are designed to do so and thus not break suddenly. If your friendly dealership can "diagnose" that some or all of these components have likely suffered, the insurance will then pay for them to be replaced. I'd look at it as a golden opportunity to get a lot of major parts renewed in one claim - and in the case of your expensive 4C shocks then, well, both sides of course :angel_smile:

My opinion:- The alignment is changing with the forward motion of the car. When it comes to rest the alignment completely or partially recovers - that is why the alignment rig cannot correct it. There must be as yet undiscovered damage (or more likely weakness) somewhere. Think bushes mountings and joints. Take it for a second opinion to another workshop and get them to test everything hard with a breaker bar.

GM

Second set of problems may or may not be related
 

Drove the car over rough ground and the rear suspension bottomed on a rock. Dash warning light and messages for DSTC Service Required and City Safety Service Required. My VIDA says there is now a connection problem between the CEM and the TCM and consequently there is no all wheel drive, just FWD

Peculiarly the car now handles differently but without the symptoms of indifferent steering that it was suffering from. The steering is much more responsive and there seems to be more power available on the road. It's like a different car. It's going back to the dealer as the electronics are beyond my DIY skills.

You have had very bad service , Initially they should never have adjusted anything .. they should have identified which ever suspension or steering part which was bent ...

Hunter alignment machines are good yes but so are all the others , they all indicate which way the wheels are pointing . The variables are the operators and how they interpret the readings given and what they do to correct them if necessary .... Have you had any parts replaced yet? 👍

Have you had the underside inspected yet after the latest bashing ?

check for broken control arm bolts also check inner steering rack ends any damage to these components will not show on a static alignment as they hold the steering central whilst they perform alignment ... definately need some closer inspection not more ajustments:regular_smile:

The car goes into the dealer for an inspection on Thursday. No parts have been replaced as yet. If I'm not getting the service I need from them, my next move is to an indy who has served me well over the last decade but who I didn't use for the Volvo as the incentives to service at Volvo when the car was covered by their warranty and software upgrades, breakdown service, etc made them worthwhile. I'm not so sure that is the case now.

I can't believe a main dealer hasn't said that x, y or z is out or bent or damaged before making any adjustments.

It's like going in with a slow puncture and "fixing" it by putting some air in which will correct the problem temporarily until it happens again.

Any update?

I posted in another thread a parallel disaster but I'll put it here. I took the car out for a trip to see if the steering would improve and during the trip into the country I backed around a corner and I didn't see a concrete block left by some farmer on the side of his gateway entrance. The reversing sensors didn't pick it up either and the consequence was that the car rode over it and it did damage to the rear underside. The very strange thing was that the warnings for DSTC and City Safety Servicing came on and the handling of the car improved radically!

The dealer put the car on VIDA and said that the rear transmission module had been damaged and failed, together with some impact damage on the underside. The car currently only has front wheel drive but it really handles well. I'm thinking that the original fault might have been in the failed module and the handling was being affected by random adjustments carried out by the module. This this might be braking or rear wheel drive application. This may not be at all true but the car is now in for repair and we will see what it is like when the work is done. It's all insurance covered now.

any further developments?

There are delays in obtaining the necessary parts to do the whoile underside damage repair and until it is done and the Differential Electronic Module (DEM) is replaced, I won't know if the original handling was down to a problem with the DEM. Half of the job can be done soon but there is a back order problem until September with the fuel tank from Sweden. It has a dent in the bottom and while it isn't considered hazardous, any stressing of the plastic structure might cause more rapid deterioration over the years, so it has to be replaced. I'll get it back next week and will see how it handles. It has been a mad couple of weeks. Just backing into a concrete block that I couldn't see and that the reversing sensors didn't pick up is going to cost me a £300 excess and the insurers £2500!

I feel your frustration. I hope it all gets sorted eventually.

Can I ask that abouthow tallbwas the concrete block?
Thanks

I didn't measure it! It was just short enough to miss the bodywork under the tailgate but tall enough to crease the petrol tank through the heat shield before striking the centre section of the rear suspension. Of course it then performed the same action when the car moved forwards off it. I felt foolish that I hadn't seen it and angry that the reversing sensor didn't see it either. Most of my car accidents take place at 2 mph!

The fuel tank is pretty rugged more than 3mm thick , a hot air gun would probably allow the original shape to restore .

My problem is that this is an insurance job and when I thought that the tank damage was purely cosmetic I suggested that the £1K that it was going to cost was a waste of the insurers money, my broker said that the benefit to me of not having the work done was minimal and the problem if there was some subsequent problem would be difficult to recover if I'd authorised that the work was not to be carried out. Quite crazy so I decided to have a pretty looking new fuel tank that no one will ever see! But I don't get it until September as there is a world wide shortage of XC70 fuel tanks. Nothing about this accident and repair is satisfying. :sad_smile:

Up date but not concluded. The car has been returned from its underside cosmetic repairs. The rear drive electronic control unit was replaced and the car is returned to the condition before it was driven over the concrete block. This means to say that it has AWD and the dodgy handling has returned. I took it to a tyre shop who specialise in steering geometry and have the same Hunter tracking rig that the Volvo dealer has. They confirmed that the steering geometry was as good as it gets and that Volvo had got it correctly set up. Based on the history of the two wheel drive condition eliminating the steering problem, they suggested that the problem probably resides in the Haldex rear transmission.

Volvo are going to take another look at it and concentrate on the rear transmission. They will start by draining the rear transmission oil to see if it evidences any damage such as metal shards or burn oil. I will suggest before they do that, that they disconnect the new control box and see if that improves the handling.

Up date. Now looking a lot more satisfactory. The car was due to go in to have the Haldex drive investigated because the steering problem seemed to be associated with the AWD system. However on the day it was due in the weather was appalling and I cancelled the booking and moved it to the next available which was two weeks later. In the intervening time I used the car regularly and over the two week I noticed that the steering problem grew less and today the car seems to be handling as it always used to do.

I can only surmise that the problem was in some way in the AWD electronic control unit and that the new unit has adjusted itself as the car is used. I've considered the placebo effect but the steering was so out of kilter and with hands off the wheel it steered one way or the other and does not do this now. The cause may remain a mystery but at least the car seems to be back to how it always was before the unfortunate series of slow speed impacts.

Update: Spoke too soon. The pull has returned. I took the car to an independent Volvo specialist who reported that the rear trailing arm bushes were shot and needed replacing regardless of whether they were the cause but they cannot have improved the handling. More seriously he reported that the control rod ends were worn and need replacement and surmised that the impact could have caused damage to the already worn right side control rod ends and that replacing them should improve the handling.

Well yes and no. The handling is better but the bias to steer left is still there. That is, it still requires more effort to turn the wheel to the right than it does to the left. Not a great deal but in the handling of the car it is discernable and my right arm gets more tired than my left one.

The car goes back next week to examine the struts and strut turrets, particularly the right side where the wheel struck the kerb. After that, who knows. :sad_smile: