Soliciting assistance from the Swede-doctors for two problems plaguing my venerable S60 that have been extremely difficult to trace.
1) A front-end clunk worse under load (on/off throttle, sometimes when braking). Almost always occurs when RPM is lower (around or below 1K) and usually at lower speeds, ie in stop and go traffic & around town when I completely let off the gas to coast and then get back on it. Occurs in gears 2-5 but it seems most common in 2 and 3, perhaps since I’m typically in those gears at lower speeds. Clunk sound can generally be replicated by shifting in and out of R & D while stationary & holding the brake.
2) A severe vibration at idle when in R or D (to the point where my instrument cluster started rattling and I could see my headlight beam bobbing up and down). Worst immediately after cold start, partially improved once everything’s up to temp. Mostly extinguished in P or N.
In an attempt to fix problem #1, I took it to one of New England’s preeminent Volvo shops last week, and while it was there had them change the lower torque rod from a Hutchinson unit (which turned out to be relatively shot despite having < 10K miles on it) to a Corteco part. Chose Corteco because I had actually gone through two Hutchinsons in as many years despite bring disciplined with the throttle and never doing any jackrabbit starts etc. The shop also did an ATF flush and changed out the sway bar end links. Since then, the clunk (problem #1) has somewhat improved and is fortunately harder to elicit than before, but the car has now started to vibrate heavily while at idle (problem #2). Wonder if the mount mismatch brought this about. The car zips around at freeway speed & higher RPMs without a care in the world.
Pertinent Service History
- car is on its second transmission (AW55 sourced from Erie w/approx 75k now)
- every motor/transmission mount has been replaced at least once in the past 30K miles with OE-level parts. all are Hutchinson (which to my knowledge is the actual OE supplier) with the exception of the Corteco torque rod. I will note that they were not all changed in one go.
- both axles have been replaced. L side is OE (GKN), R side might be aftermarket.
- both front LCAs have been replaced with “OE” (Meyle HD), though one of the bushings seems to have been slightly damaged during install
- subframe bushings have been replaced with BNE Delrin units
- axle ping bolts have been installed (IPD)
- coils and plugs have been replaced with OE (Bosch)
- end links have been replaced with OE (Lemforder).
Kind of at wit’s end. This constellation of symptoms is the car’s last malady, so if I can get these problems sorted it’ll (at least temporarily) be driving like a gem again and I can delay my plans of upgrading to an RS3.