I’m coming to you all with a vibration issue that has me and the dealer techs stumped. I have an OSD 2025 V90 CC B6 Ultra (20″ wheels, no air suspension) that has had a very minor, but infuriating/irritating, vibration issue, since new. The car has 8K on the ODO now, and I have taken it in at 3K and 7K to get this looked at to no avail.
The symptoms are:
- Vibration that can be seen on the steering wheel. Steering wheel vibrates left-to-right maybe 0.5 MM at speeds above 72MPH. It’s very minor and when I’m holding the wheel, I can barely feel it but the vibration then is no longer visible, but since our 2011 Ford Fusion that gets abused daily at the state school I work at has less vibration than that it leaves me feeling with a sour taste in my mouth every time I drive. It should be perfect. FWIW, my wife hasn’t really noticed it or said anything about it.
- Vibration can be slightly felt in foot pedal and in seat, mostly on driver’s side. Most of it feels due to road imperfections I think but it’s been over a year since I’ve driven a new Volvo so I don’t quite recall how much vibration is due to Volvos just generally riding on the harsher side or what.
- The Pirellis that came with the car when new were found to have slight runout and some cupping, but road force balanced well. My understanding is that cupping is almost always a suspension issue. I happened to have bought a tire certificate from Discount Tire so the dealer recommended I buy new tires. Seeing as it didn’t really cost me more than $100, I opted for some Contis. Issue remained after changing tires.
- I can hear a metal “clank” from I think the driver’s side when going over a pothole in the road. It’s tricky to replicate, but it is there. You need a pothole that’s not too big and not too small so that the wheel gets some rebound in order to hear it.
- After an alignment once I got new tires, there is an extremely strange steering issue where sometimes the car will pull noticeably to the left. It almost feels like something “clicks” or slides into place, almost like a rubber-on-rubber bushing. It will do this for a minute and then something will “click” back into place and things are driving straight again.
- More recently, today I noticed that the steering wheel “creaks” – again, it almost feels like a rubber-on-rubber creak that you can feel. When the car is running, you can’t hear it but you can hear it when parked and moving the wheel slightly side to side.
Of course, I’m worried about cupping another set of shoes and that other issues will start popping up as things begin rattling loose that may or may not be related. To compound my frustration, a different tech rides along with me when I show how to replicate the issue and to confirm it exists than the one working on the car apparently, and then that tech claims they cannot replicate the issue. I noticed on the trip log that they go down a parkway where the speed limit is 45-55, when I have always mentioned the issue is most noticeable on the interstate near the dealership where you can ramp it up to 75. So, I guess I’m not sure if they are genuinely stumped or not bothering to follow directions on replicating the issue or just incompetent.
During my last visit, the tech “Torqued radiator cross bar bolts and subframe/suspension bolts” but that hasn’t seemed to make much of a difference. Again, issue is really relatively minor, but it’s enough to tick me off where driving the car isn’t as opulent or luxurious as I had come to expect. Of course, when it’s on Pilot Assist it really doesn’t bother me at all, but seeing as sometimes I will spend 8-12 hours roadtripping up and down between New England and NC it does become a much more irritable nuisance after a few hundred miles.
I’d love to hear some guesses from you all – I like the car, but I want to love it all the time! Cheers and TYIA.