I have a 98 Volvo V70XC with 78K miles. I have begun to hear two strange noises:

1. On bumpy roads, a metallic rattle from front passenger side. In the area of the wheel.

2. When doing a u-turn (or other turns that put extra stress on all-wheel drive system), I hear a grumbling noise and can kind of feel it in the seat of my pants. This happens on dry pavement and wet pavement.

Any ideas? I assume #1 is the shock and #2 could be viscous coupling maintenance (or replacement?…yikes!!). Someone even suggested the grumbling noise is “normal” on an AWD car.

Otherwise this Volvo has been a wonderful car. I bought it used one year after my wife and I bought a used 98 S70. So we have a white S70 and a white V70...how retarded is that? Just goes to show how much we like ‘em I guess.

Thanks in advance. -Jas.

I had a similar sound with my 98 V70 R AWD. It turned out to be the bushing on the strut mounting. I understand that this has been a common problem.
My car has 85,000 miles on it. It took my mechanic about 1 1/2 hours to replace it, cost me about $100.00.
My car is nice and quiet now.
The new noise I have is when I start it in the morning it "whines" for the 1st 2 blocks I drive it. Mechanic said it doesn't make the noise long enough for him to figure out what it is. May be turbo...< I'm wondering if it's the air pump that other people have been talking about.

my vote is air pump. Lots of posts recently on failing and noisey air pumps past several weeks. BTW, anyone have any idea if there is a sensor that turns on and off the pump and what the temps are that trigger it?