Hey,

I m glad to hear that you got out of this intact.
I can identify with your situation. Had almost the same thing happen to me several years ago. It wasnt a volvo, its was a rambler(god forbid). I was on the road from Lousiana to California. Before leaving on the trip, I kept hearing this noise that I couldnt, and apparently no one else could identify what the noise was.

Well, I turns out that it was a rear wheel bearing going bad. you could only hear it now and again. The sucker ate through the axle and broke, snapping the brake line in the process(single cylinder brakes). The lucky thing is that it happened(somewhere in ariz) just as I was cresting a hill, huge truck on my right.

The whole left rear suddenly set down on the ground, and I had no brakes. This all in a heart beat. There was just enough left of the hill to slow and stop.
This could have ended alot worse(crispy critters).

Well, after I chaged underwear, and collected myself, I too was escorted(passing tow truck) to a wrecking yard, that happened to be just at the bottom of the hill. And yes they had the axle in question. They towed the car, fixed it, and sent me on my merry , glad to be alive, way. But broke because the wrecker had every last penny of the money I had on me.

You can imagine that now Iam a real stickler about any unexplained noises, especially those that appear to come from suspension parts. This can be deadly. OH yea!

Lets be safe out there.

Lawrence