Strange vibration

Steve , From the symptoms you describe this maybe the axle shaft or shafts , they may feel OK when checking for rotational play but may have lateral wear . This can come and go as the car goes around curves and at certain positions create an inbalance . Mister T.

vibration 

Steve My 2001 V70 has exactly the same occasional periods of severe vibration. Did you find a solution? Thanks lanchester14

Update 

The problem has gone away, the only thing I can think off that may have made a difference, is that my wheels had collected a lot of mud/grit on the inner rim and I guess that if this mud got wet it could send the balance out, since the clean up its never done it. Steve

Thanks Steve, seems weird that you say mud and grit might have had something to do with it yet you felt nothing through the steering, thought you would have being as the mud was on the wheels?

Just a thought, would a drive shaft come loose if car was on a ramp with wheels hanging loose, or would a drive shaft just go out of balance for any reason?

Yes its a bit odd, but thats the only significant thing I did was thoroughly clean the wheels both inner and outer rims, never touched the driveshafts. The wheels I have do collect a lot of "solids" around the outer edge and I guess if you got half of it wet whilst half of it was dry, there would be a significant imbalance, I think the further in the imbalance is in, from the outer rim, the less "wobble" it produces but more up and down vibration, so less noticable through the steering??

Hi - I've just joined this forum - mainly to get advice on exactly this problem; I appreciate that it was a while ago, but did you manage to fix your problems, prm36 & lanchester14? Thanks.

Hi All Out of balance rear wheels would be the classic cause of this, whether they have been dinged or very mucky dirty could also be that a weight has dropped off? The rear wheels out of balance would cause the whole car to shake however will only be at certain speeds and at some speeds the wheels will balance themselves out. Can be quite subtly and also severe many variables. If you have cleaned the wheels recently and the problem has stopped then this was most likely the problem. IMO If the front wheels were ou of balance you would feels the vibration though the steering wheel if the steering wheel was fixed the vibration would go thought he car as would have nowhere else to go hence if rear wheels the whole car vibrates - does that make sense?