Last alignment as of a month or two ago is within spec.

The car still feels a little nervous over grooves and stuff in the road. When I take off a little faster from a stop light, it sometimes feels like it pulls to the right. Most of the time not. I don’t see the traction control light come on, so I don’t think that’s giving me the odd feeling.

Ordinarily I’d suggest it’s just torque steer, but this feels a little different. I *did* replace the axle a few months ago with a refurb GKA (they make the Volvo axles, the original axle is GKA too), but I can’t imagine the axle twists enough to be felt like that. Especially since it’s not EVERY time.

There's no vibration or weirdness when I accelerate or get off the gas otherwise.

Looking under the car and tugging on the wheels at 6-12 and 3-9 positions doesn’t reveal any obvious slop (like joints/bushings). The steering feels very responsive without slack or bump-steer. I really can’t put my finger on it, but it just doesn’t feel right, and when the car feels right it feels like a new car – so I want it back to that.

Another thing that seems a little different is that with a turned-to-lock to the left, the right tire seems to scrub the outside edge more than usual, sometimes it ‘pops’ at full lock on various surfaces (like the tire slips and hops on the pavement, as if it were turned a lot - which we all know these cars can't do. haha). Maybe if it’s more slippery? It doesn’t do this when I turn full-left. This is partially why I suspect the alignment – but why would the dealership alignment printout show it as in-spec if I have alignment issues?

I have to call around to some alignment shops because I’m not entirely sure I trust the local Volvo dealership.

I’m wondering if my tires might have something to do with this – they’re my beloved Continental DWS, but they are getting on in age and I don’t have other tires to put on to try. I could rotate them and see if I feel a difference.

No clunks or weird notchiness in the steering, so I don’t suspect failure of hard parts. My LCAs were replaced ~40K miles ago (LCAs, ball joints, inner/outer tie rod ends, struts, strut bearings, sway bar links). I had the subframe bushings replaced at Volvo late last year, and had them put in the IPD front sway bar too. I installed the rear sway bar shortly after).

Any ideas of anything else to check or look at? Steering rack (it has no leaks or notchiness/vibration)?