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Shaking/shuddering during acceleration and while cruising

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PurpleMystique

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Nov 16, 2004
Messages
2,602
Location
Greater Des Moines Area
Today I noticed my car was shuddering quite a bit while accelerating at highway speeds, and it would continue to shake even when cruise was set. This wasn't just a little shake, but I could see the washer nozzles shaking back and forth a quarter inch or so, and the shifter would do the same. It was bad enough that I was starting to get a headache after 45 minutes of driving like that.

I hadn't noticed this much before today, although before it didn't happen when decelerating until I push in the clutch pedal, at which point it would stop. I had new tires put on recently, so I'd assume that they were balanced and that wouldn't be my problem. What about alignment? My driveway sucks right now and the ice tracks tend to throw my car around, which can't be good for it. Should I try getting it aligned, or does this sound like a tranny/half-shaft issue?
 
Alignment usually wouldn't cause a vibration unless serious front end parts were bent which you would have known prior I am sure.

Since you just had new tires on its possible that you may have lost a weight that wasn't hammered on correctly, especially since you say it was at highway speeds... most out-of-balance issues happen between 55-75. Or the balancer that was used could have just been out of calibration. I would take it back and have them re-balance the tires.

You guys/gals would know more about consistent issues concerning tranny/half-shafts with these cars then myself, but it wouldn't cost you anything to have the tires rebalanced.... versus dipping into the tranny/half shafts.

Was it shaking in your steering wheel or your seat?
 
Yah, I would have the front tires re-balanced. Shouldn't cost you a thing and would be an easy fix if that is the problem, I just can't see the half shafts magically causing this problem with-out hitting something like a curb or a small child.
 
The reason I threw that out there as an option is because I recently had a Quaife put in when I got my 3.0 done so it's possible that there's something wrong in there.

The only problem with getting my tires rebalanced at that shop is that it's 3 hours away, so it would cost me quite a bit in gas...
 
did you have a new clutch or flywheel installed at the same time? you be out of balance. what about the pasg half shaft?
 
I had a SPEC stage 1 installed, and the flywheel was machined to match. The thing that gets me is that while there was a SLIGHT bit of vibration upon deceleration before, there's a MUCH larger amount in the past two days.
 
Happened on my friends car and it turned out to be a harmonic balancer.

His car was fine coasting.. but as soon as he touched the petal the car would shake and got worse with higher RPMs.

Same thing? :shrug:
 
if it was anything to do with the tranny or motor it would have started right away. rebalance your tires and it should most likely fix it
 
I would say drive axel...

you said it gets more prounouced when you accelerate?
 
Based on your descriptions, my money is on the harmonic balancer or an engine mount.
 
PurpleMystique said:
That sounds very very similar. What would the fix be?
Click to expand...
just replace i guess. he had a junker and just said "i'll get to it when I get to it" :laugh:

When he took it to a mechanic he said the guy knew almost right away. Said it would be around $200 to fix and you could ruin the crank if you didnt get it fixed soon enough. Must just be labor intensive though, I think the balancers are only like $50.

:shrug:
 
Don't be jealous of what I spent though...it was WAY too much, I just got stuck in a bad situation and tried to the make the best of it.
I took it into the repair shop tonight so hopefully they'll call me tomorrow with a better idea of what's wrong.
 
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