Post by pmsteinm on Nov 24, 2015 12:09:51 GMT -6
So my 4.0 has developed a vibration, shudder, or wicked shimmy when accelerating at 1/2 throttle or more. The gear and speed don't seem to matter, just the load on the engine. I don't have any codes. The whole front of the car seems to shake, but I mainly feel it in my feet/butt and not the steering wheel.
Here is how the car go to this point:
1. For months the car clunked going into reverse
2. In June after a reverse clunk there was grinding. Turns out the right CV joint failed. I had replaced both axles a year before, and in retrospect I think the clunk was there at the beginning. So it was a bad CV joint from the start.
3. After the fix, I noticed the ride quality sucked at speed and the handling was falling off.
4. In August replaced the struts and shocks (I had done this before 60k miles ago) and lower control arms.
5. The tire place could not get the car to hold toe.
6. I replaced the tie rods (they were 20k miles old, but had been removed several times for other work, including one time with the evil fork. So I'm sure I broke them).
7. Alignment ok, ride quality better, but still vibration at speed.
8. In October I replaced tires (they were on the wear bars and had odd wear pattern probably from tie rods/control arms).
9. Much better ride quality, but vibration when accelerating became obvious.
10. A couple weeks ago I replaced the front and side engine mounts (they all had 50k miles on them). The rear mount is a year old and only has 20k on it.
11. The mounts had no effect on the vibration.
So what could it be? The car has new engine mounts, struts, axles, control arms, tie rods, rack (2 years old), wheel bearings (1 year old), stabilizer bar end-links (1 year). Could I have gotten a bad axle from the parts store again? The symptoms do seem similar to when I replaced the axles the first time but then the vibration was mainly in turns under load. Now it seems independent of steering angle (does it even when going straight) as long as you give enough throttle. If you accelerated like the typical mini-van driver there is no vibration.
Here is how the car go to this point:
1. For months the car clunked going into reverse
2. In June after a reverse clunk there was grinding. Turns out the right CV joint failed. I had replaced both axles a year before, and in retrospect I think the clunk was there at the beginning. So it was a bad CV joint from the start.
3. After the fix, I noticed the ride quality sucked at speed and the handling was falling off.
4. In August replaced the struts and shocks (I had done this before 60k miles ago) and lower control arms.
5. The tire place could not get the car to hold toe.
6. I replaced the tie rods (they were 20k miles old, but had been removed several times for other work, including one time with the evil fork. So I'm sure I broke them).
7. Alignment ok, ride quality better, but still vibration at speed.
8. In October I replaced tires (they were on the wear bars and had odd wear pattern probably from tie rods/control arms).
9. Much better ride quality, but vibration when accelerating became obvious.
10. A couple weeks ago I replaced the front and side engine mounts (they all had 50k miles on them). The rear mount is a year old and only has 20k on it.
11. The mounts had no effect on the vibration.
So what could it be? The car has new engine mounts, struts, axles, control arms, tie rods, rack (2 years old), wheel bearings (1 year old), stabilizer bar end-links (1 year). Could I have gotten a bad axle from the parts store again? The symptoms do seem similar to when I replaced the axles the first time but then the vibration was mainly in turns under load. Now it seems independent of steering angle (does it even when going straight) as long as you give enough throttle. If you accelerated like the typical mini-van driver there is no vibration.
