Possible driveshaft worn?

[Wayneoeyers]

Last couple of months I’ve been getting an intense vibration through the whole car, normally when accelerating in 4th,5th and 6th. But if I lift off the throttle a tiny bit and re throttle it stops.
Noticed a rough bearing sound today on the motorway, but jacked the car up and the wheel bearing seem smooth still.
What I did notice was a moderate amount of free play particularly on the near side drive shaft, both up and down and in and out.
Could this driveshaft be the problem?

[Ianfromnotts]

did you ever sort this, I have a similar problem ar 120kmiles.

The car feels a little rougher than usual when driving but, from time to time especially with the gas on at circa 60mph in top (1750-2000 rpm area) i get very bad vibration, almost as if I am driving over a series of small bumps in the road and on accassions an accompanying nnnnnn sound.

ease of the gas and the problem subsides, in neutral the problem subsides too but doesnt totally go.

I also noticed the offside wheel is marginally warmer to touch than the other 3.

MOT was 3000 miles ago when it had a new gator put on the OSF inner drive shaft, new front tyres and new rear springs. The all wheel bearings are relatively new, OSF 10k miles ago. I noticed a slight vibration on some roads soon after the driveshaft gator change but which is getting worse.

My garage says the driveshaft has slight play but they are not confident enough to say it that it is sufficient to cause the vibration, they say the nut at the wheel end is tight

any ideas what to do next?

I have suggested the

[FunkyMelon]

Take it to a tyre shack or your local tyre place that has a balancing machine and ask them to put each wheel on.

Are you on 18" wheels? I expect you have a buckled wheel.

[Ianfromnotts]

yes 18" wheels, I did think about this but dont see why it should come and go and vary in intensity

[FunkyMelon]

Originally Posted by Ianfromnotts

yes 18" wheels, I did think about this but dont see why it should come and go and vary in intensity

It depends, past a certain speed you won't notice the oscillation, worth getting them checked anyway, if it's your driveshaft then make sure you're sat down when you get prices....

[Ianfromnotts]

booked in for 4 wheel balance, fingers crossed

[Ianfromnotts]

all 4 wheels balanced out ok, but I was told there are flat spots on both rear wheels, they have seen worse, the offside rear is worse than the nearside.

The vibration characteristics have changed a little, immediately after the re-balance I was getting lost of vibration through the steering wheel but today thsi reduced and there was more noticable vibration through the floor pan.

But it comes and goes and changes without any obvious consistency, I am wondering if, as the car turns left/right in normal use the flat spots change position relative to each tiggering different vibration paterns? could it be ?

I have some 17" wheels in the garage so when I get a day i will try to put those one the rear and see what happens


I will also try see if I can feel any roughness in the front offside wheel bearing - I cant hear any noise when circling in a car park but the wheel is still getting slighly warmer. - I could of course have a slighly sticking caliper, but no pulling and the wheel is only marginall warmer than the nearside.

[Ianfromnotts]

wish I had got the wheels checked sooner, it may have saved my tyre side wall

I swapped the rear wheels over for another pair I had in the garage, not an exact fit but it cleared the problem.

Then came the problem of getting the buckles fixed.

After wasting loads of time talking to tart them up refurbishers and alloy engineers who said they could over the phone but siad no when I arrived!

I ended up going to Wellspek (http://www.wellspek.co.uk) just outside mansfield who did a great job and charged me less than he quoted over the phone.

With the tyres off one of the side walls was badly cracked so had to be replaced - so the moral is for £20 get the wheels checked at your local tyre emporium first.

Many thanks to Funkymelon for the heads up

[Ianfromnotts]

well my joy was short lived, went on a longer, 1 hour, run mixture of fast a roads and dual carriage ways over the weekend and teh problem is not sorted.

The car feels much smoother at lower speeds but run at over 60 for a few miles and I get vibration through the throttle pedal and adjacent floor pan. It is worst when I fethering the throttle to keep it at a steady 60, or for that matter 70 or 80 now. gas on vibration gas off it reduces. Coast in neutral (not recommended for safety reasons) all seems smoth again.

Local garage looked the driveshaft again, packed out the outer CV with grease, couldnt get to the inner one easily - see how we go. my worry is that remanuactured drive shafts loook to be junk and mew ones are mega expensive

[Yobbo]

Originally Posted by Ianfromnotts

well my joy was short lived, went on a longer, 1 hour, run mixture of fast a roads and dual carriage ways over the weekend and teh problem is not sorted.

The car feels much smoother at lower speeds but run at over 60 for a few miles and I get vibration through the throttle pedal and adjacent floor pan. It is worst when I fethering the throttle to keep it at a steady 60, or for that matter 70 or 80 now. gas on vibration gas off it reduces. Coast in neutral (not recommended for safety reasons) all seems smoth again.

Local garage looked the driveshaft again, packed out the outer CV with grease, couldnt get to the inner one easily - see how we go. my worry is that remanuactured drive shafts loook to be junk and mew ones are mega expensive

Hi Ian, I might have a new remanufactured shaft for sale.
As you saw with my posts in the vibration/wobble thread, if the gearbox top mount sorts it I could try fitting my spare brand new offside shaft just for testing and if it checks out to be fine which I am almost certain it will be then I'd be happy to sell it to you as a tried and tested shaft.
As I say, I've had SIX different shafts on my car now so the problem really looks to be somewhere else.