Vibration Under Load

[martinj46]

My car has had a vibration under load for several months now. It does it in any gear, but seems to be worst in 3rd, just before the vtec crossover point and above. I don't think it's a wheel wobble as it's coming through the chassis and seat rather than the steering wheel.

Work I've had done to try and correct it:
Wheels balanced several times by different reputable garages, and it's had 2 sets of tyres during this time.
I changed the passenger side driveshaft, the rubber donut had perished, but it wasn't that causing the problem
Brakes have been changed, the discs were warped, but that was a different problem
I've sanded down the powdercoat on the mating surface of the hubs and wheels, on the chance it maybe wasn't smooth enough.

Other thoughts, it could be the other driveshaft/intermediate driveshaft, but there's no visual damage to either and reports of broken driveshafts at near standard power are few and far between.

It might be the engine mounts, but from a quick look tonight they don't seem to be damaged, and the engine remains fairly steady when levered with a bar.

Any thoughts?

 

[beppe786]

Change to complete another set of alloys still could be the wheels even after balanced

 

[martinj46]

Change to complete another set of alloys still could be the wheels even after balanced

Sadly not, it was doing it with my OEM wheels and winter tyres too

 

[Mark_teg]

Taking it to TGM convenient?

 

[martinj46]

Taking it to TGM convenient?

Sadly not, I'm up in Aberdeen. Several hundred miles from any DC5 specialist

 

[blueguy]

Driveshaft heatshield?

 

[martinj46]

Driveshaft heatshield?

I'll have another check when the rain stops, but I'm pretty sure it was tight and free from any moving parts.

 

[wj51fut]

Can you jack up the wheels? Do one at a time. When you have got it up in the air, rotate the wheel left to right in a rocking motion with both hands grabbing the tyre part of the wheel. (Like your driving it! Lol) then move the wheel in and out as if you are turning the steering wheel. Rocking again. If you hear any clanging or knocking then you've narrowed it down to one wheel and possibly a wheel bearing or driveshaft. See if you can physically move the driveshaft in and out of its location. I very much doubt you could spin it.

Another way to test to see if it's a bearing is to drive the car for a good while. Motorway or dual carriage way. Then you need to stop the car without applying the brakes too hard. Sounds crazy I know. When the car has stopped, put the flat of your hand on the hub cap. If one is hotter than the other then that could be your problem.

Do you get any torque steer? The way to test this is find a straight piece of road with no one on it. From a stand still, pull away quite aggressively having your hands hovering over the steering wheel ready to grab it if it goes to one side. This could indicate a bad driveshaft.

If you have changed the wheels and had them balanced with new tyres then I very much doubt it's to do with the wheels.

Adam

 

[martinj46]

Cheers for the suggestions Adam. Quite a few things to try there, I'll report back

 

[justJDM]

Have you checked the Wheel bearing for play?

 

[martinj46]

Finally got this sorted yesterday. It was the drivers side outer section of the driveshaft. There was quite a bit of play in the joint, a replacement from integrastella and it's as good as new again

Cheers for all the suggestions, much appreciated

 

[Crazylegs]

Glad you got it sorted out it sounds like you've had a right nightmare with it.

Good stuff.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Mark_teg]

Thanks for updating us, glad it's sorted 👍

 

[Bernard777]

Hey martin think im having same problem my mechanic has tried everything. I get the vibration under hard acceleration was it like that in yours. Also over 70mph it will vibrate constantly but not to harshly

 

[hondamad2204]

Mine seems to have started doing this vibration under load thing tonight. If I floor it in third, feels like my whole car is shaking, but when leylt off its fine. Gently accelerate and it doesn't happen, brakes are not binding etc, not pulling left or right, im going to try changing my wheels and see if that helps.

But after seeing this thread Im thinking otherwise....what do I actually have to look for when looking at a possible worn driveshaft? I can get it up it the air tomorrow, so any advice on what you encountered Martin would be fantastic.

James

 

[martinj46]

Yeah, that sounds identical to what I had.

With the driver side wheel up in the air, follow the driveshaft back towards the centre of the car. You'll see it's split in two halves, with a cylinder shaped 'joint' in the middle. When I slowly spun the wheel forward or back, there was slack in this joint. i.e. I could turn the wheel around 5-10 degrees before the inner section of the driveshaft would turn too.

A new outer section driveshaft from integrastella sorted it for me. I can't remember how much it cost, but it wasn't too bad.

 

[hondamad2204]

Ok perfect.

So basically, I should be able to turn one wheel, and both that shaft and the centre shaft should move at exactly the same time..... any delay in movement from one to another is basically causing the vibration.?

 

[martinj46]

Pretty much. I think there will probably always be a small amount of slack, but hardly anything. Can someone more mechanically minded than me confirm this?

 

[hondamad2204]

Yeah, ok at least I have something in mind now. Thanks for that buddy.

But as above If anyone could confirm that would also be great.