vibration while driving xantia td

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chimo
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vibration while driving xantia td

Post by chimo »

Hi, i'm new to the forum and have a 98 xantia 1.9 td estate and while driving there is a bad vibration coming through the drivers seat. Its like one of the back tyres has a bulge but i've checked both tyres and seem fine. There is very little vibration through the steering wheel. It only seems to happen at around 2-2500 rpm and when i clutch the car the vibrations are still there which would suggest that the engine gearbox mounts may be ok. Could it be suspension related? Any help would be great.
chimo
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Post by Peter.N. »

Does it happen at the same revs in every gear or is it at a particular road speed? Most vibrations are caused by out of balance wheels, if it is at a particulr road speed this is most likely the problem. If it is happening at the same engine speed in every gear the problem is with the engine or box. Check these out first.
citronut
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Post by citronut »

i have seen bent drive shaft where some one had fitted new clutch and did not pull o/s shaft right out,this caused same sort of thing regards malcolm
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

Have the aux belt drive pulley on crank checked.
chimo
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Post by chimo »

Thanks peter for your reply. The vibration can happen at different speeds but at tickover there is no vibration at all. When it does happen if i knock it out of gear and the car is ticking over the vibration is still there so i was thinking that it is'nt engine/gearbox as they are not on any pressure and there is no vibration coming through the gearstick. Could the rear wheels being out of balance cause this vibration? I know that if the fronts are out of balance the steering will shake like hell.
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mpr1956
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Post by mpr1956 »

hi chimo, as you have the vibration at 2-2500 rpm (I presume when you are driving in top gear?) this is around 50 or 60 mph? this is generally the speed at which out of balance wheels start performing, try swapping wheels front to back and see if that makes any difference. If the bad vibration moves to the steering then you probably have a cheap and easy cure. If there is no difference then you will have to investigate further.
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Post by JohnT »

I am with Citronut on this one. See if there is any play in the drive shafts....put the car on full lock each way and listen for clunking. Try to get movement by hand pressure.If it is the drive shaft out of balance the noise will be repeated at the speed of the road wheel, quite slow. I would still change wheels from front to back though, just in case!
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Post by pete_wood_uk »

I'm not clear if you're saying it's related to engine speed or road speed? If it's road-speed related (as you suspected yourself when you mentioned tyre bulges), then try a front-to-back swap of the wheels - I once had a tyre with internal damage but which did not show as an external bulge - swapping the wheels round soon showed it up!
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Post by ghostrider »

I had the same problem and it turned out to be a combination of things.
1st was one rear wheel out of balance, which I only discovered when it punctured and I put the spare on.
2nd was uneven wear on some very cheap front tyres which were either out of balance as a consequence of the uneven wear or the other way round, don't know which as the problem existed when I bought the car.
3rd and most surprising was front discs, I recently replaced them due to them being way below the minimum thickness and now the problem has gone.
When driving it I was never entirely convinced it was wheel balance like I 've had before, (I usually find that the wobble is worst at one particular speed but it also occurs at multiples or sub multiples of that speed ie main wobble at say 60 but also some vibration at 30 and 90). I never got any particular vibration through the steering, you noticed it most through the seat, the other thing that made me suspicious was that the vibration did not always start at the same speed sometimes 60 sometimes nearly 70 and as the speed increased the nature of the vibration through the seat changed, presumably as the various faults and resonant frequecies combined or cancelled each other out, anyway the cheapo tyres are just about worn out now so hopefully once I've parted with yet more cash, peace will descend [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] The downside of my cheapskate approach is that it will probably have done for the front wheel bearings, but seeing as that is my favorite job,
[:p] [:p] [:p] [:p] it gives me somethiong to look forward to[:D] [:D] [:D] (Sad old Git [:D] )
Pete
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Last edited by ghostrider on 22 Feb 2011, 06:04, edited 1 time in total.
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