306 TD drivetrain vibration/wobble
Moderator: RichardW
306 TD drivetrain vibration/wobble
Hi everybody. I was wondering if anyone might be able to give me an idea of what would cause quite serious vibration (low frequency, almost a wobble) through the transmission on a turbo diesel 306. It occurs around 45-60 mph in any gear, and becomes stronger the harder you accelerate, even though you can still just about feel it when not accelerating at all. The gearbox is fine, no noise from the diff etc, and no obvious play in the ball joints, track rod ends etc. The wobble is enough to cause the gearstick to move from side to side when it occurs. Any ideas? Thankyou.
Try the drive shafts, as I had the same symptoms with my 306 xtdt, sadly it will be a process of elimination by changing one side at a time, unless you can actually see damage to either one of them, but I would start by changeing the o/s (drivers) one first.The one I removed had absolutley no signs of damage or wear, even the support bearing was ok,as these are also a common problem, me being a mechanic I wouldn't have believed changing the drive shaft was the cure had it not been my own car.
A mate of mine (with 306 TD) had what sounds like exactly the same problem. Front of car wobbles about under acceleration aroud 40-60mph (a bit like wiggling the steering wheel back and forth quickly). What happened was he blew the engine in his car (it swallowed a bit of water!!). If I remember rightly, when the engine was replaced, one of the driveshafts was reinstalled slightly out of line, causing the vibration. So, like Bambi, I suggest have those driveshafts seen to. Of course, this could also be caused by a sagging engine mount, allowing the whole engine/gearbox to sit out of line.