Front End Wobble

[Shark506 2]

Driving home from work this morning, car was running great then as i slowed down for a corner the gear lever violently shook from side to side as did the whole car!? The steering felt fine but it was as if the front wheels were loose! I stopped & checked the wheels but they were fine.

Managed to nurse the car home after checking nothing was hanging loose underneath.

Checked under the bonnet & nothing is immediately obvious.

Anyone any ideas? Driveshaft popped out maybe?

 

Cheers

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Wouldnt be the driveshaft popped out because you woulld have lost drive.

A worn inner driveshaft joint can do that though,i had a zx a while ago and coming off the throttle from 70mph was pretty interesting.

[Shark506 2]

So not an easy fix then? Do i take it that means a replacement driveshaft needed?

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

A worn shaft usually tends to come on gradually rather than all of a sudden though. Also when I've had worn inner CV joints usually you get the wobble or lob when under acceleration but not when cruising or coasting. I'd say further investigation is required before you start buying new shafts.

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

I dunno Tom I managed to pop an inner joint pulling away from a roundabout, I actually heard it go bang.

 

Same symptoms with the gear lever but the car wasnt skitting around on the front, it drove fine unless under acceleration.

 

Mine was the short shaft inner joint.

 

However it may have been on its way out and I just finished it off

Edited February 28, 2013 by pugpete1108

[Shark506 2]

The car 'wobbles' all the time, whether accelerating or coasting. Solid engine mounts won't help the issue i guess.

I'm on nights so difficult to properly have a look until this afternoon when get up.

It's a sign to get the car off the road & dismantled & rectify all the shoddy previous owners work!!!

[Shark506 2]

Actually thinking about it, the gear lever has always shaken violently on heavy acceleration, i just put it down to the solid mounts, so could have been on its way out gradually.

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

I had something like this only my car was full of wet camping equipment, with girlfriend (now wife) on the way home from the Alps - you can just picture the scene.

After a 3 week holiday full of sun, the day we left was pouring with rain.

Floor it onto the motorway one side of the car leaps around, from the front like the driveshaft is twisted bent. Pull over, inspect. Spend 2 hours trying to find somewhere with a ramp.

We finally find a garage (Saturday afternoon provincial France!) they look at it (for 2 hours) and find nothing wrong - go for a simple drive and it is fine.

Drive the first 100 of 600 miles carefully and then throw caution to the window and get the speed up. The rest of that journey was amazing - speeding across France on Route Nationale roads into the sunset; then to Le mans where we have no fuel left and no where accepts UK cards.....sorry I've gone off a bit!

 

Just to say I replaced the drive shaft once we got home.

It was showing some signs of vibration when we were heading to Dover on the way out.

CV joint was a bit crap.

[pug_ham 245 3 Cars]

Greg, I'll try to come over on Sunday & have a look around your car but I think the best move you could make would be to get rid of the group A engine mounts as they are seriously overkill on a road car & maybe consider swapping your gearbox even a standard 1.6 instead of the 1.6 with 4.4fd thats fitted now.

 

I can't see the driveshaft having popped out either, my first suspect for the inner joints going imo would be a split inner cv boot but your car was MOTed recently so I'd be surprised if they've split & gone so soon.

 

The gearstick movement could be something as simple as the main subframe balljoint pivot having worked loose, this happens on cars with standard mounts over time so your mounts will only make it worse & they can go from "good" to horrendous very quickly.

 

I can't remember what your gearchange looked like when I last saw your car but I don't think it was ever exactly tight, thankfully this is an easy fix though.

 

You mentioned in your text earlier you could feel movement in the r/h wheel with the car on the ground which certainly isn't right but without seeing the car is very difficult to troubleshoot accurately.

 

g

[pug_ham 245 3 Cars]

I went & had a look at Greg's car yesterday & its a strange one.

 

All we found that isn't right is the nearside Gaz shock has some lateral movement between the piston rod & body which isn't there on the offside so we are swapping the front struts today to see if that cures it.

 

After I found this, we refitted the wheels & with the car back on the ground the nearside is definitely softer compared to the offside.

 

There is quite a bit of play in the subframe gear linkage quadrant but Greg didn't have a spanner to fit the bolt so I'll have a look at that later as well. IIrc there is usually a spring washer under the bolt head which I suspect is missing at least.

 

Both driveshafts appear good & fairly tight but the engine is tilted so this might mask any extra play.

 

g

[pug_ham 245 3 Cars]

No update on this yet, I couldn't get to Greg's before he was going to collect a new car so nothing was done.

 

Will update if the strut swap cures when we get it done.

 

g