Vibration through the car, and not the steering wheel.

[RKi]

Rear wheels out of balance.

[ManOpener]

Rear wheel alignment is a possibility too, assuming that's adjustable on a 147.

[Pickled]

Engine, gearbox mount perished?

[sly fox]

Tyres? Are the rear wheels round? Some have a habit of wearing like a 50p pence, had this with some dunlops a few years ago.


Have you got Breakdown cover? Worth giving them a ring saying that you are worried about the vibration and get them to diagnose it?

[anonymous-user]

I have had a driveshaft balance issue on a Honda Civic before. Although the issue I had was a whole car wobbled on hard acceleration. Couldn't feel it through the wheel, but you could feel it in you arse when you booted it in 2nd and 3rd gear.

New drive shafts (under warranty) had it sorted.

Although having said that, I would be checking the rear end first before looking at the drive shafts.

Edited to add, check all the shocks as well, just incase one of them has lost some or all of its oil. That may exaggerate an out of balance wheel causing a resonant vibration at the right speed.

[Jaguar steve]

Rev engine to RPM that corresponds to road speed vibration. OK? Sure? Then do this:

Find a smooth road and drive the car over the vibration speed. Knock it into neutral, concentrate and allow it decelerate through the vibration speed. If you still have vibration off load it's probably a balance issue - if not it's probably misalignment somewhere in the driveline. Try gently braking as you decelerate. Any worse/better on or off the brakes? Find a long hill* to give you more time at problem speed if you need to and do this repeatedly until you know you're certain of the conditions the symptoms occur under.

Try jacking the driven wheels clear of the ground and run up to the vibration speed with wheels on and then off - any difference? What happens if you put a big Jubilee clip on either driveshaft to deliberately throw it off balance - better or worse? Move it to different positions on the shaft and see what happens. If RWD then do the same on the propshaft. Start at the back of the shaft and work forwards. Have somebody else run the driveline at vibration speed and feel all round mountings and hubs. Anything? Worse on one side maybe? Can you actually see anything wobbling about or not running true?

If you suspect balance then have the wheels and tyres Roadforce balanced to confirm or rule out. Google balancemycar to find your nearest centre. Make sure balance is done with tyres warm and the car is lifted off the ground as soon as you arrive to avoid temporary flat spotting. You should be looking at less than 60N force variation to be sure tyres/wheels are not the source. Roadforce will also rule out buckled or distorted wheels. Go all through the drive line looking for missing weights, bolts, brackets or dampers. Take the shocks off and test.

If you suspect alignment then check all mountings. Driveshaft UJs have to be quite badly misaligned to cause vibration but a collapsed mounting may do so. Look for polished/shiny patches where nothing is actually in contact. That indicates excessive movement - big clue there.

All your wheel nuts are tight aren't they? Not had some scrote trying to knick your wheels? Have you checked suspension/steering joints and bearings for free play?

Wheel/hub/disc/driveshaft vibrations usually occur at road speed with one pulse per rotation typically in a range 800/1000 RPM. Hold your washing machine on a spin cycle to see what that feels like. Prpopshaft vibration is a much higher frequency and can be multiple pulses per RPM. Normally felt as a tingling or buzzing.

Finding a vibration source takes careful thinking and analysis and time. That might be your entire Easter weekend fked but you'll eventually get there.

Edit to add. Just re read your post and profile. *That's going to be quite difficult where you live.

Edited by Jaguar steve on Friday 18th April 08:15

[StuntmanMike]

I had this on my BMW, vibrations through the seat but not the wheel, turned out it was pothole damage and when I replaced the front wheels it went away.
P.S I was convinced my props haft donut had failed.

[morgrp]

Swap the wheels front to back and see if it alters the feel of the vibration in anyway - will rule out a tyre or wheel problem

[SnailTrail]

I had this on an old slammed car I used to drive. The tyres were rubbing on the arches, making the outer edge of the tyres perfectly smooth.

I was convinced it was the tracking and had it checked at 2 different places multiple times. Eventually when I spotted the tyres, I put the original suspension back on and the problem went away.

It could've been the tyres making the vibrations as they rubbed on the arches, or it could've been the driveshafts as a result of the silly geometry set up. Either way, if you have the original wheels/suspension lying around try putting those back on and see if it goes away.

Edited by SnailTrail on Friday 18th April 08:57

[Jaguar steve]

A.G. said:

Jaguar steve said:

Rev engine to RPM that corresponds to road speed vibration. OK? Sure? Then do this:

Like mine it seems the issue is purely road speed dependant irrelevant of RPM or gear selection.

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Two new drive shafts wont be cheap though

If you get to the point where you have eliminated all other possibilities, they are only about £50 each over here.

It's quite unusual for drive (or half) shafts to go out of balance. Unlike propshafts they are not highly balance critical components anyway and providing they are straight and the UJs are sound they don't normally cause any vibration problems. When they do it's normally under load and not all the time and that's usually shagged joints or weak wishbone or control arm bushes.

What may be happening is lowering the ride height might have somehow changed the relative working angles of the inner and outer joints so they are no longer the same. Joints are constantly accelerating and decelerating in rotation and the joints are normally movement matched and phased to cancel vibration resulting from the changes in speed.

You'd have to be some way out of manufactures spec. though to get this as joints have to accommodate changes in working angles due to normal suspension movement.

Just my 2p worth but probably best for the OP to spend a bit of time road testing and experimenting which costs nothing - before forking out for new shafts.