2004 Volvo S60 D5 intermittent vibration/juddering issue

[Rammy76]

I was wondering if any of you knowledgeable people would have any advice on what may be wrong with my Volvo?

I've owned the car for a year and it is mainly used as a motorway cruiser, which up until now it has been superb at. Unfortunately a few weeks ago it began to judder and vibrate very intermittently whilst cruising on the motorway.

There is no warning of it about to happen, it can be at any speed/revs and on any road surface. It is so random I have no idea what's causing it and it is very frustrating as the car can judder quite badly for a few minutes then it disappears as randomly as it happened!

I have had the wheels balanced and tracking done just to eliminate the possibility of them, I've checked the brakes for binding, the car has been up on the ramps in 2 different garages and neither could see any wear in the suspension or anywhere else.

It's the fact the fault is so random that has confused me and I'm struggling to get an idea what's causing it.

If anyone has any idea/experience of this I'd be grateful for suggestions.

[andburg]

failing DMF?

from memmory especially common on the 163bhp cars with a remap.

[kpb]

Intermittent injector fault?

[anonymous-user]

Rammy76 said:

I was wondering if any of you knowledgeable people would have any advice on what may be wrong with my Volvo?

I've owned the car for a year and it is mainly used as a motorway cruiser, which up until now it has been superb at. Unfortunately a few weeks ago it began to judder and vibrate very intermittently whilst cruising on the motorway.

There is no warning of it about to happen, it can be at any speed/revs and on any road surface. It is so random I have no idea what's causing it and it is very frustrating as the car can judder quite badly for a few minutes then it disappears as randomly as it happened!

I have had the wheels balanced and tracking done just to eliminate the possibility of them, I've checked the brakes for binding, the car has been up on the ramps in 2 different garages and neither could see any wear in the suspension or anywhere else.

It's the fact the fault is so random that has confused me and I'm struggling to get an idea what's causing it.

If anyone has any idea/experience of this I'd be grateful for suggestions.

When you say judder do you mean you feel it through the steering or could it be something like an injector messing around? My old D5 would sometimes shake violently upon startup, it was a very obvious 'misfire' about all I can call it really. Next time it started it was fine. The other thing that happened was that the loom under the rear seat over the years had stressed the pins in the connector. Sat on the Mway for ages on cruise it just spluttered and died. It took a while to work it out but the supply to the lifter pump was loose. At a constant cruise speed (after 3hrs) it got warm and the connection failed. As soon as it cooled down the car started perfectly. That was one bh of a fault.

[Rammy76]

andburg said:

failing DMF?

from memmory especially common on the 163bhp cars with a remap.

That's a good suggestion which did cross my mind along with the possibility of the engine misfiring.

It still does it when I dip the clutch and freewheel though.

[thatdude]

Does it do it in neutral, coasting along?

At idle, or only under some load?

Are you sure it's chassis componentry related?

[anonymous-user]

andburg said:

failing DMF?

from memmory especially common on the 163bhp cars with a remap.

It would be noisy at idle though?

[Rammy76]

thatdude said:

Does it do it in neutral, coasting along?

At idle, or only under some load?

Are you sure it's chassis componentry related?

When it happened again last night I put it to neutral and coasted and it was just as bad.

I've had a car with the tracking out before and it's the closest description I can think of when it happens. This isn't speed dependant though.

[Truckosaurus]

My chipped D5 used to eat engine mounts, so that's something else to check.

[confused_buyer]

If it's not engine speed related it is more likely to be suspension or brakes.

Are you sure it's not the abs false activating? Can happen.

[Pesty]

Don't laugh, long shot.
Cooling fan out of balance

Come in at random. Goes away. ...


Just a thought.

[isctony]

If it is intermittent in the way you describe it it could be a loose electrical wire/faulty sensor and it changes the way the ECU runs the engine. check things like MAF sensors etc. Also worth checking ABS sensor and Traction control. Any short circuitry has the potential to be very intermittent and to happen without warning.

[Rammy76]

yonex said:

When you say judder do you mean you feel it through the steering or could it be something like an injector messing around? My old D5 would sometimes shake violently upon startup, it was a very obvious 'misfire' about all I can call it really. Next time it started it was fine. The other thing that happened was that the loom under the rear seat over the years had stressed the pins in the connector. Sat on the Mway for ages on cruise it just spluttered and died. It took a while to work it out but the supply to the lifter pump was loose. At a constant cruise speed (after 3hrs) it got warm and the connection failed. As soon as it cooled down the car started perfectly. That was one bh of a fault.

It's definitely felt through the steering, it's as if the front suspension/steering "tightens up" when it happens. It's very hard to describe. Is there something that could temporarily cause the front end geometry to change enough to cause this then to correct itself? I cant really see how it could happen personally.

The only other things I've thought about are wheel bearings and the steering rack.

I don't think it's anything to do with a misfire as the engine is smooth from startup and always pulls well. Would it not bring up the engine management fault light up with a misfire?

[Rammy76]

confused_buyer said:

If it's not engine speed related it is more likely to be suspension or brakes.

Are you sure it's not the abs false activating? Can happen.

It does feel quite similar to the action of abs initiating.

Wouldn't that bring up some kind of fault on the dash? I wonder if I should plug in an ECU reader and see if there's any fault codes standing?

[anonymous-user]

Check your steering fluid. The reservoirs are notorious to cracking. When my fluid was mega low (spilt reservoir)I had a weird feeling on lock, kind of oscillating back, resisting. Obviously cavitating. Also a groan from the pump. Next up check the rack/pump?

[soi6]

Truckosaurus said:

My chipped D5 used to eat engine mounts, so that's something else to check.

I use up a top engine mount every 16 months !

[458bhp]

Check your engine mounts are holding pressure.