Dodge :: 1989 B250 - Low Frequency Rumble / Vibe Probably In 20 Hertz Range
May 19, 2012
This being the second of no doubt numerous questions re the 1989 Dodge B250 camper I just bought for a summer roadtrip. Engine is the 318 V8 with 120k miles. Tranny was rebuilt in '99 at about 60k.
Problem: beginning about 40 mph, and growing increasingly severe with speed, is a low-frequency rumble/vibration, probably in the 20 Hertz range. Significant enough that I didn't want to drive home faster than 50-55 mph. Could feel the whole vehicle vibrating, through the drivers seat, NOT through the steering wheel or pedals. Definitely not the engine, because as soon as I let off on the gas, the rumble/ vibe disappears. Get back on the gas and it returns full force. Definitely a drivetrain problem, only under load, that disappears when load it removed. My best guess is it felt something like I've heard described as a bad U-joint, something I've never experienced in person. The tranny shifts fine and doesn't feel like it's the problem, unless maybe it's something to do with the torque converter at highway speeds?
I'm taking it into the shop next week for diagnosis and repair, but I'd be interested to know in advance what the range of possible causes might be. Will report back after diagnosis with bonus points for correct guesses!
PS, correct me if I'm wrong, but when I pulledoff the highway to check underneath, it looked like this van has 2 U-joints. Is that correct? The van has a rear body addition for the camper bathroom.
Also, the van has been sitting almost unused for almost 2 years, except for an occasional run around the block to keep thr blood flowing. Would that lack of use perhaps. contribute to a U-joint seizing up?
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I have a '92 Dodge B250 Van named Lucy. she has less than 90,000 miles on her. I don't drive much.), but I'm starting to lose hope of fixing her problem. The problem is that the engine keeps dying, and nobody seems to be able to figure out what's causing it. It almost always happens when I'm sitting at, speeding up from or slowing down to a red light, curve, intersection or stop sign. Sometimes she'll die when I first crank her and am sitting in park, and sometimes she'll die when I'm sitting on the brake in line at a restaraunt. Sometimes she'll start immediately back up, and sometimes she takes a few minutes to turn back over. Sometimes she'll die once or twice a week, sometimes she'll go a couple of weeks between episodes.
Nobody can zero in on the problem because she NEVER does it when at the shop. She once died as I was pulling into the garage bay, but not while they were looking at her. So far I have had a new fuel pump and distributor put in, with each doing nothing more than costing me lots of money and getting my hopes up when it takes a few days after leaving the garage for her to die.
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We have taken our 2006 Pontiac Vibe to two different mechanics numerous times trying to find out what's wrong, but they told us that the car needs to not start for them in order for them to diagnose the problem. The issue with this is that every time we leave it with them, it starts just fine, and they charge us $45 per night to leave it there. We are scared to use the car because we don't want to be stranded somewhere when it randomly doesn't start.
Symptoms:
- Starts sometimes, but not consistently (once every week or two, it just won't start)
- The car sounds like it is almost going to start, as we are hearing more than just clicking, but for some reason the engine just never gets to that final rumble to stay on.
- When the issue occurs, the car will sometimes start if we try again minutes or hours later
- Jumping the battery seems to get it start.
Previous Attempts:
- Already changed the battery
- Already gotten a tune-up and oil change
As I said, we are incredibly frustrated, as this problem is not consistent enough to show up for the mechanic, and therefore renders us with an unreliable and undiagnosable car.
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over the past two weeks my 2011 GTI seems to have gotten a bit louder and has a low frequency rumble when on the lower end of the gears (DSG). Any thoughts on this? From the exterior the car doesnt seem louder to me at all. I have a stage 1 APR and everything else stock
Maybe I am going nuts but it is bugging me!
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Our 2007 Grand Caravan with a 3.3 Liter Engine has intermittent vibration which feels similar to driving over rumble bars. It usually occurs between 30-50 mph but sometimes at 70-80 mph as well. Have had the suspension checked and had outer tie rod end replaced. Also had sway bar bushings replaced and front end aligned. We then brought it to transmission shop and had a transmission diagnostic performed. They found no faults with the transmission and thought the engine needed a tune-up which we did with no success. At a recent oil change, we asked for them to test drive it and check again for any suspension problems. They did not notice any vibration during the test drive and found no problems with the suspension.
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Due to a drawbridge/liftbridge opening just in front of me, I was suddenly in a great rush.
So I floored my Prius (really floored it) a few minutes after startup to take the longer route to my daughters school. I noticed a slight sinusoidal variation in power (maybe 5% max?) that was reoccurring with a frequency of about one Hertz.
Sound familiar? Something to do with the voltage dropping on the HV battery, the power drawn from it being throttled back, the voltage recovering, the power being increased, etc???
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Someone told me they had something similar with a Dodge Caravan and it was the timing belt getting wet - only I have a timing chain. I can't tell if it is related to the revs of the engine - it might be. It's such a scary sound I take my foot off the gas and it does seem to go away as the car slows. Seems like keeping under 30mph and out of the puddles works. This is only in heavy rain, street flooded conditions.
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We have a 2006 Pontiac with no problems, except all of the sudden the hood won't open! We pull on the latch inside the car and nothing! No, the cable isn't broken ...
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I recently got another blower motor for my vibe. Got it installed but nothing happened. I replaced the resistor as well. Once I found the secret hidden fuse panel I found that the 40a fuse was blown. I replaced it and it blew instantly upon turning the ignition on, the resistor was unplugged at the time. I am wondering if there could be a short in the wire harness.
The blower went bad a while ago and blew a resistor, I replaced it and it ran for a while until some smoke came out of the dash and then nothing.
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My '06 Pontiac Vibe sometimes has one headlight out. When it's on as a daytime light, or on normally, the right headlight is not working. As a high-beam, it comes back on. It did this for a few days, then came back to normal after I hit a hard bump. Now it's back out again. It sure sounds like a loose wire to me, but I can't find it by jiggling wires behind the light assembly.
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The light annoys me, so I disconnected the battery and reconnected it a few minutes later. The car wouldn't start. I jumped it. It started, I let it idle, turned it off, and it's dead again. I did the same once more. Still dead.
So, my family "mechanic" says I probably didn't connect the terminals well enough, and that it might just need to be adjusted (in all fairness, I'm playing the stupid girl card here). He said worst case scenario is that I randomly need a new alternator (I doubt this based on the circumstances), and it's possible I might need a new battery (I think I replaced it three years ago, but maybe I didn't).
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Now when they were explaining this I was trying to calm a screaming baby, so I wasn't really paying attention to the explanation, but I wanted to verify that this could happen and that I really do need yet another rebuild, this time with a new balance shaft. He's cutting me a break (this rebuild is significantly cheaper than the last one).
All this said, I really do trust my mechanic, but am really considering letting go of this curse of a car. I've now paid for it's value 1.5 times over the last two years. While the mechanic assures me this trans is bulletproof, two incidents in as many years makes me think otherwise. A quick google search doesn't allay my fears either...
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