I've a little over 60k on my '12 Golf TDI and I think it's time to replace the brake rotors and pads (a lot of vibration and pulsing under moderate to heavy braking). I'm looking to replace front and rear rotors at the same time, but have a question about the rear rotor size:
Websites like Tirerack & Partsgeek give several options for the rear rotors - 256mm, 260mm and 272mm.
My 03 Passat is going in for 40k service this week. I think they're going to tell me I need new brakes and rotors (felt some pretty heavy vibration during braking in the Tennessee hills). I was thinking of changing the front brakes myself. My mechanical abilities are modest, but I've done the brakes on my 94 Ford Ranger before.
1. Is this an easy task?
2. What parts will be needed?
2012 gti, completely stock, 21,000 miles. Perfectly smooth ride right up to 69mph, then mild/moderate vibration in the steering wheel at 70+mph... figured it was an out of balance wheel up front, had the tires rotated, but still vibrates. I suppose ALL the wheels could be out of balance, but seems unlikely?? Will have the balance checked on all wheels...
View 18 RepliesI have a 2011 stock GTI with DSG. 7,000 miles. I just noticed the car has a resonance / vibration / cyclical pulsing / cyclical drone at EXACTLY 65MPH and again at 75MPH. It feels like the pavement has rumble strips every 100 feet or so. I feel it in the floorpan and slightly thru the pedals. You can also hear it- mid-pitched- like a higher male voice tone. It pulses about every second or slightly less for about a half second. It is slightly faster at 75MPH than 65 MPH.
There is NO shimmy in the steering wheel. It is rock solid stable.
I can't place if it is coming from the front, rear, left or right.
Happens in every gear- regardless of RPM.
Happens the same turning left vs. right.
Happens with and without AC on.
Happens with and without the brakes on and/or parking brake on.
I rotated tires front to back with no difference.
Of course, I spend most of my driving time at these speeds and it is making me CRAZY.
BAD WHEEL BEARING??
So I just had the 10k service done on my GTI and after I got it back everything seemed fine. That is, until under moderate acceleration there was a weird buzz or vibration that came on around 2800-3400rpm coming from what I think is the engine bay or near the firewall on the passenger side. I was able to repeat the issue multiple times and it showed up every time. However, with the car at a stop and in neutral and revving it I can't make the problem occur only when under load, in gear, and traveling at speed. If I could describe it, it sounds like a playing card against bicycle spokes (for those of us who did that when we were kids)..
Anyways, I drove it straight back to the dealer and at that point had closed their service shop but they did do the right thing and give me a loaner car until they can look at it on Monday. How the heck could this pop up after a 10k service? What all do they do besides oil change, tire rotation, and fluid inspection?
I did pop the hood and one of the side of the fuel rail sounded louder than the other, I suspected that maybe one injector is starting to go and it seemed like an isolated noise but perhaps its not an injector at all. Nonetheless it seems this is a non-related issue..
I am experiencing a power/boost pulse when under moderate to heavy acceleration. I'm wondering if this is a sign of my diverter valve failing or another issue withing the turbo system.
I don't have a boost gauge and the main pulsing seems to be between 2800 and 5k in the rpm band.
Problem description: A loud metallic rattling sound from under the car under moderate to heavy engine load, only when engine/exhaust is/are cold. It is noticeable from within the cabin with the windows rolled up and the sunroof closed. Crack a window or the sunroof and it's pretty loud. The first time I heard I, I thought "this is not good".
This is not an octane ping or valve train noise. It sounds like a coffee can with marbles being shaken in concert which what might be the rapping of a V8 engine's exhaust. I had a Sunbeam Tiger that rapped in the upper rpm ranges and this reminded me of that but instead of rapping, it shakes a can with marbles.
There has been much discussion and speculation as to what causes this. It does seem to occur only with late - 04 and up V8 Touaregs with the "sport" exhaust that replaced the "std"(?) exhaust used on the majority of the 04s.
Observation: I looked very closely at the heat shields, looking for ways they could rattle. On the passenger side (LHD), the heat shield has three main sections:
- Front: around/near the secondary cat (tightly secured)
- Rear: around/near the rear differential (tightly secured)
- Middle: between the two mentioned above (loosely secured)
The three sections overlap a little where they meet. It was very easy to tap on the middle shield and make a loud metallic sound. I put my finger between the two shields (where they meet) to isolate the two metal pieces and tapped again, and the noise was gone.
Theory: The harmonic resonance of the exhaust under load vibrates the middle heat shield and it rattles against the front and/or rear shields. As the shields heat up, they flex enough to provide clearance between each other and the noise goes away. This may be unique to the "sport" exhaust if (and I am only speculating) the heat shields were changed (in design or fitment) when they changed the exhaust.
Experiment: I tried a very simple experiment. I slightly bent the edges of the middle shield (~1/2 inch) where it was coming in contact with the front and rear shields. The allowed me to tap rather hard on any of the shields without them rattling against each other.
Result: I make the tweaks to the shields Sunday night. When I drove to work this morning, I put the transmission in sport mode and ran WOT until it shifted. Normally, I would have heard the sound (very loudly) but it was gone. No metallic sound. Not completely convinced, I repeated the experiment on the way home and, again, the sound was gone.
Summary: It was cool out when I was going to, and from, work (64F) and this would normally be the perfect set up for making the sound. I think that tweaking the heat shield has solved the noise on my Touareg. I am tempted to go back under there and pop-rivet a little brace between the shields so that they cannot rattle against each other again. On the other hand, I may just leave it be and do the pop-rivets if the noise comes back.
Anyway, I was excited to find a potential solution for my Touareg and wanted to share it will you all. I will post back after a while and report how it goes in the long term. Lastly, I really liked being able to put the air suspension in xtra-offroad and get under the car (easily) without using a jack....
When I am accelerating heavy and then slow down as it is engine braking i get a strange vibration. It seems to come from the drive line i just looked over the car today there is nothing loose all suspension is tight drive shaft looks good and the rubber u joint looks good too. I noticed it after I put in the resonator delete but I didn't think that it could cause it.
View 2 RepliesJust bought my R a few months ago and love it so far. I've recently encountered a slight buzz or vibration. I'll get down to the nitty gritty and not bore you with long drawn out information. Basically under heavy acceleration the driver side vibrates/ buzzes down by the floorboard. Now this only happen under heavy acceleration. I even did a test in 1st gear. Heavy accellerate under 2k RPM's, 3k RPM's, 4k RPM's and the vibration happened under these heavy acceleration periods. It's almost like there was also a loss of power during this vibration/ buzz, which leads me to believe it might be the clutch.
I took off the prop shaft and drove in FWD for a few weeks. The vibration was still prominent. Took of both front driveshafts and inspected those and they seem perfect but THE VIBRATION IS STILL HERE. Could this be the clutch?
While using moderate braking just enough that only the electric motors are retarding the car if I hit a decent bump, say a pothole, I momentarily lose the brakes. We're talking a fraction of a second, but it is still noticeable.
My initial thought is that it's programmed into the car to save the drivetrain from a shock load when the tire regains proper traction, or possibly there's a concern about the tire skidding. Either way, it's a bit of a strange sensation to me and I'm wondering if it's normal.
Both my wife and I noticed that whenever we brake moderately to hard, we can hear water sloshing around. The sound is coming from the driver side underneath, like maybe from the gas tank? Is this normal? We just purchased this car last month (2007 LS 460L) and love it! This is our third LS (Ls 400, 430 and now 460). What's going on?
View 3 RepliesI have started to hear a slight (but getting louder) squeal from my brakes when I am braking from moderate speeds (20 mph and under). I know that the car had new stock brakes put on it less than a year ago. What I should do about it?
Stock 1.8T 5spd 2001 discs all around.
I ask because my father's 08 Avalon is pulsing during braking at highway speeds but only sometimes. When it does it we can feel it in the steering wheel. I suspected maybe one of the caliper pins was seizing. So I pulled the front wheels. The pads and rotors look great. I removed the pins, cleaned and greased them. On the test drive it pulsed two times for me but was totally smooth on the rest of the drive.
View 6 RepliesIt's a farm truck, lumber getter trailer puller. Not driven often, after sitting for awhile the brakes seem to be pulsing in front like antilock, as if braking on ice. I checked both front caliper springs or plunger slides and they are free not froze up.
View 1 Replies2011 SF. 52000kms.
A little while ago I noticed a brief vibration (felt through floor and steering) with normal acceleration from stand still... I attrributed this to the cold weather and perhaps oil thickening, as the problem went away after the car was warmed up. Since then I have noticed that it's continually happening on a regular basis, but only for a short period.. I was still thinking that it was the cold, but that wasn't the case because I left the car idle at start up for 20 minutes until well warm.
Now.. If I slowly accelerate (not putting much load on the car) there is no vibration at all. When the car reaches a certain speed, the vibration goes away. There is also no vibration after about 15 minutes of driving.
I had a neighbor test it with me to confirm and he felt it, and initially thought differential oil, but then suggested myriad other things from the CV boot to bearings to etc etc.
I need to take it to the dealership so they can experience the vibration but would certainly need to leave it there over night so they can check it out when "cold".
Need to diagnose what I assume is a brake problem. On track, first lap is fine. Second lap start to get a vibration under braking. By the third lap the car is shuddering horrible under braking. Let the car cool for 5 minutes and it's back to the same pattern. Car is fine on the street - no vibration. StopTech slotted rotors and EBC Yellow pads. Rotors and pads have one track day on them and a few thousand commuting miles. My OEM rotors with the same brand pads lasted 4-5 track days and 30k miles.
View 11 RepliesVehicle is a 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer with 123,000 miles. During moderate to hard acceleration in a straight line, especially in gears 1 to 3, the front of the car vibrates. The harder I accelerate, the worse the vibration gets. Once I get into 4th gear and get up to 40 MPH, I can put the pedal to the floor and while it will do it, it is very slight. Check engine light is off.
Interestingly, on the way to work there is a 25 MPH cloverleaf and coming out of the cloverleaf onto the highway, it did not do it until the wheels were pointed straight ahead.
Deceleration, even when aggressively downshifting, is vibration-free.
I do not believe it is ignition related - the car idles fine, has plenty of power under hard acceleration, and doesn't do it when going around that cloverleaf. (As a side note, about a year ago a plug wire went bad, leaving one cylinder with no spark. In this case the engine vibrated violently, but was obviously down on power.)
There are no strange noises in the front end. No clicking around corners typical with a failing constant velocity joint, and no mechanical thuds or sqweaks over bumps I'd expect from a failing ball joint or bushing.
I am having some unusual tire wear on the outside edges of the tires, like you would see with under-inflation, but tire pressure is fine. In my mind, this points to bad ball joints.
It still has the original constant velocity joints and axles as well as the original ball joints. The one motor mount I can see looks okay. I'm thinking in order of liklihood (most likely to least likely):
1) bad axle
2) bad ball joints
3) bad motor mount
Anything else I need to check? Wheel bearings? If I do replace the axles, I will replace the front wheel bearings while I'm in there.
I have a 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier. I've been getting a pulsing vibration which feels like the left front. It starts at about 40mph and gets worse the faster I go. The vibration completely goes away with the slightest left turn on the freeway. It vibrates on acceleration and deceleration, in neutral and in gear (5spd manual). I've currently replaced the front struts, strut mounts, pads and rotors, left front wheel bearing, tie rod ends, had the front end aligned and the tires balanced.
View 2 RepliesEver since the day I bought the car, it has had a highway speed pulsing vibration. This vibration manifests once you cross about 90kph, and pulses like a sine wave.
Think of it like this - OOOOOOooooooOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOooooooOOOOOO - where big O's are vibration and little o's are absence of vibration.
I have had the wheels and tires rebalanced several times on various machines over the years in attempts to rid myself of it. The original owner had theorized that the car was so heavy and had sat on its aftermarket rims in one spot for so long that the wheels had bent, which does not appear to be the case. The dealer has experienced the symptoms but cannot find a cause...though I fear they are less knowledgeable about the car than I am. I note that several people on the forum have had vibration issues due to drive shaft bushing failures...but in skimming the relevant threads, none of those people characterized it as a pulsation OR a constant issue that I saw.
I wouldn't say the pulsing was fast...think 4-5 seconds of vibration and then 4-5 seconds of peace.
My car is approx two years old. I bought it in the beginning of 2010. I rotated my tires about 10,000 miles ago after not rotating them for over 20,000 miles. initially the dealer said it was cupping on the tires but I have driven them since for close to 10k miles.
The same issue persists. Whenever I drive the car and it gets to around 30-40 mph accelerating or coasting I hear a very audible noise that almost sounds like pulsating vibration in the front of the cab. I've brought it to two different dealerships and they have both said it is the tire needing rebalanced but I somehow doubt that is the case.
2014 Subaru Crosstrek XV CPO purchased December 2015.
Last month I slid out on a heavy snow day (no snow tires, I know!) on a left turn and the front passenger wheel struck the curb forcefully enough for the wheel to be angled outwards about 15-20 degrees when steering wheel was straight. Lower control arm was wrecked, had it replaced and alignment done by the local subaru pro. He noted that the caster was now 0.5 degree off, which he noted to be "within specifications". He said it's not a big deal, but if I wanted it fixed, I could have the frame pulled at a frame shop to correct.
I'm just happy to be driving my rig again, but I notice a somewhat low-pitch, pulsating, vibration-like noise whenever I make a left turn at a certain angle. It seems to resonate when I hit a "sweet spot" of speed/turn.
I made a video : [URL] ....