Subaru - Outback :: Shake / Shudder At 18 - 20 And 55 - 60mph And During Acceleration
Jul 27, 2016
I have a 2005 Subaru Outback, 3.0 H6, LL Bean, 5 speed auto. 150,000 miles. No engine codes.
I bought it took two years privately. I didn't notice during the test drive, but it has a shake/shudder at 18-20mph and at 55-60mph. Only at those speeds and only during acceleration. During light acceleration it isn't noticeable, but hard acceleration particularly on a hill at 55-60 the car can shake quite violently. Probably 50% of the time the 18-20mph shudder doesn't occur. It feels like the whole of the front of the car is shaking from side to side.
It doesn't matter what gear it's in - auto/auto sport/manual 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th. So it's not engine rpm related. I've had the transmission fluid flushed. I've had two sets of tires. I've had the prop shaft replaced. It still does it, and it hasn't got better or worse. It happens both during straight line and turns.
The engine runs smooth and the gear shifts are crisp and smooth. Our local dealer doesn't know what it is (they suggested prop shaft) and our highly recommended local transmission shop doesn't know what it is. All CV joints have been checked.
I think the big clue here is that it is very vehicle speed dependent; 18-20 and 55-60mph.Could it be something to do with the transfer clutches? Does this transmission have an electronic control computer that needs an update? (This is a first year model). Is there vehicle speed sensor used by the transmission that could be bad but that wouldn't trigger an engine code? Unfortunately I can't disable the rear wheel drive like on the 4 speed transmissions, there is no fuse to do that.
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Took my 06 Outback (106K miles) in to have the right front inner & outer CV boots/axle assembly replaced (one of the boots had torn open and was slinging grease everywhere, so no surprise there). When I was driving home after picking the car up, I noticed what felt like a wobble or shudder that seemed to come from the center or right side of the car (I couldn't tell which). It would only happen while accelerating, kicking in at about 20mph and then seeming to go away at about 30mph. It didn't happen at all while coasting, braking, or decelerating. The more of a load there was on the engine, the worse the wobble/shudder was, and if I accelerated very very slowly it wouldn't happen at all or would be just barely perceptable. I didn't feel it in the steering wheel; it was more like something felt through the seat and the car itself, if that makes sense.
So I took the car back to the shop the next day, and although the owner of the shop said he drove the car and didn't notice anything, he decided to go ahead and do the job over under warranty just in case they had installed a bad axle or had otherwise "botched" (my word, not his) the job. He also rotated and rebalanced the tires on the off chance that's where the issue was. Within about 15-20 minutes of picking up the car the 2nd time, I started noticing the wobble/shudder again, always under the same conditions as I've already noted--only while accelerating, always kicking in at about 20mph and going away at about 30mph, and always worse the more of a load there was on the engine/the faster the acceleration. The only additional info I've been able to glean is that it doesn't ever seem to happen when I drive the car first thing in the morning, but starts to happen as the car warms up.
At a complete loss, I crawled under the car and starting looking and poking around for something that might be loose or knocking around. I was particularly interested in determining if there was any play in the U-joints or some kind of damage to the drive shaft. I didn't notice anything except for this--at different points on the drive shaft there are what I assume are balancing weights welded to the shaft. Well, I found a bare spot toward the rear end of the shaft that seems as if a weight used to be there (although I can't say with 100% certainty). The drive shaft is painted entirely black, as are the weights, except for this one shiny, bare-metal, square-shaped spot. "AHA" I thought to myself...balancing weight broke off (although how that would happen beats the heck out of me since it's fairly well-shielded from road debris...maybe it was just a cr@ppy weld), now the shaft is out of balance, hence the wobble/shudder. However, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered...if the shaft was out of balance, why would it only wobble while accelerating? I understand why it might only do it at certain speeds, but if a shaft is out of balance, shouldn't it wobble/shudder at those particular speeds regardless of whether I'm accelerating, decelerating, or coasting? And why would it not seem to happen until after the car had been driven for 15 minutes or so and had warmed up? Again, it seems like an out-of-balance drive shaft is going to be apparent regardless of the operating temperature of the car.
So, could I be on the right track? And if so, is the fix as simple as welding a new weight on there? Can this be done with the shaft still on the car? I think Subaru considers the shaft a non-serviceable part, but I don't want to trash and replace an otherwise perfectly good shaft for what seems like a pretty easy fix (albeit one that is probably beyond my own abilities).
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About 6 months ago I bought a '08 GS 350 CPO. Love the car but after a month or two of ownership, on light acceleration 3rd and 4th gears will shudder. The whole car will buck and shake, but if I give it more gas it will smooth out. Doesn't seem to be the engine, I suspect more the transmission. Of course I took it in and they "could not reproduce the problem"... Is this just a normal characteristic of the car?
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I have been battling a big boost upon acceleration at stoplights for approximately 6 months. Now twice I have gone into limp mode and the tech reads: PO700 (Transmission) and PO731 (Gear 1). I just turned over 190,000 miles but only purchased it a year ago. What is the problem(s)?
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I have an 02 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport with 130k miles. It makes a whining noise from the center to rear of the car that gets louder with Acceleration. The second you take your foot off the gas it gets quieter. The noise never completely disappears though. It also doesn't change if I am turning or driving straight.
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Every once in a while, while idling at a light/stop-sign/etc, I get a shudder in the engine... usually all is smooth as silk, and then its like some fat kid just jumped inside the engine compartment (I'm exaggerating) ok, a very small fat kid its like weight shifted somewhere and you feel the ripple from it.
I did find this old thread [URL] .... but doesn't look like much came of it. I don't really suspect its a big problem, but definitely nothing I've experienced since 4-5 VWs ago, when I had a throttle that would race up (but the engine revs don't seem to be changing during this).
Car is in the shop for 10k today anyway, so I figured I'd have them take a quick check. (gotta see if they can do anything for the lackluster AC too).
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So I just bought a 2004 Ex 4x4 4wd with only 50k from a dealer. While test driving the truck would shake/shudder when braking at 50-70 getting worse if you were going faster, as a condition of the sale they said they would look into it. They did and said it was the tires?? They balanced and rotated and did and alignment. Are they correct? the tires are BFG AT 33x12.5x16.5 on aftermarket rims.
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My trucks been doing something weird. When accelerating around 45-55 mph, a couple seconds after it shifts to 3rd, it does a weird type off shake/shudder. Feels like I hit a small bump in the road. Also when coming out of a cruise to accelerate, it will Make a very violent clunk and then speed up. I'm thinking it's a problem with my torque converter but my mechanic says transmission and my buddy says rear end lol. I dropped the pan and there was some shavings but nothing huge and it was the first time it was ever dropped. After 90k miles.
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I got a 2006 Solara SLE. while braking from highway speeds, the steering wheel shakes VIOLENTLY. city driving its not noticable. cruising the car is silky smooth. The one front caliper was sticking and i replaced pads, pins, rotor. Still shakes. i tried swapping pins as one pin has a sleeve at the tip and i didnt remember which one went where. i did notice the pin with no sleeve fits loosely. the rotor is AZ Duralast brand. the car has 200k trouble free with no suspension work ever done.
I am lost what to do and need to make a long trip coming up. I was going to try in order- replace other rotor, spin the one rotor and replace guide pin with a sleeved one, then do lateral run out test/lathe, alignment, then if that dosnt work a stick of dynamite. Iheard a bad tie rod or ball joint can cause this, i find it unlikely as it would probably shake all the time. Other small issue is a loud thunk in the rear when it hits bumps. Rear swaybar mounts?
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I have a 2000 Ford Excursion with multiple transmission symptoms, so here goes.
The problem doesn't occur until after the vehicle has been driven approximately 100 miles as far as I can tell. At that point, I'll start to notice smoke coming from underneath the vehicle caused by the transmission leaking fluid onto the exhaust from the front of the transmission. At lower speeds, and while idling, the transmission will shake and shudder. It's not noisy or that extreme, but definitely noticeable.
I've also noticed on occasion there is a loss of power at higher speeds when the vehicle is in 4th or 5th gear. This mostly happens when trying to accelerate to pass on the highway. The transmission sounds like it downshifts, but the hard I push the gas pedal, the less power I have. If I push down far enough, the RPM's begin to drop. I've noticed that after I let the vehicle sit turned off for a couple of hours, it begins to work properly again, but it only lasts until the transmission is hot again.
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I have a early 99 7.3l that seem to cut out and shudder while accelerating at low rpm's below 2000 once I am above 2000 rpm it seems to go away similar to a dirty carburetor thinking injector problem...
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In my case, from a stop, when I accelerate only in a turn left or right I get a shudder and shake from my rear end and it seems to be worse when the truck or air temp is colder.
well I went with the most basic thing first, popped the diff cover off, drained all the fluid, wiped out as much as I could get out of the collection area in the bottom. put a new gasket on and a little rtv, replaced cover. pulled the plug and cleaned off the shavings from the magnet and put new oil in it (I used Valvoline 75-90 with the friction modifier already in it, said limited slip right on the bottle)
test drove it around the block about a hundred times making left and right turns and the shudder and shake seemed to constantly decrease until it was perfectly smooth and noiseless!!! so that seemed to be an easy fix however I will report back to see what happens when I take it out cold in the morning.
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I have a 2012 Camry SE and my front passenger seat seems to shake/shudder alot. It constantly shudders and makes so much noise when no one is sitting in it, that it's driving me crazy! I can't tolerate the noise of it. If I go over a bump it shudders, if i'm driving on a rough highway, it shudders and shakes so badly that I have to put my hand on it to make it stop. It makes squeaky noises as well. It doesn't happen when driving on smooth surface.
Secondly, the center dash is very squeaky, and made out of hard plastic. I feel there is no insulation behind, and thus it squeaks whenever I go over a bump. What steps did you take to resolve it?
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I've got a 12 FX4 SC 6.5' w/Ecoboost. After 1K miles I began to develop a shudder/shake in the tranny-driveshaft passing through 1500 rpm. 4 dealers, 6 overnights and 2 escalations, I finally am told there is a design problem in the pre Jan 12 trucks. Fixed with frame mod to manufacturing process after Jan, but no solution for current owners with the problem. I replaced my 07 FX4 SC with this truck and loved it for the first 1K miles. Now I hate driving it, especially in traffic (lots of cycles through 1500 rpm).
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I have an 09 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport with 70k miles. I recently had new rotors and new tires replaced, an alignment and recently brought it into the dealer for its standard 60k tune up. I now feel a shimmy in my steering wheel at about 65-70 mph. It tends to come and go but I do a lot of highway driving and I feel it quite a bit. I already had the tires rebalanced 3 times and when that didn't fix the problem the shop replaced the tires with a brand new set. I still fill the shimmy. Is this a common problem with Subaru?
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My 2000 outback wagon has only 67k miles. About a month ago, the check engine light came on. I took it to an Auto Zone and although unfortunately I didn't write down the code, the person who checked the car seemed to think it was probably just a bad tank of gas. I ran through that tank of gas and filled up with premium gas. Light didn't go off until THAT tank was near empty. Filled up a third time and light remained off until tank was near empty and it came on again. It has not yet gone off. I'm not sure how many more tanks of gas I should run through! The car isn't running poorly so I thought the bad gas was a good explanation.
A side note: about 6 months ago I had to have the head gasket replaced. I argued with Subaru and got some extra work done in exchange for the head gasket payment since my car missed the recall by a few digits but I was obviously stuck with an inferior product. I'm hoping they didn't do an inferior job. Even though it was 6 months ago, it wasn't that many miles ago - you can see my the year/mileage on my car that I don't drive a lot. Does that gas explanation sound reasonable? Anything about a head gasket related?
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Having problem with corrosion of the tie down on a battery? The terminals are fine. It's just the metal plate that holds the battery in place with bolts. The paint has corroded off. I clean it up and cover it with dielectric grease. I have to do this every 4 to 6 months or so, because the corrosion keeps coming back. I had the same problem with my 2004 Subaru Legacy, and had to replace the battery holder as a result.
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my car has tge 3.6 motor and has 2500 miles and seems to be loosing coolant...
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Our 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6R, which we bought brand new back in Feb ’11 and only has 4k miles, seems to be having issues with the cooling fan. The cooling fan will come on when the engine is cold and it will stay on the entire time the engine is running. I’ve read that the cooling fan will run the whole time when either the A/C is on or the vent control is set to defrost, regardless of whether the engine is cold or hot. In my case, the cooling fan comes on when the engine is cold, even with the HVAC off and it will remain running at full speed when the engine is running, again with the HVAC off.
Every time I go to start the car after it has been sitting for an entire day and the engine is cold, when I turn the key to the “On” position, before the engine is even started, the cooling fan comes on. How is this possible when the engine isn’t even running and the engine is cold. Again, the HVAC is off. Once the car is started, the cooling fan will remain on until the car is shut off. The fan is running as such a high speed you can hear it over the noise of the idling engine. Once I turn the car off the fan shuts off.
Since we’ve owned the car there were two other issues First, the transmission pan gasket wasn’t properly installed and it was leaking transmission fluid. That issue was fixed and is good now. The second issue was that oil was leaking from the timing chain cover. It turns out that the timing chain cover gasket was also improperly installed. This too was fixed, and doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore.
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I purchases a 2012 Subaru Outback i2.5 Premium in January. The car has been stalling out after getting gas; I've put gas in it about 10 times, and it's stalled out or nearly stalled out after 4 or 5 of those times. The first time it happened I had to have the car towed back to the dealer. At the time, they thought it was bad gas, but the repetition of the problem has them stumped. There are no warning lights or error codes. I have had the car back to the dealer on four occasions, and unfortunately they can't replicate, find, or correct the problem. Now Subaru is involved. The car also runs rough and shifts rough, compared to the identical 2012 Outback I was given as a loaner the last time I had it in.
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Where the heck is the gas cap release. Just bought it to get back home as the jeep needs broken motor mount fixed and had to leave it in town. The subaru is pretty beat up so the gas cap release could be hiding (as in handle gone) ?
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