A while ago i posted a rant about some work i'd had done on the tin top that didn't fix the problem. (link to original post)

Well i've still got the problem and i've no idea what it is.

The car has a judder under hard acceleration. Its MUCH worse if your turning when you accelerate and MUCH MUCH worse in the wet - to the point its medium acceleration. The judder sounds like a banging and judder at the same time. *I think* if you're in second it judders a lot faster than in first implying its related to wheel speed.

The clutch holds if you do the handbrake on and lift the clutch test. If you boot it going up a hill or sometimes when it judders the engine spins up but the car doesn't accelerate. I'm pretty sure its not spinning the tires at this point.

Now ever since i've had the car (2 years and 30k miles ago, got it second hand 3yr and 50k miles). Its had a squirm / torque steer on acceleration which i thought slowly got worse till the judder started. Its had its EGR valve replaced. Kerbed it hard avoiding a muppet which damaged the alloy and tracking but didn't seem to show any damage elsewhere. The judder was (i think) their very very mildly before this incident & got worse slowly afterwards. Took it to the garage who diagnosed lower engine / gearbox mount failure. As it involved box out i also had clutch, dual mass, slave cylinder replaced at the same time. When collecting the car he said nothing wrong with lower mount but he's done a top one instead).

So ... before i go back and moan i've still got the problem / take it to ford for a second opinion, what does the collective think?

given all the work done the last time then you'd have to suspect drive train problems from the engine outwards surely.
So bent shaft in box or bent driveshafts/hub bearings wheel bearings stub axle etc.
I can imagine that given a " Hard" kerbing that something somewhere must have taken a fair hit/deflection.
have you got a friendly mot station where you could put it on the rollers and spin up one side of the drivetrain at a time?? narrow it down to one side and see if you can eliminate it from there.

I hazzard a guess at wheel bearing, CV Joint (or whatever type it has) or bent stub axle, jack it up and see if theres any play, or the wheel looks buckled when spun, then turn it lock to lock and turn each wheel, see if there is any noise.

[Edited on 1/10/10 by r1_pete]

I had a very similar problem with a peugeot 405 mi16, It had chipped a couple of teeth off the diff!

Hit kerb = tyre damage ?
Bent drive shaft / etc
Alloy wish bone bent ?

My first thought is the diff...

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeR

*I think* if you're in second it judders a lot faster than in first implying its related to wheel speed.

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This might be too simple but I had a thread earlier in the year when I described my daily driver (Civic) as 'undriveable'. I spent hours checking it, couldn't find anything wrong, gave up and took it to my local garage, then they gave up as they couldn't find anything either. More in hope than expectation I asked them to check the wheel balance, in the end that's all it was but the car was juddering/shuddering exactly as you describe, when it first happened I honestly thought I'd got a loose wheel.


[Edited on 1/10/10 by norfolkluego]

I had a similar sounding problem in a seat leon.
It was the lambda sensor which had gone.
But it started abruptly and ended as soon as a new sensor was fitted.

I have had this on a van before. Turned out to be a driveshaft.

Having read all the thread(s) there's a lot of red herrings. None of them account for all the symptoms. I'd say either dirveshaft/CV joint/hub but that wouldn't account for the rev increase. That sounds like clutch slip but thats been changed... I've seen new ones slip where the but that wouldn't give vibration.
What these do tend to do is spin up a wheel under hard acceleration (had a Mondeo TDci doing it in 3rd today) and the wheel tramps like mad, especially if the shocker isn't good. That accounts for the rev increase and the vibration and it gradually getting worse as the shocker fails.

adrian

I'd agree with this except i don't hear the scrabling / wizzing sound a tyre makes when it spins up. Did a fast start in the g/f alfa tonight and heard the tyres before the traction cut in (Which was nice as it proved that i should be hearing the tyres as they spin up - was getting paranoid i'd missed it).

Outer CV's are fine (did the turning at lock check). Is there a simple way to test shocks? If i lean on the car it goes down, if i let go it returns to its initial position. Does seem to take a lot of effort to bounce it at the front - but i've no idea how much effort it took when i first bought it.

One issue i've got is both and and the g/f are out of work - once her alfa goes back its the only car we've got and i'm loath to spend money replacing bits that aren't broken - but we need a reliable car.

A mate had a 306 d turbo doing something similar, it turned out to be the inner joint on the n/s driveshaft, it had got so bad it felt as though the car was tring to flip itself over between 3 and 4 thousand rpm

quote:

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Originally posted by adithorp
What these do tend to do is spin up a wheel under hard acceleration

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I'd of given up by now and eBay'd it or thrown it at an auction!sometimes you just have to cut your losses!

can you do the work yourself?

I would check on ebay for people breaking one and get a deal on a full set.

Hub, driveshaft, suspension.

My clio, 1.8 RSi did a couple of times a scary problem.

You would try to accelerate from stopped and the whole car would rattle like there was a 15 Richter eartquake.

In 2 years it did it 5 times. I had to pull away on second gear. Never did anything about it. My mechanic told me either diff or broken clutch springs.

Try putting the front wheels on the back and back on front + are the tyres fitted to the wheels the right way round [ directional ]
it may be a tyre delaminating I have had this happen on cars
Jacko