Not sure if I'll find the end of this one. I'm coming into it too late.
But I gotta try.....
I have been helping out at a friend's repair shop off and on for a week or so lately. Doing some computer work, and helping him get setup in a new building after the old one was destroyed by the hurricane.
I kept hearing them talk about this car they just could not find the vibration in.
It seems that you can get in the car, drive any speed with no vibration at all.
If you start off under power, you get a kind of fairly violent shaking. Then its fine.
However if you apply the brakes, it often shakes violently again.
Its a 2009 Toyota Camry. Front wheel drive, of course, transverse mounted engine.
From what I was overhearing, it sounded simple and obvious. Warped rotor on a front brake,
or a bad CV joint on an axle.
Its none of those.
Finally, they were talking about giving up, and I just could not stand it.
I was waiting on a part to come in, so I went out to see this marvel for myself.
Right this minute, its got me stumped. The problem should be obvious, but I can's see it.
Here is what it seem to NOT be.
First, brake rotors are good. Wheels are balanced. Both front axles have been replaced.
One, before they got it, the other since.
This is important: It is NOT a vibration!
I saw it in action this afternoon, and its a movement under load.
They were saying that it was doing it only at speed, but they were wrong.
I stood under the front end of the car while it was on a lift running.
They cranked it up, put it in gear. Nothing unusual.
They said you had to have it going at speed and apply a load with the brakes for it to show.
But it was barely idling, maybe 5-10 mph with the wheels off the ground when the guy in the car applied the brakes slightly.
The wheels spun smoothly, the hubs did not vibrate or move. Instead, the whole engine and transaxle assembly begin moving slowly back and forth left and right.
Not front to back, not up and down, but from left to right probably 2 inches or so.
If I had to guess, I would say that it moved from one side to the other at about one cycle per tire revolution.
As the wheel speed increased, so did the movement until it was shaking the whole car.
I have not ridden in it, but I suspect that it would feel like bad death wobble at speed.
While I was watching, he cranked the car, put it in a load, and it ran smoothly. Took his foot off the brake, put it back on, and it started wobbling. When you are driving, you can kick in it neutral, and the shake goes away.
They were about to close, so I could not observe any more.
I can't go back tomorrow, I've got to be elsewhere, but I made two suggestions.
I told them to start it running in gear with the wheels off the ground and no load.
Take a board or something and briefly touch one of the tires to change the phasing of the two axles.
Its as though the output hubs in the transaxle are warped and when the two high spots line up,
there is not enough room for both of them and one gets pushed to one side.
Or, while its running under no load, take a prybar, and rotate the entire assembly on its mounts.
When accelerating or braking, the system rotates and maybe something misalignes.
This thing should be simple to find. You can make it do it on a lift with it sitting still with just the tires spinning.
If you put a prybar on the side, you can't stop it, it will push the bar to one side.
What I can't figure out, is what is being pushed against to move the assembly. Nothing else
seems to be moving.
They are convinced that its something in the transaxle, and want to tell the owner to take it
to a transmission shop.
Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? I have not worked on a lot of transaxle systems, but the only thing I can think of that goes from the powertrain to the frame is the axle system. So something in that has to be moving.
I'll be back there Wed. for sure, maybe late Tues afternoon, hopefully it will still be there.
But I gotta try.....
I have been helping out at a friend's repair shop off and on for a week or so lately. Doing some computer work, and helping him get setup in a new building after the old one was destroyed by the hurricane.
I kept hearing them talk about this car they just could not find the vibration in.
It seems that you can get in the car, drive any speed with no vibration at all.
If you start off under power, you get a kind of fairly violent shaking. Then its fine.
However if you apply the brakes, it often shakes violently again.
Its a 2009 Toyota Camry. Front wheel drive, of course, transverse mounted engine.
From what I was overhearing, it sounded simple and obvious. Warped rotor on a front brake,
or a bad CV joint on an axle.
Its none of those.
Finally, they were talking about giving up, and I just could not stand it.
I was waiting on a part to come in, so I went out to see this marvel for myself.
Right this minute, its got me stumped. The problem should be obvious, but I can's see it.
Here is what it seem to NOT be.
First, brake rotors are good. Wheels are balanced. Both front axles have been replaced.
One, before they got it, the other since.
This is important: It is NOT a vibration!
I saw it in action this afternoon, and its a movement under load.
They were saying that it was doing it only at speed, but they were wrong.
I stood under the front end of the car while it was on a lift running.
They cranked it up, put it in gear. Nothing unusual.
They said you had to have it going at speed and apply a load with the brakes for it to show.
But it was barely idling, maybe 5-10 mph with the wheels off the ground when the guy in the car applied the brakes slightly.
The wheels spun smoothly, the hubs did not vibrate or move. Instead, the whole engine and transaxle assembly begin moving slowly back and forth left and right.
Not front to back, not up and down, but from left to right probably 2 inches or so.
If I had to guess, I would say that it moved from one side to the other at about one cycle per tire revolution.
As the wheel speed increased, so did the movement until it was shaking the whole car.
I have not ridden in it, but I suspect that it would feel like bad death wobble at speed.
While I was watching, he cranked the car, put it in a load, and it ran smoothly. Took his foot off the brake, put it back on, and it started wobbling. When you are driving, you can kick in it neutral, and the shake goes away.
They were about to close, so I could not observe any more.
I can't go back tomorrow, I've got to be elsewhere, but I made two suggestions.
I told them to start it running in gear with the wheels off the ground and no load.
Take a board or something and briefly touch one of the tires to change the phasing of the two axles.
Its as though the output hubs in the transaxle are warped and when the two high spots line up,
there is not enough room for both of them and one gets pushed to one side.
Or, while its running under no load, take a prybar, and rotate the entire assembly on its mounts.
When accelerating or braking, the system rotates and maybe something misalignes.
This thing should be simple to find. You can make it do it on a lift with it sitting still with just the tires spinning.
If you put a prybar on the side, you can't stop it, it will push the bar to one side.
What I can't figure out, is what is being pushed against to move the assembly. Nothing else
seems to be moving.
They are convinced that its something in the transaxle, and want to tell the owner to take it
to a transmission shop.
Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? I have not worked on a lot of transaxle systems, but the only thing I can think of that goes from the powertrain to the frame is the axle system. So something in that has to be moving.
I'll be back there Wed. for sure, maybe late Tues afternoon, hopefully it will still be there.
