96 Grand Caravan shakes

A friend recently bought a used 96 GC with 95,000 miles (private sale), and
it runs fine except for one (big) problem. Only while accelerating, around
40 mph, the van shakes quite a bit. Take her foot off the gas, and it
settles down. One mechanic guess replaced a front bearing, to no avail.
Another thinks it is the CV joints, an expensive repair, especially if it is
the tires. The boots appear in good condition.
She had the tires balanced (no help), and had the back tires switched to the
front which made it worse. The tires are Goodyear Avenger with decent tread
left. Yet, replacing the tires is pretty expensive, especially if it turns
out to be something else. Can anyone help her? I still think it is defective
tires and she should try a Goodyear dealer next.
Thanks for any help,
Rick

 

The CV joint diagnosis is probably correct. Usually it's one of the inner
ones, and it's hard to figure out which one by checking on a hoist. Have
them replace the entire axle assembly --both sides would be best--with
reman units; each axle costs only about $60, so replacing one CV joint at a
time doesn't pay.

Tires wouldn't smooth out after she lets up on the gas. The problem would
be constant. It's not the tires.

--Geoff

 

It could be tires, it could even be something as simple as corrosion causing
the wheel hubs to not seat properly ot even improper torquing of the lug
nuts. If the problem got worse it's very likely related to tires. Try
driving at 30 or so at very light (if any) throttle. Any wobble? If so it's
wheel related (tires, torque, etc.) if not it could very well be axles. If
it is I would not trust the reman units most are total crap. Have the ones
you have rebuilt by a competent axle and drive shaft center. YOu'll pay more
but get a better product. I've been through the reman route and tons of
failures (lifetime warr. ain't worth sh*t if you have to keep R&R'ing the
damn things.
Larry

 

| A friend recently bought a used 96 GC with 95,000 miles (private sale), and
| it runs fine except for one (big) problem. Only while accelerating, around
| 40 mph, the van shakes quite a bit. Take her foot off the gas, and it
| settles down. One mechanic guess replaced a front bearing, to no avail.
| Another thinks it is the CV joints, an expensive repair, especially if it is
| the tires. The boots appear in good condition.
| She had the tires balanced (no help), and had the back tires switched to the
| front which made it worse. The tires are Goodyear Avenger with decent tread
| left. Yet, replacing the tires is pretty expensive, especially if it turns
| out to be something else. Can anyone help her? I still think it is defective
| tires and she should try a Goodyear dealer next.
| Thanks for any help,
| Rick
|
|

Warped rotors?

 

Don't they manifest mostly or only during braking?

Lisa

 

|
|
| "James C. Reeves" wrote:
| >
| > | > | A friend recently bought a used 96 GC with 95,000 miles (private sale),
and
| > | it runs fine except for one (big) problem. Only while accelerating,
around
| > | 40 mph, the van shakes quite a bit. Take her foot off the gas, and it
| > | settles down. One mechanic guess replaced a front bearing, to no avail.
| > | Another thinks it is the CV joints, an expensive repair, especially if it
is
| > | the tires. The boots appear in good condition.
| > | She had the tires balanced (no help), and had the back tires switched to
the
| > | front which made it worse. The tires are Goodyear Avenger with decent
tread
| > | left. Yet, replacing the tires is pretty expensive, especially if it
turns
| > | out to be something else. Can anyone help her? I still think it is
defective
| > | tires and she should try a Goodyear dealer next.
| > | Thanks for any help,
| > | Rick
| > |
| > |
| >
| > Warped rotors?
|
| Don't they manifest mostly or only during braking?
|

Typically, true now that you mention it.

 

I have put over 100k miles on more than one set of remans and never a
problem.

 

Inner CV joint is possible and I have actually had this problem before. Took
replacement of both side to finally get the right one.

One thing that I have not seen mentioned yet (and hopefully not the cause)
is Torque Converter Shudder. This is possible if we are talking a 4 speed
where someone has put the incorrect tranny fluid in. Chrysler 4 speeds are
very picky and ATF +3 should always be used.

 

Geoff,

I have the same thing but it didn't start until I recently had the
tires rotated and balanced.

The dealer (Firestone) insists that the proper rotation for their
tires on a FWD is fronts straight back and cross the rears coming
forward. This struck me as odd because I've been rotating radials
straight front to back since the tires first appeared.

The last set of tires I had on my T&C went 60k miles without a hitch
and never experienced any torrid wobbles...and this is torrid.

This reminds me of the problem we had with our '94 Grand Caravan. It
had a nearly new set of tires (General) when purchased with 27k miles
but wobbled at 35-40 under acceleration. The wobble continued until I
junked the tires about 20k miles later and put on a new set. The
problem went away and never came back.

How confident are you of your CV joint diagnosis?

It is my contnetion that these vehicles are very sensitive to tires
and this sensitivity may be at the root of the cause. Some tires are
worse than others, and the softer radials (all-season, smooth-riding
types) are more prone to breaking in with a certain rolling direction.

I'd like to hear the thoughts of the group on this issue.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

 

I"ve had nothing but grief with them. Whether from NAPA, Advance, Pep Boyz
etc. That's why I gave up and use a good rebuilder. I hate comebacks
(especially on my own vehicles)
Larry

 

Did it go away when the tires were rotated back to their old positions?

We have a 95 T&C and I disagree with this. I think it's either CV or
bent rim or warped rotor or out of alignment, or shot tie rod or some
such.

Keep in mind that these wobbles only happen when you get sympathetic
vibrations in the drive line. New tight bearings do a lot to kill most
vibrations before they build up to be noticeable. Old sloppy bearings
and joints though won't cause a wobble by themselves but if something
else in the drive line, such as one of the items above, is out of balance,
the joint will allow the vibrations to build up until a wobble is noticed.

New tires will do a huge amount to damp out vibrations, they have to
do this anyway to reduce road noise. You can have an iffy front end
and put good tires on it, and the tires will compensate. But if the tires
are worn then an iffy front end can be a real bitch.

Since the OP had all 4 tires balanced (hopefully with a good spin balancer
and a tech that knew what he was doing) the next thing would be to
have an alignment done on it and have them check the rotors for warpage
at the same time.

Ted

 

If

Haven't had any trouble with the rebuilt one I swapped in about 35K miles
ago on our Caravan. I wouldn't slam all reman units like that. Clearly,
YMMV.

Mine came from Murray's Auto Parts, a local chain. Maybe they get better
quality stuff than Poop Boys.

--Geoff

 

I would say it could be the torque converter.

This happened to me. The torque converter "locks-up" around 30 - 40
MPH. Question - does the shaking go away above 40 MPH??? If so, then
it could well be the torque converter.

I took mine to the shop and had EVERYTHING ELSE checked first. The
shudder in mine was so elusive, I had to explain to the mechanic
exactly how I got it to happen. As soon as he felt it - "Torque
Converter".

Fortunately, my rebuilt trans is still on warranty! Does not give
me a real warm fuzzy about the quality of the rebuild though.

 

If it's side to side it's not a TC. It's either a bad tire, cv, poor wheel
fit etc.
Larry

 

I have a 1995 Eagle Vision Tsi with the 3.5 L. V-6. At about 1600 and, to a
lesser extent, 2200 RPMs I get a shudder throughout the car under moderate
acceleration. I've seen on other newsgroups where it could becaused by bad
transmission fluid or perhaps a bad transmission. I'd like to try a trans flush
and refill first, mainly because of cost. I understand that there are two ways
to change trans fluid; either by removing the pan and filter or by sucking out
the fluid through the dipstick hole. Apparantly, each method has its
advantages.

Any of your thoughts would be deeply appreciated.

Jimbo
JIMBO

 

As a follow up to my problem, it turns out it was not the torque
converter (which is the problem 99% of the time), but it was something
in the transmission. I'll post details later.

Just so you know, I had done a transmission flush/fill/fluid exchange
in december 2003 - at about the 11 month mark.

You can try it, but changing the fluid is not going to make a
transmission problem go away. If the fluid has been changed on a
regular basis, then likely that the fluid is not in too bad a shape
anyways. if the fluid has NOT been changed on a regular basis, well...
then you have a higher chance of tranny problems anyways.

If I were you, I would not throw away money by changing the fluid just
yet. Find a reputable trans shop (they ARE out there), and let them
road test and give a diagnosis.

See what they say, then you can decide.

YMMV

 

When you mention RPM but not 'Speed' at which this occurs. Generally the
issue that some would see in the older (94 and before) 4-speed transmissions
would take place at around 40-45MPH. Is this what you are experiencing?
Another thing to consider is motor mounts and CV axles if you have not
checked them yet.

 

My friend went to a trans shop and the guy said it was the cv joints. They
replaced both, and the fluid and it now works great. Someone also mentioned
motor mounts. Hard to believe that so many things were suspect.
Thanks for everyone's input.