98 Grand Caravan 58,000K with a shake at between 50 to 65 kilometers..

HI.

I have a Grand Caravan SE with a
- 3.3
- 4 speed auto
- 58,000 Kilomters.

A few weeks ago I notice a bit of a sideways shake as I would accelerate
through 50 to 65 km. This shake was not noticable at higher or lower
speeds. The shake would disappear as I backed of the gas. When
driving the car and as the shake starts I can feel it through the floor
pannels in the drive side. Note, the road has to be fairly smooth to
notice the shake as opposed to rough, uneven roads.

I recently put 700k miles on at highway speeds and did not notice any
problems. Steering was fine, did not notice any real shakes but
Saskatchewan highways are not that great anymore .

Recent contact with a garage thought the problem would be related to Cv
shaft and stated that generally speaking, they would normally start with
the left side/driver side (shorter,more angle to it) and see if it fixes
the problem. When he took everything apart he stated that the shaft had
some play in it and was pretty sure that that would solve the problem.
It did not. The replacement part was a re-engineered NAPA part not
factory replacement.

I spent some more time with the technician road testing it and he did
not have any other ideas; except replace other shaft and see if that helps.


Before, spending any more money replacing the other CV shaft I plan on
getting another opionion from another garage but thought I would post in
case anyone has had any similar problems or any advise.

 

Mine was the passenger side half shaft. It's tough to figure out which one
it is. There are other causes for this type vibration, but in my experience
it was the inner cv joint of passenger side axle. Imbalance in the wheel or
a defective tire (rotate them to check), or a transmission problem.

 

Thanks.

Recently had tires balanced and rotated to rule out that problem, but
tire dealer found one tire that showed some bad signs and had it replaced.

 

Can be many things. Look through here there were a number of posts re this
issue. Many times it's nothing more than poorly torqued wheels or corrosion
between wheels/hubs/rotors.
Larry

 

After 700,000 miles the poor thing is plum worn out. Trade it in for
another!

Dumb question but did you have the tires balanced? I would try that
if you didn't and also try rotating them to see if the problem moves
with the tire or stays in the same location.

Steve B.

 

I had a similar problem at between 20-40 mph under acceleration. The wobble
got pretty bad and I took it in to a shop in Florida while on vacation.
They replaced the drivers side axle, which was original. I have 199k miles
on the van. The severity of the wobble declined, but I can still feel a
slight wobble, so I'm thinking it's the passenger side going bad.

Let us know what you finally find out.

thanks,
nick