hi guys i am in australia dont know if it makes a difference!

i have a 2001 liberty/legacy, 5 speed manual, 2L motor and is a sedan.

after driving on the freeway for about 20 mins i get a violent shudder all through the vehicle, in my time as a mechanic i have never felt this before.

i have been told by a gear and diff specialist that the car in its time has probably had a gearbox change and the gear ratios messed up and the viscous coupling in the transmission will have failed.

is this true? and easy fixes? should i go for a second hand vc or transmission? does the vc need to have a certain gear ratio?

 

thanks

 

alex

well, it may be the VC in the 5-spd. They occasionally go bad. And, any mis-match of final drive ratios will definitely cause torque bind. But it would have been immediately apparent after the parts were installed. Did you just recently get this car?

 

Are all your tires the same brand/size? They need to be extremely close to the same circumference. Even a new tire mixed with old ones can cause 'torque bind'.

 

If you turn slow tight circles on flat dry pavement, is there any bucking/jerking felt in the car? Try it cold and after a highway run.

Edited June 12, 201312 yr by 1 Lucky Texan

1. i have the car about a year now! havent noticed it at all, i was doing trips of 300+ miles every fortnight and nothing.

i had a new set of tyres about 7 months ago they are all the same size, circumference, the only thing i havent checked yet is the pressures!

i will try the tight circles though thanks

perhaps a tire threw weight off - you could have that inspected, maybe move front to rear and rear pair to front - monitor for any change. using an infrared thermometer to measure the hubs after a run might find an excessively hot wheel, if so check brakes and bearings. some people have found bad driveshaft components making vibration. I've read of people discovering loose lugnuts allowing the wheel to move around.

Edited June 13, 201312 yr by 1 Lucky Texan

Years back I had an Audi that would develop a bad shutter on a long trip. It got so bad, that I barely could drive it to a repair garage. Strangely, the mechanic could find nothing wrong with the car after it had set for a while. I was able to drive it one hour to home with no problems. Soon it happened again, and discovered that a front half shaft bearing had gone bad. Replacing the half shaft corrected the problem.

#luckytexan

i dont think this would be a wheel weight issue.

the shudder/vibration through the vehicle is too intense and the way that it comes on after half hour of driving would suggest its not.

i can hear the clunk going round and round when the car is at operating temp. and driving at slow speeds.

 

Sounds more like a seized u joint.

A bad VC would cause a similar problem though it would be due to mismatch in tires or wheel sizes.

The VCD is not hard to swap. It can be done with the trans in the car, just need to remove the tail housing to get access to it.