Ok, so I bought this v50 a few weeks back and all was good, but after driving it around for a while, I've started to pick up on the little things, like the car does this thing where under any kind of acceleration it almost like shudders or I guess vibrates is a better description. in other words it's not smooth, it's not unbearable but noticeable. I talked to a freind of mine, he thinks there might be a balance issue because it does the same thing during braking but not nearly as bad. I'm not gonna even attempt to sound like I have a clue what's going on, instead I'll ask people who might? so here I am, anyone got an idea of what this could be??

 

My guess would be that it's got worn-out bushings - probably the rear bushings on the front suspension's lower control arms (a very common problem with a high-mileage vehicle). You can check them out visually without much trouble - if you see a lot of cracked and/or torn rubber in the "donuts", that allows the wheel's alignment to change when forward (acceleration) or rearward (braking) forces are applied, and can manifest in a shudder. The way my V50 behaved with its semi-worn out control arm bushings was that a sharp stab of the brakes would create a "bump" that could be felt through the steering wheel.

The good news is that lower control arms aren't all that expensive, and include ball joints (so you don't have to worry about them for a while). The bad news is that you need to get the car aligned after changing them. I went "a little nuts" on my 130,000 mile V50, and swapped out the control arms, the struts, axles and the rear control arms. Well worth it, especially if you can DIY, since the cost is really modest, and the end result is a car that drives a whole lot like a new one.

 

Thanks, I checked the bushings. they seem ok. my car only has 110,000 miles on it so not a whole lot is wrong with it, but me being a perfectionist, I get annoyed by the small things. the reason I think maybe balance is the car has basically brand new tires on it, and the vibration is consisten until you let off a bit, could this be the case or would it be something else? thanks again

 

The wheel balance doesn't change when you let off the throttle, so that's not really suspect. My best guesses are still control arm bushings and maybe CV axles. Thing is, with a slight vibration (the kind that annoys folks like the two of us, apparently) can be hard to find, since the parts in question aren't really bad enough to be obviously bad.

Funny enough, I'm chasing the same thing in my "new" road trip car (an '06 Audi A3). Looks like it's due to the rear bushings on the lower control arms (I can get plenty of movement and can see some significant cracks in the rubber when I move the control arm around with a small pry bar).

 

well I'll have it looked at, it also threw a code this morning for the anti skid, says I need to service it, soo, idk I'll figure it out eventually, thanks again

 

Hmmm. If I had to come up with a single source for both issues, I'd have to include a wonky front bearing (which can cause a shudder and I'd guess could throw off the ABS sensor alignment enough to cause a problem). By the time that would happen, I'd expect the bearings to be more than a little noisy though.

I was also thinking about this car this morning, and realized that I should have mentioned that it's also possible for a front-end alignment problem to cause the symptoms.

 

yeah, there has got to be something wrong with the passenger side. that's the side that's giving me problems, it's the source of the shudder, and that side builds up brake dust three times as fast as the other. the light went off after a little while but I still need to take it in and have it looked at.

 

Hmmm. A bad bearing would tend to create more brake wear (since it would allow the critical alignment of the rotor to move around enough to cause it to rub on the pads). I'd say that you might save yourself some diagnostic time by just jacking up that corner and giving the wheel a good shake (grab at 3- and 9-o'clock and push/pull, and the same at 12- and 6-o'clock). If you feel ANY play, you can be reasonably certain you have a bad bearing. Knowing that when you take the car in for service could save a lot of the labor involved (since they wouldn't have to test it themselves). OTOH, the danger of asking a shop to do a specific task - and ONLY that task means that the liability if it doesn't fix the problem is entirely yours. In this case, a clearly bad wheel bearing would almost certainly be the right fix, and the worst that could happen is that additional things that could be adding to the shudder might go undiagnosed (those would be those bushings I mentioned).

And of course, a bearing replacement isn't really all that difficult of a DIY thing, though you'll either have to have a press or take the bearing and steering knuckle into a shop to get it pressed in. Here's a quick (un-professional) video I did showing an axle and bearing replacement on the right front of my 2005 V50...