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      05-11-2016, 08:07 AM   #1
xthejuicex
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Exclamation Violent Vibration on Acceleration - *solved!*

Hey everyone. So to start out my car is a 09 335i xDrive, FBO.

I am experiencing very violent vibration, seems to be coming from the front, on acceleration starting from 10mph on or so. This isn't just vibration coming through the wheel. The whole front end shakes enough to make the car almost un-drivable. When I let off the gas the car stops shaking and drives pretty smooth. Also, many times during/after the shaking I hear a scraping noise coming from the left front side, sounding like a brake dragging noise but my brakes are not dragging. This noise stops after a minute or so after coasting.

I have looked at the axle shafts and boots to see if anything is rubbing on them but they look fine with no scraping marks on them.

To test I have disconnected the front driveshaft, pulled the tcase motor plugs and drove around in rwd. In rwd I had some vibration but not nearly as much. I replaced the Guibo and driveshaft carrier bearing and the car drives silky smooth in rwd mode. I then put the front back in and the vibration is back in full force.

Has anyone experienced any thing like this or have any idea what I should check next??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

Last edited by xthejuicex; 05-14-2016 at 09:36 PM..
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      05-11-2016, 09:00 AM   #2
niquehawk5
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Front driveshaft might be bent or out of balance. If you didnt pull the front axles i doubt it would be the front diff
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      05-11-2016, 09:02 AM   #3
xthejuicex
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I was thinking that but it coasts fine with no vibration. It is only under load/acceleration.
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      05-11-2016, 04:27 PM   #4
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This will sound crazy, pull for stored codes and see if there is a misfire code. Only seeing the vibration under power would indicate an engine issue, rather than transmission/driveline.
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      05-11-2016, 05:40 PM   #5
xthejuicex
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The car runs fine engine-wise. I actually attached my gopro-like camera to the trans brace and took a video of whats happening. I'm currently resizing it and will upload it to youtube. From the look of it I'm wondering if my engine mounts are shot. However I did replace them about 15k ago with oem, 335is on one side.

I'll get this uploaded shortly and let me know what you think!
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      05-11-2016, 06:20 PM   #6
xthejuicex
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Here is a video from underneath of what is going on.

Are my motor mounts broken or something? Is the front driveshaft messed up so much that it is vibrating the whole engine?

Skip to 5:30 for a very clear view of what is happening.

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      05-11-2016, 07:10 PM   #7
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Could be mounts. Maybe the tranny/TC mount? Looks like the wiggling is coming more from the back. Cool idea to video it.
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      05-12-2016, 09:38 AM   #8
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It almost looks like the rear differential is what's moving causing the vibration. Try jacking up the car and use your handle to push on it. I bet there's some bushing/mount that is broken or worn.
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      05-12-2016, 10:09 AM   #9
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Same as everyone else......theres a mount gone bad somewhere. based on your explanation that you detached the front drive shaft and it was smooth i would start at the transfer case mounts......its possible you even cracked the brace that holds up the transfer case with how much that thing is jostling around.
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      05-14-2016, 06:26 AM   #10
xthejuicex
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I believe I found the issue:



I pulled the driveshaft and the CV joint didn't feel right when I rotated it.

https://youtu.be/fiq1ds8QrRE

I am going to check the passenger side as well today.

Does anyone have any experience with Autozone axles or the like. I'm not spending $700 on a new OEM axle.
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      05-14-2016, 11:02 AM   #11
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There's an amazing company called Raxles. They supplied axles for my over 420 AWHP Audi that were bulletproof.

They are top notch and very well respected in motorsports as well.

800-257-8192 Call them. Plan on supplying a core for the old ones. The last set they made for me lasted 150k and were still going strong when I parted the car.
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      05-14-2016, 07:27 PM   #12
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Ya I would be confident in saying that was the problem. Damn.
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      05-14-2016, 08:37 PM   #13
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Acceleration shaking is usually one of your front cv axles is gone only thing I hate about front and awd cars is axles not lasting long and motor mounts go bad quick.
Hated my Audi for all the above reasons and now it's rwd all the way
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      05-14-2016, 09:36 PM   #14
xthejuicex
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Yea car is all back together and the crazy vibration is fixed. Still have some other small issues. Just started getting consistent misfire in cylinder 2...FML. The saga continues...
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      05-15-2016, 05:52 PM   #15
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can you show pics of your camera mount under the car? that is pretty sweet!
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      05-16-2016, 08:55 AM   #16
xthejuicex
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Quick update. Fixed the misfire, was a plug issue. Changed then all over to Autolite XP 5682s. So far so good with them.

Also the axle I went with was a Napa remanufactured one. I've heard some bad things about the boots but we will see. I'm keeping the old boots on my busted axle just in case. You can feel that the OEM boot is much thicker and heavy duty compared to the Napa one.

I have been driving the car a bit and I'm starting to feel vibration at similar times as before. They are very slight but I still feel them. Going to replace my front driveshaft as one of the ujoints is bad-ish.

Anyone have any suggestions for replacing the front driveshaft. Rather not go OEM due to outrageous cost.



Here are some pics of how I mounted the camera. It was a temp mount so keep that in mind, my permanent installs are much neater. Btw the camera is Contour Roam 2. It was much cheaper than a gopro at the time and works decent. Picture quality is OK.



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      05-16-2016, 11:03 AM   #17
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Great work diagnosing and fixing it!
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      05-16-2016, 12:37 PM   #18
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I would check the other axle up front closely and make sure its not that before replacing the front driveshaft.....also all of that bouncing might have thrown so much other stuff out of whack and it could be almost anything now. unfortunately theres multiple threads of people replacing almost the whole front of the car looking to solve problems on these things.
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      05-16-2016, 01:10 PM   #19
xthejuicex
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The only way to really inspect the other axles CV joint would be to pull the boot off but then the clamp would be destroyed. Is there anyway to get just the clamp and not a whole rebuild kit? Or is there something else I can use?
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      05-16-2016, 02:39 PM   #20
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ya good point....im not sure on any of that. maybe feel around to see if theres any binding or loose material but looking at how your old one broke apart i would think your "new" vibration would be much worse than you explained if it was that gone already.
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      05-16-2016, 04:15 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PhaseP View Post
Great work diagnosing and fixing it!
+1
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      05-17-2016, 07:46 AM   #22
xthejuicex
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PhaseP View Post
Great work diagnosing and fixing it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajsalida View Post
+1
Thanks!


So a bit more info on the "new" vibration. What I'm feeling now is the same thing that I felt before this very bad shaking/vibration that I fixed.

It feels as if the car is hesitating/resisting/vibrating under load, and off load it feels like slight hesitation and vibrating. This mainly happens after shifts and last about 1 Mississippi (1 full second). It also can occur when I am coming to a stop. In/out of gear, clutch in/out. I believe it is happening when the xDrive is adjusting front/rear bias.

The first test drive when I put the new axle in, the car was perfect. However over more driving time the vibration/hesitation increased. This hesitation originally started a year ago and I "fixed" it then by disconnecting the transfer case actuator motor to put the car in rwd.

I ordered a replacement driveshaft online, Dorman 936-310, since one of my u-joints on my current driveshaft is notchy and I am hoping that is the cause of the issue.
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