Within the past month, my car has started vibrating upon acceleration. It doesn't happen all the time, but once it does start, it happens at all speeds when i accelerate. The car vibrates intensely...my seat and wheel both vibrate so badly that it feels like the car could fall apart. I needed new tires, so i put 4 brand new tires on the car (balanced, etc.) and i got the car aligned...the problem still persists. The coil packs are new, i've replaced the plugs and wires and there is no known vacuum leak (this problem was fixed last spring).

I've heard it could be the CV joints - my mechanic looked at this possible problem and said that all the "boots" were in good shape. I've read a lot of the other forums concerning this problem, but no one has really come up with a solution. The car is a 2003 1.8T automatic (so it can't be the fly wheel/clutch).

Does anyone have any advice or best case scenerio - has anyone had this problem and actually fixed it? I would appreciate any help/ideas...thanks.

 

Bent wheels is a common reason for vibration.

Edit: Yeah im almost positive you have a bent wheel(s)

 

Quattro?

 

could be sumthing with the drivetrain or maybe the engine and tranny mounts. does it do it when u rev?

 

maybe your lower control passenger side control arm fell off on a 50 mile drive to the city.[:@]. yeah it can happen. and it does almost exactly that, but i doubt thats your problem. try for a bent rim or alignment, or just generally look and see if anything is visibly wrong/missing in the steering department

 

Yep, it's a Quattro.

 

I haven't noticed it when i rev the engine and it doesn't occur all the time...this seems strange, but i feel like it happens when there is more weight in the rear of the car. But it still does occur when i'm driving solo. I highly doubt it's a bent rim because a) it only happens when i accelerate and it doesn't always happen and b) once it starts, it vibrates so bad that i feel like the car could fall apart.

this has me totally lost.

 

Rotate the tires front/back.

 

I just finished dealling with the same issue!
The day I bought the car i noticed that my stock rims were bend, so I drove it to my tire shop that day and put 18's with Nitto tires. It shook like the car was going to go off the road! so the fun started.....

Things I tried in order:
1. Tires Re-Balanced by 4 different shops.
2. Wheel Bearings
3. Replaced all four Axles
4. Replaced all Drivetrain Fluids

and Number 5 the winner of the pain in my @#$.....

Get your Tires Road Force Balanced!!!!! Three of my tires had less than 5lbs. of road force, which is not noticable. the fourth had 29 lbs. So i had the tire replaced and it great now!

I will tell you this though, on the axles.....my boots were fine too, but when i took them off they were bad...i couldn't even move them. ( Like they were bound up ) i'm glad i replaced them, and they're not hard to replace.

Hope this helps you. If you need any help let me know.

 

I appreciate the help. When you say that you replaced all your drivetrain fluids - what does all of that entail? Does that mean you replaced your tranny fluid? I've heard that is quite expensive...

Thanks again for the detailed reply.