If you feel your car vibrating or shaking when taking off from a stop or when pulling onto the interstate, there could be all kinds of reasons and associated problems. We’ll try to identify the most likely causes of the vibrations which are actually warning signs of much bigger (and more expensive) failures if not fixed soon enough. A car shaking when driving can often mean something different than a car that vibrates when stopped so you’ll want to pay attention to when the vibrations are happening. Is it only at idle? Does the vehicle only vibrate at low speeds, high speeds, or a constant speed? If your car only shakes while braking, the cause could also be different. CV joints are located at the end of each axle.
There is both an outer and inner joint. When the inner CV joint is damaged or begins to fail, you will notice your car vibrating under hard acceleration. As it gets worse, the minor vibrations turn to violent shaking when under load. Damaged CV joints usually occur because of a tear in the joint boot. When this happens, water and dirt get inside the boot and contaminate the grease that protects the splines inside. Without proper lubrication, the metal on metal contact eventually causes failure. The only fix is to completely replace the CV joint. You will be able to feel a bad motor mount when idling but the shaking can be more obvious under acceleration as the engine has to work hard. Replacing a bad motor mount should stop the vibrations. Keep in mind that when a motor mount is broken, the other mounts now bear more of the load and are more likely to fail as well. Lastly, check the semi truck driveshaft!
.
