Having justed posted a long thread on this but its lost somewhere i will condense this a bit.
Vehicle motor caravan just recently bought 27000 on clock.
Between 30/40 mph get a shimmer in the body work, had all 4 wheels balanced, ok for short run then back again.took it to another dealer who said it had thrown a weight, ok for another short run then back again.Took it back to main dealer who thinks its a drive shaft problem.My warranty is with Auto Protect and their labour charges are £34 ph which my dealer could not take on the job without me paying up first.
Can anyone suggest what other things could cause this shimmer , i must add it runs fine at all other speeds and the shimmer is only noticable in straight line driving if that means any thing

I'm scratching my head on this one!

The only time we had body shimmering (shuddering) was when the wiring on our 4th injector broke.

That was over the rev range though and only running on three cylinders!



Wouldn't a driveshaft issue give the problem over the whole speed range? And possibly worse at higher speeds??????

Someone suggested it could be the CVLobra joint and also did not think a drive shaft would do this, so i am still in quandrey what to ask the garage to look for without having big cost of labour for nothing . I don't know if it is true but it seems you cannot tell whether these are gone without stripping down .Appreciate any further comments.

So some people have given their thoughts on this one and i am still no nearer to problem solved. I had the front tyres balanced then rear ones as well ,then still got problem so had another garage check the front ones and they said it had proberly thrown a weight so rebalaced them. Still the same. Then they said about driveshaft but other Forum guys said they did not think so. Today had all four wheels swapped around and now its worse. Apart from having the wheels on the front rebalanced( they were the rear ones), any one else got thoughts on it?, so far i have spent nearly £90 just on this alone.

Are the tyres mounted correctly?

With regard to rotation direction?

Certain tyres have to be mounted in a certain direction. Check to see if there is an arrow on the sidewalls!

Hi teal
Unless you have a boot split on the driveshaft I would forget it, the driveshafts should do far more miles than you have got without problems.
O.K you say it is worse since you swapped the wheels around this reinforces my initial thought defective tyre, jack up the wheels one at a time spin it and just rest your hand gently on the tread, as it goes round can you feel any undulation on the tread or any slight twists.
Check the wheel is not buckled should be fairly easy to see while it is spinning.
Good luck.

teal said:

Having justed posted a long thread on this but its lost somewhere

Click to expand...

Not according to my records, you have made 3 posts all in this thread.

cris1117 said:

Hi teal
Unless you have a boot split on the driveshaft I would forget it, the driveshafts should do far more miles than you have got without problems.
O.K you say it is worse since you swapped the wheels around this reinforces my initial thought defective tyre, jack up the wheels one at a time spin it and just rest your hand gently on the tread, as it goes round can you feel any undulation on the tread or any slight twists.
Check the wheel is not buckled should be fairly easy to see while it is spinning.
Good luck.

Click to expand...

Thanks for reply . this morning took front wheels off and swopped around with the spare taking it for run each time. I finally swopped the two front ones around after checking what you said , only one tyre was showing slightly out of round by about 2/3mm the rims were true. on one of the wheels i can get a slight rock when holding tyre 6 and 12 aclock , got someone to put footbrake on and still got rock. Any thought on this.Thanks.

How old is the van?
I’m not familiar with the suspension on the Ducato but a very slight rock on the wheel wouldn’t concern me, possible a wheel bearing or bottom swivel, unusual with 27k on the clock.
Something worth a try is to hold it in 3rd at 35 and see if it still does the shimmer then try 4th at the same speed, I am trying to determine whether the shimmer is related to engine revs or suspension.
Good luck.

I've only had the bushing on the bottom swivel done at 145,000 miles, but I did have a lot of play on the wheel!!

Well what a dissapointment , today van went in again for vibration and the mechanic agreed that there is a problem and "thinks" its the nearside driveshaft so this being the fourth garage and still not had it cured, so far its cost £132 for people looking at it. Again they say the only way is to take out the shaft and see what wear etc there is and same for other side if first is ok, still no idea what it would cost though.

So today learnt how much this driveshaft problem is going to cost, approx'£480 with using recon' shafts with two years guarantee, as its a motorhome the garage said i would not normally have problem regarding mileage we do. What do you think?.

I'm still of the opinion that a driveshaft issue would get worse with increasing speed. It's strange for it to shimmer at one point .

1ST Can I ask where you are based?

2ND The drivers side drive shaft has to go from the drivers hub accross under the engine to the gearbox (diff) as it is very long it has a bearing part way in an alluminium housing, this bearing could be worn (it is sealed and maintenance free) in which case that could be your vibration.

Regards

MYTHING

MYTHING said:

1ST Can I ask where you are based?

2ND The drivers side drive shaft has to go from the drivers hub accross under the engine to the gearbox (diff) as it is very long it has a bearing part way in an alluminium housing, this bearing could be worn (it is sealed and maintenance free) in which case that could be your vibration.

Regards

MYTHING

Click to expand...

This all sounds very logical, well worth a look!

Thanks to all that replied om this thread and today finally got it sorted. West Ridge garage St leonards East Sussex took both driveshafts out and could not see anything obviouse but replaced nearside one and it cured the vibration , they refitted the offside back again so only one shaft to pay for.

Excellent news. Proved my theory wrong as well!

Well bugger me ,after haveing the nearside driveshaft fitted the offside one developed a oil leak, they said it was just one of those things when taking apart and replacing something that it gets disturbed so forked out another £29 for seal and oil.Hope thats the end so can get camping now.