Hi all,

I was motorway driving up to Scotland a couple of weeks ago when I noticed at around 70mph there was a vibrating/juddering noise from the car (Panda 57 plate), Initially I thought it was something in the door pocket, or something on the floor knocking against the metal seat rails. As I was reaching down the inside of my seat to see if anything was knocking, I felt the cowling for the handbrake and rear passenger cup holder vibrating. I won't say violently, but it was significant. It was not the cowling itself that was the source, it felt that it was a symptom of something heavier beneath it, perhaps exhaust? I reduced speed to 60mph and it stopped, and then later in the journey to make up time I pushed up to 80mph, at neither of these speeds was there vibrations, only at around the 70mph mark. Is this something I should be concerned about, or is it a quirk of the Panda? Any thoughts would be most welcome.

mine doesn't have one. But some Pandas have a plastic shield over the brake pipes under the car.

sounds like one of its fixings may have broken or fallen out.

hi Andy

Can i ask. when was the last time you had your wheels balanced as this could be the cause and the rattle is the symptom.

I might also check for minor bulges in the inside edges of your rear tyres, or just check them all thoroughly.

Tim

Sounds like a bad rear tyre.

Out of balance wheel will vibrate from 50mph and get worse with speed.
Buckled wheel or bulging tyre is rough at 60 to 75 but smoothes-out above 80. At higher speeds, the wheel does not have time to fall into the dent so it feels less bad.

You can check it by getting someone to drive the car forwards very slowly while you look under the car at the inner rim. If it's buckled you will see the wheel dip.

My 100HP alloys were all buckled (two quite badly). I fitted a set of pepperpot steels for under £50 each. Tougher than alloys, no heavier and easy(er) to straighten if they do get dinged. They look good painted silver - IMO.

Hi,

Thanks for your responses. I might take it in to a garage near me for a look. Im due MOT in October, so I can probably get by til then. Just wanted to know if driving it was a risk.

A

You can check the wheel yourself for rim buckling. If the wheel is the cause of that bad shaking it will be easy to see.

A visual check of the inside of the rear tyres is quite easy on the pandas. Look when its parked then move it forward by a couple of feet and then look again at the other half of the wheels/tyres. Check for rim buckles at the same time.
Tim

If you have a trolley Jack you can lift up each wheel and spin it gently to check its roundness. Chock the front wheels to keep safe though.

Check the exhaust mountings, especially the centre ones. They are bound by a nylon strap that retains them if/when the rubber deteriorates, but can make them look good when they are falling apart. When the rubber fails, the exhaust can knock on the floor.