Recently, particularly in 2nd, the gear knob on my ZX 2.0i Volcane (124000 m) has started to shake quite violently under full throttle. Previously it has been completely rigid not even moving when I have lifted off the throttle as all my prvious cars have done. It does happen in other gears (4th particularly) but not in the others. Is this the signal from my gearbox that it's about to give up the ghost or is it an engine thing, a fuelling problem or something?
Any help much appreciated!
Humpy
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Worth checking for a broken engine mounting as a first step, I would think. Yours may be the liquid-filled type, in which case I'm not sure how best to check them. David W may have some advice on this?
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Yep
I would start with the engine mounts, the bushes can go soft with age or worse the mounts can come undone or lose/break a bolt
I had a similar gearstick flapping about problem on a DI Vectra but it was a design fault fixed under warranty with a redesigned mount. There was no recall on it you just had to keep moaning to get one.
as ever
Mark
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Great, any suggestions non gearbox related is lifting my spirits. It's only just had a new clutch so another 'box off job would really grate.
Thanks guys, I'll wait and see what David W has to say as well.
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H,
By some coincidence we're talking about this within the Citroen Car Club at the moment.
Someone was finding that when you are accelerating hard you get a lot of vibration from the engine & transmission causing the gear lever to vibrate. It had been suggested that this might be caused by the inner CV joints being worn as this has been known on Peugeot 406's.
Often this can be hard to pin down but first check the engine mounts haven't collapsed allowing vibration to be transmitted when under load. Then consider the drive-shaft issue. Funnily enough I've just been talking to another chap where the car actually started to pull from side to side (or it felt to be doing so). This turned out to be seizing inner driveshaft joint/s. If you can imagine when the joint is tight it tends to move the engine/transmission instead of the joint absorbing the "angle" under rotation.
Lastly a very long shot to throw in is any out of round or tread carcase failure on the front tyres. I have had this with a DS many years ago and that felt so odd you would have expected major transmission problems. New front tyres cured it.
David W
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Thanks for replying David,
The shaking is quite low frequency and does correspond with the engine note changing which is why i was unsure whether the gearbox was involved. Also the movement of the stick is quite large perhaps a couple of inches from the central position. I have had trouble before with the engine wavering slightly as it has climbed through the revs under hard acceleration before, but it seemed to resolve itself, however, this symptom is more serious. Do you suppose a fuelling problem is possible, dirty injectors or something? The air filter has been cleaned and oiled recently the plugs are the Bosch mulitelectrode ones and they've been in for about 30000 miles so far. New leads recently too.
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H,
If the engine was firing badly enough to shake the gearlever 2" from side to side something would have to be very very wrong...and I'm sure you'd notice that in other aspects of its running.
Your symptoms are so similar to the two cases I mention that are driveshaft related I'm sure you need to look in that area.
David W
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Shaking gear levers on a Citroen - yep, I've got one of those in the C15D. It was as tight as new until I had two new front tyres fitted, and I reckon the gorillas put the jack under the engine - not the subframe. I'm not particularly looking forward to getting my hands dirty - any handy hints, David?
;-)
Ian Cook
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Funnily enough I watched the mechanics who replaced my cambelt. Since the engine bay is quite tight they undid the top mounting bracket and used a jack under the engine to tilt it so they could get to the back more easily. I suppose this could have knackered the rubber mountings underneath?
David, I suppose there's no way to check the inner driveshafts without getting them out and looking or replacing?
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The shake is front to back not side to side.
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It seems to that if the shake has appeared just after the recent work on your car (clutch, cambelt, etc.) then the culprit is likely to be a botch-up by the garage.
Go back to them and complain, and/or if that fails to have your problems fixed - as HJ usually suggests - issue a summons via the small claims court.
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I'VE JUST HAD THIS PROBLEM FIXED ON THE 309. New offside driveshaft. It was movable far too much at the point where it went into the gearbox casing (or smomething - this is what the mechanic told me.)
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Thanks everyone for your help, off the the garage now!!
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