Shaking at high speeds, dead battery, and seat belts lock up?

[Zeromus-X]

2003 Vibe... 140,000 miles. Yesterday I made a ~400 mile drive to Pittsburgh from Va Beach. A few days prior, I had a shaking problem with the car at highway speeds which I attributed to the tires not being balanced or something. Anyway, about an hour into the trip I started having the same problem, except I noticed it wasn't actually the tires, it's something in the front end of the car. At about 50-55 miles per hour, the car starts shaking... at about 65-70, it starts shaking quite violently. The weird part is that as soon as I let off the gas, it stops immediately.Called the mechanic who looked at it and he said my CV joints were fine, nothing loose or cracked, tires were fine, etc. He said it'd probably be fine to drive, just drive it slow enough that it doesn't shake too bad, but don't worry about my tires falling off or anything, they appeared fine. Well, driving relatively slow is a death wish on 95 anyway, and I figured the car breaking into pieces would hurt less than what they'd do to me for backing up rush hour traffic. I made about ten stops along the way (food, gas, dropping some stuff off at a few places for work, etc). Finally made it to my dad's house for dinner and when I went to start the car again, it won't start at all... just clicks, and the battery is dead (charging it now).The weirdest part -- when the car is shaking, the seat belts lock up. If you let off the gas they immediately un-lock, and if you happen to be lucky enough to accelerate without things shaking, they don't lock up then either.Any theories here? I have no clue about the shaking just because it stops immediately when you let off the gas, and starts immediately when you touch it again. I'm guessing that the shaking knocked something loose which drained the battery, though I really don't know... the battery cables are on there tight. I assume they're two separate problems, maybe the second having been caused by the first.

[keithvibe]

wow! is the shaking coming from just the front? or can you feel like it's coming from the rear as well?could you have a stuck brake caliper? I mean not compleatly stuck just enough to cause the vibration your talking about. Does the car feel like your towing a lead weight?The whole battery thing... could tie into the shaking... check your pullies?Was the belt squelling while your were driving? The seatbelt unlocking and locking is what leads me to think your brakes are hung up a bit. If they are hung up , it could have warped the rotor and your feeling it as your speed increases.

[engineertwin2]

What about cracked engine/transmission mounts?Or to go waaay out there, it could be the harmonic balancer on the engine - but I would suspect that to have effect at any speed...

[kunkstyle]

Quote, originally posted by Zeromus-X »Called the mechanic who looked at it and he said my CV joints were fine, nothing loose or cracked, tires were fine, etc.Did they check the tie rod ends? Sounds like a similar problem I had in my buick, and ironically enough, the alternator shot shortly thereafter.

[Zeromus-X]

I'd think if it were the tie rod ends, it would be vibrating the whole time at those speeds... letting off the gas wouldn't make it stop all of a sudden.Shaking is definitely coming from the front. I thought about the brakes because of the seat belt issue, but it's not pulling or anything. I cycled the brakes a ton of times, and I cycled the e-brake while pulled over to get gas. The e-brake light isn't on, and there's no "check engine" light so I assume it's not a misfire issue.No belts squealing at all and the alt belt looks just fine on a quick visual inspection. The mechanic did mention last time that my brake rotor had a problem but I assumed that was making it shake a bit when I applied the brakes, not when driving down the road.The vibrating doesn't happen all the time, so I wouldn't think it's a hung brake anyway. It comes and goes (but mostly comes) even when driving down a stretch of road. That's what is making me think it's something like the engine or transmission mounts... occasionally I'm hitting the right speed and on the right surface that the vibrating just stops (they're both resonating at the exact same frequency at that point, or canceling each other out, etc).She'll be in the shop tomorrow because I rely on my car for work (on-site computer tech by day, musician by night)... can't make any money without a car!

[ITcar]

Quote, originally posted by Zeromus-X »She'll be in the shop tomorrow because I rely on my car for work (on-site computer tech by day, musician by night)... can't make any money without a car!ooo ooo are you like, one of those dell dudes that come to my dorm to fix my lappy about once every couple of months??? sorry to thread jack but computer dudes make me happy, they make my day a whole lot brighter when they show up, lol

[Zeromus-X]

Kinda. I don't work for Dell or anything, it's a local company, but same deal... I show up and fix it. Mostly business contracts since it's pretty expensive. Been doing this for almost eleven years now so I know my stuff, just wish I got to keep all that money

[ITcar]

haha, i dont have to give any money. my dad is smart, he bought the uber expensive three year unlimited warrenty, and boy has it paid off, i have gone through more parts then the lappy is worth

[Digger]

Bad ball joints will do that.

[ToolGuy]

Quote, originally posted by Digger »Bad ball joints will do that. I agree! Check or have checked your ball joints. With your mileage, I would suspect them.Have the wheel bearings checked too while someone is looking. Front struts could be bad too! Ever have those replaced? If not you are due, most do not last 140,000 miles!The shaking stops when you let off the gas because you are taking the load off the front tires and cannot feel it through the car then. You can have someone drive next to you at those speeds on both sides and watch the front tires. If they are bounching up and down and struts are way past their life. If not, the struts still may be suspect. Also, I feel this is totally unrelated to the seat belts. The belts locking were probably caused from the vibrations... I do not see how this could have been caused by themselves and not something causing their locking up knowing how they work. And especially since the belts never did this until now. And if the battery was fine and then all of a sudden died with nothing left turned on, you have an alternator issue and charging it will just result in a die again.

[prathman]

Both the seatbelt and battery issues could be due to the vibration. Seatbelt mechanisms frequently include a little pendulum device that detects a sudden deceleration such as from the impact of a collision and locks up the belt to protect you. The vibrations could be triggering this pendulum device. And batteries can easily be harmed by too much vibration loosening material on the internal plates and possibly shorting out one or more of the cells.I'd still check first to be sure the vibration isn't a wheel balance or other tire problem. Just because it stops when you coast doesn't necessarily rule this out since the tires are loaded differently then and may not be as prone to vibrating. Easy enough to rotate the tires and see if this has any effect on the degree of vibration.

[Zeromus-X]

Okay, here's an update so far:Wheel bearings/ball joints are fine.Front struts are fine. Don't know why, never had 'em replaced, but apparently they're not what is causing this particular problem.Mechanic thinks it is in the transmission (differential?), took it somewhere else. Didn't charge me for his time either since he couldn't find the problem which was cool to me. He noticed a noise, don't know any better way to put it on a message board, when pushing down the accelerator a small amount, even at low speeds, and showed me, he's definitely right. Does it when it's on a lift too.Seat belts are definitely just related to the shaking, it was shaking a lot.Battery hasn't died again since we charged it, and he's driven it around and had it parked for a few days, hoping that was just some weird fluke or something.Local tire place said it isn't a wheel balance issue.The guy I'm having look at the transmission is going to get back to me later today. He was looking at things yesterday and had all kinds of crap apart (I know nothing about transmissions), and had yet to find any problems (bearings, etc).

[ToolGuy]

Sounds like you are on the right track then!

[Zeromus-X]

Update: Took apart the transmission, checked bearings, differential, etc, found no problems to speak of. Which, while that's great to know, doesn't fix the problem, which is still there after rebuilding everything. Now he's gonna check the wheel bearings and such again.If it ends up being a wheel bearing issue after I was told it wasn't, and splitting the transmission, I'm gonna be freakin' pissed.As an aside, this ZeroForum software sucks. Why would you let the Quick Reply button open a new window to type a reply, only to give a "you are not logged in" error and losing the entire post? Come on.