Torque Shop

What can cause vibrations that become most noticeable while driving and increase when accelerating hard?

- Shreejit Changaroth

If the engine behaves as usual and your wheels and tires are in good shape, then the vibrations are due to some fault in the drive train. Vibrations that feel as if the whole car body is "rattling" result from a breakdown in vibration isolation.

Very few exceptions aside, a car's engine and transmission, whether automatic or manual, are assembled rigidly together. When installed in the car's chassis, the engine-gearbox unit is isolated from the body by specially designed vibration absorbers at each mounting point.

Depending on the car, the most commonly used absorbers are made from rubber or polyurethane, sometimes even liquid-filled for enhanced vibration damping.