Ford Escort vibration on deceleration!?!?

[cjhillman]

Quick question...

When i'm driving my Escort mk3 anywhere 40-70mph and suddenly take my foot off the accelerator, I notice a vibration like something is slightly loose. It is transmitted through the accelerator (if you have your foot lightly on it) and steering wheel, sometime you can see it visibly shake. Not the rest of the car as i can tell though.

Its not an alarming shake just something that makes you think you'll be broke down at the side of the road in the future.

I've got to drive to Manchester - Glasgow and possibly Birmingham to play some big gigs this week and just hope its going to make it!

Any ideas what it may be?

Cheers,
Chris

[squonk]

The torque action of the engine reverses when you lift of the throttle. I'd take a look at the engine mounts. The forces acting on them will change direction under deceleration. Give the engine a good hard rock and see if there is any excessive movement.

[colnerov]

Hi, Because of the speed range it does it in, I would say it's a CV joint. It's probably an inner because they don't move in arc they can 'freeze'. It should give lots more service before needing to be dealt with.

Colin

[bortaf]

As above inner CV, they don't rattrle like outers do and tend to give a vibration on the overuun and when loaded up, say up hill and you plant the throttle.
Engine mounts tend (IME) to just knock and only move the once, you may also feel the gearstick move with engine mounts as the linkadge is pulled/pushed on by the engine moving ?
Try giving it full throttle at 40 in 4th going up hill, if it gets worse then i'd suspect the inner CV even more.

[cjhillman]

Cheers guys! Not noticed any shake/kocks or wobbles on acceleration, its only a 1.1 so i tend to plant the throttle a fair bit haha. I think its probably more 50 - 70 mph to be honest and just on deceleration. I've done a bit of googling and CV's came up a lot so hopefully i can get it looked at next week. A friend mentioned tracking, what do you think ? I've had a lot of wheel balancing problems but not tracking as i've been aware.

[colnerov]

Hi, If it's tracking it will scrub tyres off in fairly short order, does it? Balancing will be noticeable in that speed range but is not changed by the power being on or off.

Colin

[ChasR]

IMO it will either be one of the lower arm bushes (or even the ARB bushes) or more likely the driveshafts. Depending how long it has been shaking for it may well have worn your tyres funny, thus meaning you'll need to change those as well.

I had a MkIV XR3i Cabrio which had terrible shaking when going beyond 30 and on the accellerator. The O/S driveshaft had alot of play in it. Changing this improved things alot but it wasn't until the tyres were changed that the shaking went away completely; it still shook a little at 40ish and I *think* I had the balancing checked ; the car did not seem to go out of the vibration zone by going faster with the old tyres if that makes sense.

[mondeogrd]

Someone once tried to explain something to me about how tyres behave differently under acceleration load, then coasting and braking load. This was connected to a vibration issue from the front of a Mk3 Escort that turned out to be a very badly warped brake disc! However, a former gaffer tried to convince me it was tyre imbalance across the tread that was causing the vibration that manifests itself more while coasting or under braking. Have had a tyre that suffered from this but too long ago to remember the exact symptoms, but my moneys on the driveshaft/CV Joints, and not only the inners. Also look to see if it has a driveshaft mount on the back of the engine, but i doubt it does.
Arabest,
Geoff.

[ChasR]

Sept 6, 2016 17:23:36 GMT mondeogrd said:

Someone once tried to explain something to me about how tyres behave differently under acceleration load, then coasting and braking load. This was connected to a vibration issue from the front of a Mk3 Escort that turned out to be a very badly warped brake disc! However, a former gaffer tried to convince me it was tyre imbalance across the tread that was causing the vibration that manifests itself more while coasting or under braking. Have had a tyre that suffered from this but too long ago to remember the exact symptoms, but my moneys on the driveshaft/CV Joints, and not only the inners. Also look to see if it has a driveshaft mount on the back of the engine, but i doubt it does.
Arabest,
Geoff.

As far as I know, no MkIII/IV Escorts came with halfshafts.

[sausage]

Inner CV as said already would be the usual suspect.

[cjhillman]

Cheers for all the advise on this guys. Not had chance to do anything on it with work and back in my focus now as that's fixed... It has done a good few hundred miles in it but really needs looking at know as it's happening more offen .

I think the disk breaks might be warped slightly as it sometimes does shake under breaking but, the main problem is it shaking while with your foot off the pedals.

At some point I'll get all this checked... Hopefully it's nothing mega.... Could do with a new clutch and scuttle panel 😩 Gotta love 80s fords!