My car vibrates horribly when accelerating, but then goes away. This happened while driving home on the highway when I accelerated any little amount it would shake horribly thought it was a drive shaft which had a bad bearing so the entire right shaft was replace with an all new assembly by my mechanic. The problem went away then a day later on the highway again it started. Any amount of acceleration just plain horrible vibration this time I took it home turned it off and turned the steering wheel to the left and right to have a look under and nothing looked all the boots on the axle were there and not ripped steering worked no play in the shafts. Then got back in the car to see if it did it again to to pinpoint the where the sounds might be coming from and it stopped and this was 2 days ago and has yet to vibrate again. Any suggestions, thought it might be a balance shaft / belt problem but at this point im not sure, the mechanic was under the car so I assume he would have noticed any big issues, since he is my trusted mechanic.

97 Prelude base

 

Check the front and rear motor mounts.

 

Was the vibration at a certain speed or a certain rpm?

 

It was not at a certain speed of rpm just under any acceleration. It goes away for the most part and comes back randomly but not as bad as when it first happened now when it happens it only a mild vibration like I'm driving over reflectors in the road. I will check the mounts again. The steering also seems to be a little weird can't really describe it but it does not feel right but that might have to do with my recent drive shaft replacement.

 

make sure all suspension bolts and motor mounts and bolts are tight. I had a similar problem, and it turned out to be a loose motor mount on the back side of my engine.

 

My 93 does this currently. Front mount is totally torn and one bolt was missing from driver side mount. Vibrated so badly that the lower bumper was about to fall off. Fixed driver side mount and huge amount of vibration is fixed. Rear mount seems OK, waiting for more money on front. The rear looks pretty painful to get to.

Note - with bad front mount - idle is rough as engine rests on front frame, but acceleration lifts the front and vibration quits. To me, that means that it is likely to be your rear mount.

 

i had a bad axle that made my car vibrate when i accelerated

 

Thats it!!!! New axles should fix your problem. Buy driveshaft shop units instead of rebuilt parts store crap.

 

The problem was the drivers side axle. Should have replaced both while it was in the shop but oh well I saved money doing it myself and it only took about 45 min to do so why not.