97 XLS Vibration and Clunk etc.

[KenBH]

Hi All,

After reading through a good amount of posts, I hope to get some opinons and suggestions on what is wrong and in what order to have a shop do some troubleshooting and replacing. My car is having these problems.

Annoying vibration and low rumbling sound while driving over 90kmh (55mph). Felt mostly through the steering wheel and heard from the front end. Car is smooth until 90kmh, little louder as you go faster about the same vibration. More vibration when taking foot off gas.

Also slight clunking from front at highway speeds when pressing and unpressing the gas quickly.

More mysteriously is when lettting off the gas the car almost seems to slow down too fast as if there is a brake drag.
Also the tach drops down to about 1000 rpm then goes back up to 1800 or so...

Work done so far, front wheel bearings replaced, tires balanced, rotated and a four wheel alignment. Tires seem to be in good condition.
They tell me the front rotors do need to be replaced...

Any thoughts highly appreciated..

[parimento1]

Check your transmission, where the axle shaft meets the transmission/differential, you may have a bad carrier bearing allowing the axle to shake/vibrate, which is causing the vibration that you feel.To check it, grab the axle where it meets the differential and shake it up and down as well as side to side. If you feel some play in either direction you have a bad bearing. As for the clunk when stepping on the gas, it could be possibly be an engine mount going south causing the engine to move around and clunk.

[cexsiman]

i would say give your tie rods a look over as well, that could cause vibrations.

jw, what kind of mileage do you have on the car? and have you kept up with the maintenance?

[KenBH]

Thanks for the replies, taking the car in next week and will have these things checked out. The car has about 75000 miles on it, bought from original owner
seems to have taken care of it. If it's the bearing does the tranny have to come apart?

[wonger]

check your coolant lvl for the rpm hunt

also check your motor mount.. its common for the motor mount on avalons to go out.. the pass side mount ( dog bone) and the front mount ( btw header and radiator)

have friend help you.. put e brake on.. left foot on the brake pedal... put into drive. give it some gas and have someone watch your engine to see if the it moves alot than try it again in reverse