Originally Posted by billie789
Oh.My.Bejesus!
I've been dealing with this for about 6 months. 2004 coupe, stock wheels, 78,000 miles.
My wife drove it to work one day and came home and said that it made a sound like "driving over a rumble strip" on the freeway at low speeds. A low, growling sound at slow acceleration from zero.
So, I drove it and nothing. . .because I generally have a heavy foot on the gas pedal and if you gas-it quickly, it won't do it.
Took it to the dealer and all they could find was a cupped right front tire. Ok, that'll explain some of the road noise I'm hearing and you practically sit on the rear differential, like with an Alpha Romeo Spider, and you hear a lot of rear-end background noise, can't be helped.
But this! This is starting out from zero and around 20-30 mph, if you slowly increase the pressure on the gas pedal, you can make the whole car shudder and growl.
For us older guys, we know a term used in trucking and manual transmission vehicles called "lugging," where you are slowly accelerating in a gear that's too high for the speed you're going. Like throwing it into 4th gear and you're only going 10 mph and if you gas it in this situation, it'll drag down and growl and shake and the whole drive train goes into a spastic fit of banging and clanking and jerking around.
Knowing this, I went out and I can make it do it all day long now by driving about 25 miles an hour, backing off the gas, bumping the shifter to shift up as high a gear as I can, then slowly give it gas and viola! rumble, rumble, rumble. Too much gas and, zip!, it's gone.
So, I was thinking it's a loose body panel, an exhaust system clearance problem, a heat shield rubbing somewhere. . .but then I started thinking about "lugging" and why it's happening mechanically, instead of body or frame.
Now I'm thinking the car is shifting into high gear too soon. It only does it when I'm in a high gear going too slowly. Doesn't that tell me that the trans is shifting too far up at low speeds without sensing ground speed?
Dunno, guys, this is a good one. It just feels all wrong.