I have an 03 CL-S 6-speed. ONLY when I accelerate about half throttle or more around 30 mph and up I get a shaking vibration throughout my whole car, especially feeling it through the gas pedal. I have 116000 miles on my car. The vibration almost feels like warped rotors but obviously thats not it. Reading some forums people say its the cv joints. Also I did inspect everything under my car and it all looks GREAT even the cv joints have no play and no signs of being bad but...............it probably is my cv joints right?

 

Most likely a axle.
If it's not making a snaping sound while turning then it's probably one of the inside joints.

 

Okay axels, cv joints? I thought our cv joints plugged into our tranny, basically saying I thought we only had cv joints to change. And NO sounds at all while turning.

 

Are your wheels balanced?

 

Axles or motor mounts are the likely causes.

 

Or your wheels are bent

 

Does it happen at a certain RPM? Or is it only ~30mph at half throttle?

Start with the basics, get your wheels balanced and check for runout. If thats not check your mounts. Look for any oily residue that leaked out. If your front mount is bad, your side and rear mount most likely is as well.

If thats not it, it could be the axles.

 

This is my 1st guess.

 

NOOOO. Its not my balance or wheels I already rotated them and still the same shaking. I know what blown mounts feel like and its not that either. It only does it with a good load on the rims. I can drive normal all day long and no shaking. I can do 193 mph and no shaking. But when I half way OR MORE floor it then it starts shaking. 1st gear goes by too fast so I dont feel it there......2nd I start to feel it.......third definitely, and so on. It has to be my cv joints. They are the original ones, I do have 116,000 miles and lowered 2". Do a search, someone had the same problem and after going to 3-4 different shops and getting the run around he ended up replacing the cv joints and it fixed the problem. The only reason why I am asking eveyone for help is because I thought that this would be a common problem that a lot of people had and that I would get replies left and right that its your cv joints and that would make me more certain, but I guess not alot of CL's have this problem.

 

The axles do cause that issue, but so do other problems. Thats why we're telling you to go with the cheapest option first.

Any time someone mentions steering wheel shake, the first thought is wheel balance.

 

when I switched over too new rims the my cl stopped shaking..so I can for sure say I had bent ghetto rims when I purcahsed the car

 

Well, it doesnt shake in the steering wheel, the whole car shakes a little but definitely I feel it the most in the gas pedal. My rotors are really bad I definitely need to change them. The shaking feels like the shaking I get when I brake at higher speeds due to bad rotors, but I know that has nothing to do with accelerating, right?

 

You said you rotated the tires, did you have them balanced recently?

The whole car shaking doesnt sound like axles. You'd feel it in the steering wheel. Could be mounts though.

 

whooooaaaa, you can go 193mph?....lol, jk..
it doesnt have anything to do with the tranny, or tranny mounts?

 

Actually I havent had my wheels re-balanced since I bought them a year ago, but if they were out of balance wouldnt the car shake at certain speeds just coasting? Remember, driving normal at any speed my car is fine it only vibrates under a heavy load (half or more throttle) especially in third gear at higher rpms. If im doing 50 or 60 mph and I floor it in 6th it wont do it. The rpms have to be up some.

 

Check mounts.

 

Ok, I will check the mounts first and go from there. Thanks

 

You have aftermarket rims? Do you have the proper concentric hub rings on them?
Many aftermarkets rims need them on this car to even out the mating to the car's hub surface. If they are not there the wheel doesn't sit right on the hub & can cause vibrations.

 

my bmw 5sp did almost exactly this same thing if i just putted around then fine but when i got in it it vibrated the car and the shifter real bad. it turned out to be the gasket (if thats what you wanna call it it was pretty big) between the drive shaft and the transmission.

 

I would check the axle. I have ran across that on another vehicle before. BUT it seems that it would do it more under harder acceleration. I have not had that roblem with mine, but it only has 73k on it. I have a ton of other little things on mine I have had trouble with. Good luck with it and be sure to let us know what it was when fixed.

 

Well, I checked all the motor/tranny mounts and they looked fine. One thing I noticed and I dont know if it should be like this but when the car is on the ground, if i grab the cv-joint and shake it side to side (tranny to the wheel) there is no play. But if I shake it back and forth (front to back of car) there is some play. I would say no more than 1/16 of play. Driver side is a little worse than passenger. But no more than 1/16 of play. I dont know if thats normal or if they should be SOLID. Remember that IS when all the weight of the car is on the ground. The play seemed the same when it was up in the air.

 

There shouldnt be any movement in the axle.

 

I would say its the axle as well. mine does something similar to what yours is doing but my axle also clicks occasionally... That is what I would be willing to bet though.

 

My car does the shaking too. I have noticed a small amount of what appears to be oil coming out the tail pipe. Does this mean motor mount or a bigger problem?

 

Oil in tail pipe = MUCH bigger problem....

 

Mine does this but i know its my front mount. How did you check yours?
It could be a axle. There will be a very small amount of movement in it but not much.

 

Well, im changing all my belts and pulleys. As im taking everything off one by one, I did notice my passenger mount was torn in half.........so, thats probably why its shaking under a load, hopefully. Now my other problem is that im installing a light weight crank pulley ( same diameter just alluminum lightweight ) how the hell do I hold the pulley to tighten it to 181 ft lbs? Also would the alluminum hold to 181 ft lbs?

 

Yes it holds to 181ft-lbs. I used my air tools to get it to the torque spec. You could probably take off the flywheel inspection plate and jam something into one of the teeth on the ring gear. Just make sure you dont damage it.

If your side mount is torn, Im 90% certain your rear mount is gone as well. Possibly the front too.

 

You used the impact gun? I have impact guns, I just dont know how many ft lbs they apply. I would rather use the impact gun because it will work without turning the crank pulley, but I dont know if it will crack the pulley.

 

In the end, was it the side mount that was causing the shaking? And are you talking about the mount near the timing belt? If you replaced it, how difficult was that?