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Espace IV judder between 45-60mph

829 views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Dancingdad 
#1 ·
Hello folks

Just bought my wife a 2004 Espace IV 1.9DCI after finally getting rid of her old Vauxhall Zafira. Car seems to be in good condition for the year and well maintained. There is one problem though that needs attention and I was hoping some of you Renault experts could offer up some advice?

The car has a really bad judder / vibration between 45-60mph. The whole front of the car, the steering wheel and my arms and legs shake. The judder only happens while accelerating, the harder you accelerate the worse it gets. Once on the motorway above 60mph it goes away. Looking through the paperwork there are repair bills for:
New tyres, discs, brakes, shocks, top mounts, engine mounts. I'm guessing previous owner tried resolving the issue as well but ran out of money or lost interest. I know from past experience that drive shafts can cause this problem so I've changed both sides with a pair I got from the scrapyard. None of this has made any difference. Coil springs look fine as well.

I'm starting to suspect dual mass. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Many thanks

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#2 ·
Get wheel balance checked anyway if you already haven't and give the suspension a good look at.
Don't forget the rear end, tail can wag the dog.

Drive shafts.
There is a thread on here somewhere where a guy went to a load of trouble trying to bottom it out.
Similar issue to you.
He reckoned that it was an issue with the drive rollers in the diff IIRC.
Worth hunting out even if only to discount.

Can't discount DMF but no idea how to check short of getting into it.
 
#3 ·
If it was DMF surely it would be related to engine revs, not road speed.
How about a session on a rolling road? Would Mr MOT man's rollers be sufficient? Just thinking out loud here.
Better or worse in a lower gear at the same speed range?
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the replies so far.

The car happily cruises between the 45-60mph range without any juddering if out of gear and free wheeling. Juddering happens near the end of 3rd gear, 4th, 5th and 6th gear during acceleration. Feels almost like there is a vibration that starts to intensify between 45-60mph then goes away from 60mph onwards. In fact she drives beautifully from 70mph up on the motorway. Did 100+ miles to Margate and back yesterday and she was smooth and very comfortable. I'll try get a short video of the issue uploaded.
 
#5 ·
Thinking on DMF, you'd also probably feel something on overrun/engine braking and loading in low gears, especially first.

That it will freewheel with no issues would suggest running gear is okay.

Found the thread I had in mind.... links within it make interesting reading.
Second one especially.
Dunno if it is your problem but food for thought.

http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/308-transmissions/249401-espace-wobble-vibration.html
 
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