Q: Massive vibration after 40 mph or once I go from 4th to 5th gear.

asked by on September 18, 2017

My 2004 VW Touareg 4.2L V8 runs well up to 40 mph (or 1st thru 3rd gear). Once my car gets above 40 mph (or goes into 4th gear) and only while accelerating, I get an extreme vibration. When I take my foot off the gas, the vibration will stop no matter how fast I'm going or what gear I'm in. I also here a clicking noise when backing up or driving very slow (5 mph). I ran a diagnostics, and my faults came back with a secondary air injection issue, and a #7 spark plug mis-fire. I replaced my auto-differential because the dealership said that was the problem, but the problem still exist. Please help.

My car has 139400 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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Hi Darryl. Thanks for contacting us today. Generally speaking, a single cylinder misfire will gradually create a steady vibration, but not stop when you’re accelerating. The type of vibration you’re describing is often caused by a transmission or engine mount, a damaged input or output shaft, wheel bearing or inner engine component. The fact that it stops when you decelerate would lead me to start with the throttle body, and looking for either a vacuum leak or damage to fuel system components. To be honest, without being there to test drive or attempt to replicate the symptom, it’s really hard to ’guess’ - so you might want to have another mechanic come to your location to help you diagnose this issue.

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