I just noticed this today on my way to school. Whenever I was accelerating (not even that hard, just normal) I was feeling a strange vibration going through the whole car, seemingly from the rear. If I pushed the throttle even more the vibration would get even more noticable, as if my engine was sputtering, or my rear was dragging on the pavement. Then when i let go of the accelerator the car would be normal again and cruise as smoothly as always. So when I reached a red light I revved it up in Park and everything was smooth, but when I took off on the green light I felt it again. Now on my way home it was much less noticable, but still it didn't go away completely. I have no idea if this is something to do with my engine, my suspension, my tranny, or my rear axle.

This all happened Monday morning. On Saturday I was coming home from work, and was being an idiot and trying to save pennies on gas by reaching a cheaper gas station and ran out of gas in the middle of the road. Luckily i was able to roll into a nearby gas station in neutral. I don't know if this could have damaged the engine. I didn't drive the car on Sunday, and on Monday morning I started feeling the vibrations...

 

No ideas of what this could be? Is there something I should look at or check? I drove it today and the vibration persisted. Im not getting much problems in first gear but it all starts vibrating in second.

 

E-brake on? Is it throwing the SES light? How many miles and such... What you're describing sounds like wheel hop, but it wouldn't be doing that all the time. Running your car out of gas shouldn't damage your engine. What it would do though is, suck up a bunch of crap into the fuel pump, and possibly plug up the fuel filter and/or injectors. This could very well be what happened, as it only happens when you put a load on the engine.

 

The car has almost 130,000 miles on it. Its a '98 3800. There are no warning lights.

Would simply using Sea Foamclean that?

 

It would clean injectors. As for the filter, it would have to be changed out.

 

All right. I'll try to get that done today or tomorrow and come back here with the results.

 

Well, I went to Auto Parts and bought a can of Sea Foam and a $7 fuel filter. I've already added the Sea Foam and it did its magic: the engine runs much much smoother now and the car even seems to accelerate better. But the vibration are still there, much less noticable, but still there. I will get the fuel filter installed on Thursday. Hopefully that will help a little too. If not, then I really don't know what else to do.

 

Althoughchanging the fuel filter probably isn't a bad idea with those many miles, I don't see that as having anything to do with your vibration. And if you think about running out of gas logically, the pump is always sucking off the bottom, and running it out of gas isn't going to make it suck up any more crap than was already there. There should be a strainer at the base of the pump to keep out the smaller chunks, and the filter traps anything microfine that might get through the pump. Your vibration sounds like either a rear diff issue, worn u-joints, or both. Worn wheel bearings are not uncommon on these rearends. Also, badly worn wheel bearings will put more pressure on the ring & pinion gears and cause a howl or a growl.

 

Hmm, sounds like I should get my whole rear end checked out. [:'(]

 

Like you said, think about it logically... If you have the same amount of crap in one tank that is full, and one that is near empty. Which one has a bigger concentration of crap in it? I know it always sucks off the bottom, and has a strainer.