Hey guys,

When I drove my car to work today I noticed that there was a pronounced vibration/clunking when accelerating in 1st and 2nd gears. My car has always had some minimal vibration in 1st, depending on how it feels that day, but today it was very bad.

Once moving the shudder is mostly gone and the car rolls smoothly. However, when I get up to speed (~20 and up) the car starts to make a drowning/groaning sound. The sound seems to depend mostly on vehicle speed (relatively quiet from 25-50, very loud ~55-65, quieter from 70 on). I haven’t tried coasting to see if that makes any difference. Also, when I come to a stop with the clutch in the car has a small vibration that feels kind of like a really, really low idle, but the engine speed is fine (~900rpm). This shudder only happens just before I come to a stop.

What do you guys think is wrong? The sound most definably sounds like it is coming from the back half of the car. This just happened this morning all of a sudden, and I really don’t want to drive the car like this, but I have a 30 mile commute that I have to make. Do you think I could nurse it along till the weekend, or should I stop driving it now? Any help would be appreciated.

Nathan
1978 242DL mt
IPD springs/swaybars