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Home / Symptoms / Shaking When Accelerating

Four common causes for a vehicle shaking while accelerating and their related parts.

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Is Your Car Shaking When You Accelerate It?

It probably shakes when accelerating because of loose/damaged engine mounts or a wheel-related issue. For instance, the wheels might be damaged, not properly tightened, or feature a faulty wheel bearing, whereas the tires could be unbalanced or worn. Ignition and engine mechanical problems are also common causes of shaking when accelerating.

By addressing the underlying cause of the vibrations, you can rest assured that your ride will be safe and comfortable at any speed. So don't wait for misshapen to strike – take action now to ensure your vehicle's safety and reliability.

Watch out: Allowing the shaking to continue unchecked can lead to disastrous consequences. Systems like the brakes, steering, and suspension can continuously suffer and eventually break down.

Let's Get To The Bottom Of It!

Is the vehicle lurching and making odd sounds when starting?

Motor mounts are like the muscles holding your car's engine in place and preventing it from shaking too much. They also help to keep the engine's vibrations from spreading to the rest of the vehicle. Sadly, motor mounts can wear out or even break. If this happens, your car might suddenly jolt forward or back, making an odd noise. Essentially, the engine moves around too much before transferring power to the wheels.

Is the "check engine" warning lighting up when you accelerate?

The ignition coil is an essential component of your car's engine that converts low voltage into high voltage in the battery, igniting the spark plugs. The high-voltage side of the coil requires good insulation to avoid going to the ground instead of the engine's spark plug. If the insulating boot between the coil and spark plug gets damaged, cracked, or soaked with oil or coolant, it causes the coil to short-circuit and fail. If the coil fails, the engine computer detects a misfire and triggers the check engine light on the dashboard.

Does the vehicle hesitates on acceleration?

The spark plug is a small but mighty part of your car's engine that creates a spark to help ignite the air and fuel mixture in your engine's cylinders. Over time, spark plugs will wear out and need to be replaced. Sometimes, foreign materials can get into the cylinder and damage or mess up the spark plug. And, when the head gasket is damaged and coolant starts leaking into the combustion chamber, it leaves coolant deposits on the spark plug behind. This causes the spark plug not to work correctly and causes problems when trying to accelerate. You might feel hesitation when you press down on the gas pedal.

Does the vehicle start shaking at slow speeds and worsen when accelerating?

The axles are parts of your car that connect the wheels to the rest of the vehicle. They sit on a bearing that helps keep the wheel and tire pointing straight ahead. However, if there's an impact on the side of the wheel, it can bend the axle hub, which causes the wheel to wobble when you're driving. This can make your vehicle shake and cause it to feel unstable as you go faster.

Does it shake if you accelerate the vehicle quickly from a stationary position?

The CV axle (also called a drive axle) is a part of your car that helps transfer power from the engine to the wheels. It has flexible joints on both ends, allowing the axle to move around. This helps your vehicle turn and lets the suspension do its job. Over time, the flexible joints on the CV axle can wear down. When this happens, a slight movement inside the joint may cause the car to shake when you accelerate quickly from a stop. The shaking will generally go away as you gain speed and momentum.

Does the vehicle shakes at high speeds if you push the pedal?

In some vehicles with a big rear drive shaft, a hanger bearing supports the middle part of the shaft. This bearing is attached to the drive shaft and sits on a rubber mount mounted on the vehicle frame. If the bearing or rubber gets worn out, the drive shaft can sag and wobble when driving at high speeds and applying a lot of torque. This wobbling can make the vehicle shake and vibrate, which can be uncomfortable and potentially dangerous.

The most common causes for a vehicle shaking when accelerating

The most common causes for the car shaking when accelerating:

Faulty ignition coil: The ignition coil is an electrical component in the engine that transforms low-voltage battery power (12 volts) into the high voltage (thousands of volts) needed to create a strong electric spark at the spark plugs. It basically acts as a transformer that strengthens the vehicle’s voltage. However, if the coil fails, this electrical spark might become weak, uneven, and out of rhythm, resulting in engine misfires and sputtering.
Wobbling CV axle: A constant velocity axle (CV axle) transfers power from the transmission to the wheels, it consists of CV joints, boots (rubber coverings), etc. However, a CV axle can get a torn boot, causing debris to wear the joint and causing the steering wheel to vibrate on acceleration.
Faulty driveshaft carrier bearing: The driveshaft is a long shaft that uses the transmission to get power from the engine and pass it on to the wheels. The driveshaft carrier bearing is a support component for this shaft. But, if the bearing is loose or faulty, this shaft will vibrate, resulting in excess jerking when you're accelerating and shifting gears.
Broken motor mounts: The motor mounts hold the engine, supporting it and keeping it properly aligned. However, due to wear, tear, aging, driving conditions, and recent accidents, a vehicle’s motor mounts might become loose, faulty, or leaky. These issues in a motor mount lead to excessive engine vibrations since there’s no proper support.
Faulty spark plug: Spark plugs are components inside the engine that ignite the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber by creating a small electric spark. This spark causes a mini-explosion when contacting the fuel that powers the engine. However, when spark plugs fail, these sparks might lose rhythm or time, resulting in engine misfires and sputtering.
Bent axle: The drive axle is an axle connected to the wheels, transferring engine power to them and ensuring they turn efficiently while the vehicle drives. However, if the axle is faulty, leaking, bent, or rusty, it loses movement flexibility and smoothness, resulting in vibrations when turning the vehicle and even while braking.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is the vehicle lurching and making odd sounds when starting?

Motor mounts are like the muscles holding your car's engine in place and preventing it from shaking too much. They also help to keep the engine's vibrations from spreading to the rest of the vehicle. Sadly, motor mounts can wear out or even break. If this happens, your car might suddenly jolt forward or back, making an odd noise. Essentially, the engine moves around too much before transferring power to the wheels.
Is the "check engine" warning lighting up when you accelerate?

The ignition coil is an essential component of your car's engine that converts low voltage into high voltage in the battery, igniting the spark plugs. The high-voltage side of the coil requires good insulation to avoid going to the ground instead of the engine's spark plug. If the insulating boot between the coil and spark plug gets damaged, cracked, or soaked with oil or coolant, it causes the coil to short-circuit and fail. If the coil fails, the engine computer detects a misfire and triggers the check engine light on the dashboard.
Does the vehicle hesitates on acceleration?

The spark plug is a small but mighty part of your car's engine that creates a spark to help ignite the air and fuel mixture in your engine's cylinders. Over time, spark plugs will wear out and need to be replaced. Sometimes, foreign materials can get into the cylinder and damage or mess up the spark plug. And, when the head gasket is damaged and coolant starts leaking into the combustion chamber, it leaves coolant deposits on the spark plug behind. This causes the spark plug not to work correctly and causes problems when trying to accelerate. You might feel hesitation when you press down on the gas pedal.
Does the vehicle start shaking at slow speeds and worsen when accelerating?

The axles are parts of your car that connect the wheels to the rest of the vehicle. They sit on a bearing that helps keep the wheel and tire pointing straight ahead. However, if there's an impact on the side of the wheel, it can bend the axle hub, which causes the wheel to wobble when you're driving. This can make your vehicle shake and cause it to feel unstable as you go faster.
Does it shake if you accelerate the vehicle quickly from a stationary position?

The CV axle (also called a drive axle) is a part of your car that helps transfer power from the engine to the wheels. It has flexible joints on both ends, allowing the axle to move around. This helps your vehicle turn and lets the suspension do its job. Over time, the flexible joints on the CV axle can wear down. When this happens, a slight movement inside the joint may cause the car to shake when you accelerate quickly from a stop. The shaking will generally go away as you gain speed and momentum.
Does the vehicle shakes at high speeds if you push the pedal?

In some vehicles with a big rear drive shaft, a hanger bearing supports the middle part of the shaft. This bearing is attached to the drive shaft and sits on a rubber mount mounted on the vehicle frame. If the bearing or rubber gets worn out, the drive shaft can sag and wobble when driving at high speeds and applying a lot of torque. This wobbling can make the vehicle shake and vibrate, which can be uncomfortable and potentially dangerous.

Typical fixes to address the cause(s)

These are typical processes and repair services that fix a check engine light issue

The most common cause: Faulty engine mounts

The most common reason for a car shaking when accelerating is due to faulty engine mounts. The mounts that support the engine, keeping it aligned and tightly in place can loosen up, get leaky, bent, or break. In any case, if the engine mount loses balance, the engine loses support. Consequently, the vibrations that come from the engine combustion process will cause extra shakiness since the engine loses mount support.

Symptoms it causes: Apart from the vehicle shaking while accelerating you might notice the check engine light on, engine misfires, engine overheating, lawnmower sounds, banging and grinding noises, etc.
High risk of priority: A loose motor mount can quickly snap away, resulting in major damage in the engine compartment that might lead to engine stalling and a complete breakdown.

How exactly do the engine mounts fail?

Engine mounts are typically sturdy and reliable, made to last for decades. However, depending on driving conditions and recent accidents or improper restorations, the mounts can become unreliable and prone to bending and loosening up. If the mounts become loose, the engine loses support, resulting in excess vibrations, even when having the car at a standstill (idle).

Go safe: Ask for a mechanic to inspect your vehicle’s engine system to investigate if the engine mounts are faulty due to surrounding components and if there’s further damage to check out. Many shops do transparent vehicle inspections and lay out your options after investigating your vehicle’s conditions.

What’s a vehicle inspection? It’s “detective work” on your vehicle, checking its systems to see if anything prevents the car from working as expected. In this case, mechanics examine different parts of your vehicle to track if anything is causing the engine mounts to get faulty. They’ll also check the condition of components during their inspection, noting which are causing the problem and which got affected by it, recommending to replace them in order of priority.

Transparency example in a loose motor mount service

An engine system inspection is the most transparent process to understand why your vehicle’s engine mount is faulty. This is because many components surrounding the engine, support mounts, and combustion components can have a say in the issue, indicating the real culprits that caused it all.

A customer brought their vehicle to the shop and reported the engine was running rough and might need a tune-up.

A customer dropped off the vehicle and reported experiencing a problem. They explained that after getting stuck in the snow once, the vehicle started to lurch and make unusual noises accelerating. While trying to rock the vehicle back and forth to escape the snow drift, they heard a loud clunk. The problem persisted.

During a test drive, the technician noticed the same lurching issue and suspected the motor mounts might cause it. However, once the vehicle was in motion, the engine ran correctly. Upon conducting a routine vehicle health inspection, the technician found nothing related to the customer's concern.

To further investigate the issue, the technician had an assistant power brake the vehicle in both drive and reverse while observing the motor mounts. They discovered that the left-side engine mount was broken.

The other motor mounts appeared to be in good condition. However, the technician recommended replacing the broken left-side motor mount, which wasn't providing enough support to the engine and causing the vibrations. Finally, they saw the motor safely attached after all recommendations.

Broken motor mounts

In this case, the mechanic put the “Immediate Action” tag on the engine mount.

Similar Symptoms

Below are just a few examples of typical Symptoms and Fixes your car might be experiencing

Four common causes for a vehicle shaking while driving and their related parts.