# Car Shudders **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** legacy, subaru\ **Created:** [February 20, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/car-shudders/44794 "2010-02-20T14:53:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marylander1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b38774/32.png) [@Marylander1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Marylander1)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/car-shudders/44794/1 "2010-02-20T14:53:21Z")
You guys have helped me so much in the past. I’m hoping you can help me figure this one out, too. I don’t know if these 2 problems are related. A week ago a friend thought my right front tire looked a little low. It was hard to tell. I live in Maryland, where we just got through 2 huge blizzards, so I wasn’t driving anyway. There was no way I could even check the air in it. Yesterday I discovered it was almost completely flat. I drove it 1 block to a tire shop and they put air in it. Obviously the best thing to do was to have them take it off and check it, but I was on the way to the doctor 1.5 hrs away and they couldn’t get to it for 2 hrs. I had to take the chance that it would be okay, and drove in the right-hand lane with care. The trip there was perfectly fine, but just as I turned right into the parking lot the car shuddered/vibrated quite noticeably. I had to circle the lot for a space several times. It didn’t shudder every time-- it was intermittent-- but it seemed to increase in frequency over those 15 minutes. It also did it while turning left a few times. The tire looked fine. After my appt, I decided to drive it a little and see if I could pin down the problem/noise better. But the noise was gone. I headed for the highway, since the Subaru dealership was on my way home. No noise. I drove 80 miles home and it never did it again. Any ideas? 1999 Subaru Legacy sedan, 140,000 miles, auto trans. Tires have about 10,000 miles on them. ---
**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/30_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/car-shudders/44794/2 "2010-02-20T15:40:02Z")
The Subaru AWD system is very sensitive to differences in tire diameter, and driving the car with a tire with low pressure can lead to very expensive damage to the viscous coupling/variable transfer clutch (the exact nature of the device varies with different transmissions and different models). I would suggest first verifying that the tires are all inflated properly. If you don’t have a tire pressure gauge, you need to buy one. Then, have a mechanic who is very familiar with Subarus check the viscous coupling/variable transfer clutch. ---
**Author:** ![Marylander1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b38774/32.png) [@Marylander1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Marylander1)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/car-shudders/44794/3 "2010-02-20T18:36:38Z")
Thanks for replying! I’ll definitely check the tire pressures. Could it have the AWD problem you described even if it drove fine for 80 miles on the way home?