Want to get some opinions on a noise coming somewhere from my drivetrain while driving.

The car in question is a bone stock fb with +320k miles on it and i believe it sat for at least 3 years before i picked her up. While driving there is a loud bassy sound with light shakyness. This only happens between 40-45 mph and gradually disappears above or below that speed. The engine rpm does not have any effect on this sound. Any suggestions?

Also, want to get some advice on getting a good suspension. Basically, this is going to be a daily driven car with occasional autocross/drifting driving. What is a good quality budget suspension you guys can recommend? Any good bushing kits? Personal feedback would be great on this.

Thank you

 

Sounds like an out of balance driveshaft or bad U-Joints. Does the shifter shake when this happens?

 

i think driveshaft too, although at this age and mileage it could be anything.

if you want to do a track/auto-x car you should plan on changing basically every suspension bushing/shock/ball joint/tie rod/bearing/engine and trans mount and anything else that look dodgy. its up to you if its all at once, or by system, or end of the car, or as needed.

for aftermarket bits, ground control and or T3 have everything you need

 

Yeah, it also seems like a driveshaft to me just didn't realize they could fall out of balance. Yes, i do feel some shakyness in the shifter and brake pedal sometimes. It just happens i have an FC driveshaft in my basement, maybe i could make it work.

EDIT: Just thought about something, if the noise/vibration is still there even when in neutral, do you guys think it could still be the driveshaft?

j9fd3s, i do want to change out the whole suspension, glad you brought that up. I will try and make a list of parts needed from the other thread that was opened today. Thanks guys, i like this forum and very sad for not being part of the community for over a decade

 

No, you can't get the FC one to work (unless you wanted to swap the transmission and do the FC independent rear suspension swap = much money and more time).

Yes, that's almost an definite sign it is the drive shaft with the shaking occurring in neutral at speed.

The way I describe that is the driven vs. rolling drive train. Driven is motor/transmission, rolling drive is drive shaft/axles/diff/brakes/wheel and or tire imbalance/wheel bearings/basically everything that would be moving at speed without the engine or transmission pushing on it in neutral.

 

lie down under the car get under there with weight on the wheels, hold the drive shaft and twist it, if it clunks the ujoints are bad, if the diff clunks, the pinion bearing/gear is bad. (my pinion bearing is so bad you can old the wheel and clunk it)

 

Ok thanks guys, i will check that out. It also sucks that i took a good spirited turn yesterday and now the car feels like driving on ice, guess i will have to be installing those rear bushings sooner than later. Lol

 

welcome to the world of snap oversteer. poly bushings on upper rear control arms and watts link is a big no no, it makes the axle wrap worse ( control links are not same length) but lowers and up front is just fine to upgrade to poly. google PB&J racing and read their writeup on fixing the watts link bushing bind. they drill it out and change to better hardware.

 

I know a bunch of people who have poly bushes in the whole rear end and they have never had a problem with it.
People keep mentioning snap oversteer but I don't ever remember reading or hearing of anyone that it actually happened to?

Not trying to be a dick or anything! I've got a full Energy Suspension bush kit in my bedroom waiting around til I install the whole kit Heard nothing but good things

 

I just swapped my entire rear and front sway bar with energy suspension poly bushings, and it made the car feel amazing! Actually made my car way more comfortable to drive surprisingly.

I haven't hooned it yet but daily driving and quite a bit of high speed pulls and nothing bad to say. Huge improvement over the old crusty bushings.