I have a 1st gen base model. It's always been loud in the cockpit but the loudness all of a sudden became a massive vibration. Kinda like sitting in a paint mixer. I've checked the U-Joints, torques the rear U-Joint yoke. All that looks fine. I changed all four tires with new shoes professionally mounted and balanced and they inspected the the bearings and breaks while they wheels were off all looks good. That changed the vibration but didn't stop it. It seems to be a bit less now and doesn't start until a higher speed but is as bad as ever in decel. I've tried pusing the clutch at speed and that didn't change the vibration until it coasted down to a lower speed and even tried riding the brakes and that had no effect. Please help next stop is a can of gas and a match!

 

get the wheels off the ground and spin them by hand and watch to see if there's any that r out of round, that's what's wrong with mine.

 

Have you hit anything recently? Curb, dog... ?

 

Could be the driveshaft. Either got out of round somehow, or out of balance. Or like Mike said, possibly wheel related.

 

Yeah mine does the same thing...
I'm betting it's the drive shaft. I haven't got around to replacing it yet but... I'll bet it's the culprit. Might be on yours?

Don't burn the car! Give her a new home!

what was her plate 22rev16 or such...?

-=Sam=-

 

im saying it's the wheel cuz my van has 2 bad wheels(bad snow drifting experience ) and it starts vibrating reallly bad past 150km/h

 

That vibration has to be the pinion bearing in the differential, it inside the diff just and is located on the piece there the draveshaft bolts too.

I had the same problem and I bought wheels/tires/new driveshaft/ and when it finally blew.

It's a straight forward job, and when you are finished your car will be silent and smooth.

Most people have no idea where that rear-end noise comes from and that's the reason.

 

"what was her plate 22rev16 or such...?"

Yep this is the notorious 2REV166 that has had it's windling life pass through San Jose, Stockton and Now Concord. I think you've seen this car before Sam

 

Is it insured?

 

I have experienced this also. It can be narrowed to 3 areas, a broken tranny mount, out of balance driveshaft or rear u-joints and worst case scenario, the pinion bearing.

 

Okay more data for this one. The vibration starts at about 30 MPH and disappears around 70 Mph. It is actually very smooth at 70. I got under the car today and the transmission mounts are tight and in tact and I can feel no slop in the U-Joints front and rear. However when I grab a hold of the drive shaft and twist it back and forth I feel a clunk and can hear it a little too. The sound is the same when it's in gear or out of gear. Unless there is a way to test the rear end without stripping it off the car I'm going to try to find a drive shaft in a junk yard and hope it's that.

 

If you do this, talk to Lemonade first. He's the forum expert on car burning

 

im willing to bet its the driveshaft...if it were the differential it would prob. vibrate at lower speeds aswell. i think the driveshaft may be unbalanced, and at higher speeds when the driveshaft is spinning fast, but the motor isnt, it will shake like crazy.

 

Replace the drive line. That will fix the problem. My 85 GSL was doing the same thing and all I did was replace it with a used one. And the vibration went away.

 

Have you checked for cat corpses in all the odd places on the vehicle?

 

maybe skeletor can jack the car up while he checks the drivetrain!!!