I made the worst mistake a man can ever make with his car, I let a friend borrow it for a day, my 1990 RX-& GTU. It has been returned to me with a very harsh vibration at highwat speeds. After much interrogation, he admitted to spraying something called "JB Blaster" down into my engine to remove the carbon. the engine also feels a little weak at highway speeds too.

I haven't moticed any smoke, white,black, or otherwise, he said that he saw a lot of black smoke come out of the engine after the application, and that this Blaster stuff is supposed to do that, releasing all of the carbon from the engine. If I am not mistaken, my car has 3 catalyctic converters, correct? Mt theory is that he has either fouled the hell out of my plugs, or clogged my cats to the point of no return.

Any thoughts? I swear to God am I about to ***** a gold brick.

 

Uhh... kill your friend for doing something before asking you to YOUR car.

Why not just run the car up to 4500rpm? I heard that's a good way to get carbon out of the engine?

 

WTF!!!!!!!!! you let your friend borrow it.

 

he could have damaged a seal

 

Which, in that case.... Make your friend pay for it.

 

What other symptoms would I look for to find out if a seal is damaged?

 

well, I have no idea what your friend did, I would go over and check everything in your engine area. Do a tune-up and if possible do a compression check.

Followed by killing your friend

 

When my cat got clogged, I noticed a drop in hp and the car felt like it wanted to stall. I was told that after a lengthly drive, hurry up and get out of the car to check if the cat is glowing...

Oh and btw, hurt that guy

 

I'd go with the compression check, which you can get a mazda dealer for like, $70 or so.. And a gun , depending on what your needs are, run about $100-$150.

 

Oh man... I'm becoming a post *****....

 

Urge to kill rising!

If a seal is damaged, I am going to burn him to death on my crippled engine!

I'll go get some new plugs and have the dealer do a compression check tomorrow. Wish me luck.

 

Good luck, hopefully it wasn't something too serious.

 

Just checked the plugs. As I suspected, 2 of them were toast. They're not supposed to have all kinds of soot filling up their grooves and electrodes, are they now?

I do not condone violence, but by the time you read my next post, I will have smacked him in the back of the head at a very inopportune moment, like when he's drinking a beer or something.

Edit: I am so pissed that I can't even spell!

 

yeah, when you clean the carbon out, you should use old plugs.

 

So basically, what he did was like doing the ATF procedure?

I haven't got the new plugs yet to replace the nasty ones, so I do not yet know if that is the only problem, but would the vibration between 2000 and 3000 rpm be caused by fouled plugs?

I just drove the car again, and i see no smoke, and it drives like a champ above that range. The idle is smooth as silk.

 

where is the vibration coming from? the engine or does the steering wheel shake?

 

I don't let anyone drive my car with the exception of my dad and brother. Both who could write me a check for the value of the car on the spot if they did any damage and both know more than me about cars.

Friends? NEVER, my girlfriend of 2 years has never even been in the driver seat of any of my 7's.

Sorry about the rant.... Hope everything turns out ok.

 

Imagine if if was a turbo II


(suicide)

 

The steering wheel does not shake. The suspension apears perfectly fine. The vibration must be coming from the drivetrain.

 

mmm, I've got some vibrations above 60mph that origin from the exhaust. I've cut most the hanger, and was to lazy to buy some so hardwelded. Big mistake btw, but to lazy to fix it.

I dunno, just hope he didn't hit a curb or some stupid crud

 

My ex-gf got to drive my car once. I was trying to teach her how to drive a stick. Gotta love families that have all automatics to drive.

She caught on pretty quick, but had a habit of shifting into 2nd at 5k rpm. Little burnout and she would jam the brakes and stall it out.

I showed her later what happens when you drop 1st gear at 5500 rpm. She understood perfectly what happens.

Oh well, good luck with getting the thing working again.

If it turns out to be a U-joint, PM me. I have replacements for sale.

 

I've thought of the exhaust too. Like I said in my original post, I have a lingering suspicion that he has clogged the cats. Everyone has always told me that decarbonizing an engine clogs the cats, and I know from experience that most exhaust problems like to rear their ugly heads at around 2000-3000 rpms, but the ignition was the most obvious place to start.

 

Absolute idiot friend aside, there is an off chance that the PB Blaster and vibrations are not related. If you only feel vibration at highway speeds (over 50 mph or so), it may be something as simple as a wheel balance. He may have lost a weight. You would feel vibration on wheel, seat etc. that is releated more to MPH than to RPM.

If that is the case, have the wheels balanced before panic sets in on mucked up seals.

 

I had a mysterious virbration in my olds AWD talon. At highway speeds when you got on it, it was shake like it was trying to make a talon milkshake. Get off the throttle and it was perfectly fine. Turned out to be the needle bearings in the CV's going bad and allowing the shaft to pop off to one side. Anything over 40mph is something not being balance, wheel out of round/not balanced, CV's, driveshaft..etc.

The feeling of less power could also be do to the weather. I know it's been humid as hell up in NW ohio..so factor that in too. Other then that, check the plugs. If it starts fine and seems to idle pretty smooth, I'd say your compression is probably ok.

 

I can't deny it now. It is definitely drivetrain. I guess I coudn't tell before because I was too busy freaking out to notice, but the vibration is at all speeds, and is really not rpm dependent. It just gets worse as the speed increases. It got so bad this morning when I was out on the highway that I pulled over to check the car. i can rev the engine in neutral all day long without a single vibe. I changed the plugs anyhow, since it was up for that anyhow.

Probably the driveshaft. The change in my center console jiggles like a fat lady's ***, while the change near my shifter barely jingles at all. The vibe is coming from the mid/rear. I guess it is the driveshaft after all.