Thread: Terrible Vibration.

Hello 99LuminaLSC it appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks, why not take a few moments to ask a question, help provide a solution or just engage in a conversation with another member in any one of our forums?

Well, OK, haha!

For about 3 months now and several parts later, I still have a problem with my Lumina. I've run out of ideas (and money) why my car vibrates and shakes violently upon any sort of acceleration, even a toe touch...

It gets worse the more you throttle it, and because of that I rarely go over 1/8th petal (to the disliking of fellow drivers) and highway driving has become a rare occurence.

Symptoms: NO VIBRATION WHEN MAKING A >40 mph HARD-ISH RIGHT TURN, Vibration on acceleration, no noise from any parts, extremely smooth and quiet when no throttle is applied (coasting), entire vehicle vibrates and the ratio of vibration is equal to that of vehicle speed, the faster I'm going the more the vibration turns into a hum...

Due to the age of my car and mileage, and because I decided to install my lowering kit and struts, I've replaced every single part on the front suspension of my vehicle less the calipers, tie rods and steering rack... (Ball Joints, KYB GR-2 Struts and Eibach Springs, Spring seats, wheel bearing assemblies, CV Axles except Tripots, bushings). All of the main parts are original like the strut containers and the sway bar...

It had a very slight version of the same vibration before I did ANY of the work on the front end...

The only thing I haven't replaced yet are the motor mounts...

Before I go spending $300 a.k.a.my rent (Poor College Student, haha) do you think worn out motor mounts would cause the car to vibrate on acceleration?

Lots of overloading info there... sorry haha... If you have any Ideas I would greatly appreciate it!!!

-Jordan

Why the axle except the tripot joint? I had a pretty bad vibration and it went away with new axles. Opened up the olds and my passenger inner (tripot) joint was all chewed up.

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

I had a pretty bad vibration and it went away with new axles.

I had the same issue in my GP as well that was fixed with new axles.

Since it's a Lumina, the GP axles are not compatible, so I have to reuse the tripots (which I pulled out to replace the seals and to install the new boot clamps) because the Lumina axles were made for the 3100, and my car is L67 swapped. I know the drivers axle outer was worn badly,it had no resistance to movement, and the passenger one sounded like it had sand in it... I cleaned the tripots, they looked and felt fine, no pitting or any weirdness, and the internals looked and felt fine on the inside of the trans where you plug them in...

I tried to make new tripots fit from some new GTP axles, but the aftermarket axles are built differently so the aftermarket GTP tripot did not fit the lumina axle, but the aftermarket lumina axle fit perfectly into the OE tripots... same as when I originally did the swap...

I'll look further into that, becuase I've thought about that being a possibility... I guess I could go to the Stealership and get some OE GTP tripots and see if replacing those alone helps...

Thanks for your help so far!

Is your axle geometry still good? Sounds like the vibrations some get from lowering and their axles are no longer at the right angles.

Usually when it vibrates on acceleration it is the motor mounts but there isn't a cheap way to diagnose this problem without taking things apart.

Originally Posted by 03GPScottyd

Usually when it vibrates on acceleration it is the motor mounts but there isn't a cheap way to diagnose this problem without taking things apart.

Sometimes, that's the only option. Once I get some monaaay... I'll go ahead and replace all of those bastards! Even if that doesn't fix it (and it better) it needs them anyway... just like the axles and wheel bearings!

on a side note here. when you lower a w-body arent you supposed to re-level the motor?

Originally Posted by justwhisen

on a side note here. when you lower a w-body arent you supposed to re-level the motor?

Yep, to restore axle geometry and bring the wear on the joints back down to norms.

I had never read anything on re-leveling, makes sense to me... I looked all over the place on my car, jacked it up and messed with same stuff, and it does need mounts... how would i go about re-leveling the motor?

I think that its leaning too far forward anyway, my a/c compressor pulley is millimeters from hitting the cradle and my downpipe likes to get really close to hitting (and sometimes does) the heat shield and hump area...

Once I get some mun muns I'll be heading to get some new mounts, and ill look at my manuals and stuff, or just wing it, and level the engine...

Some to think of it, if it wasn't for my side trans pan being busted, i wouldn't have had as many problems with leveling... It was level before we pulled it back apart... and i remember after we got it put back together it felt different than when we originally did the swap... Of course I only drove it for a day before the side pan burst open, then we had it towed back home... (the donor car rolled and the trans pan was cracked... and didn't show signs until we heated it up and made it burst...)

Such is life... I'll keep tabs...

-Jordan

Engine mount spacers:

ZZ Performance

i feel you im a poor student also haha

my 2000 bonneville was doing almost the same thing, only when i made right turns with acceleration the car would shake and rumble almost scary, only with acceleration with the right hand turn, not in the left turn and it wouldnt make a peep in a right hand turn if i didnt push the gas pedal. only on acceleration ( any speed ) never figured it out because the car was totaled 2 weeks later lol but im still curious to know. i was always leaning on driver side axle,but opinions anyone?

I had the same problem once. Replaced my bad tie rod ends and still was there. Ended up being that I needed my tires re-balanced.

you wont be able to use those spacers if youre almost already hitting your downpipe in the tunnel underneath since it will only make it worse.