aspire kinks

[zoom zoom]

I just swapped passenger side axels and the car isn't clicking on turns anymore, but there's still an ongoing vibration when engaged in gear with the brakes on. The vibration is even more pronounced when you turn the wheel (ever so slightly) to the left. Doesn't do it to the right at all. It's a pretty decent vibration just idling in gear with the ebrake holding it in place, hit the brakes and it's harder, then slightly turn the wheel left and it's a hard vibration, not motor jumping on 3 cylinders rough, but definately kicking hard.

I looked at the mounts, front and side are pretty solid, there's a very slight vibration comming from the rear mount, but it's just barely moving, maaaybe a mm or so up and down.


I don't really know what to do here to avoid throwing money at the problem, thinking maybe caliper bolts need wire wheeled/unseized, or the driver axel is showing it's age now that the other side is new...or maybe the rear transmission mount?? somebody else have an idea?

I don't know if it's related, but at 55-60 it cruises smooth, as soon as I get over 60 mph it vibrates hard, like the tire is going to fall off, up to about 70/75ish, then it smooths back out a little.

[FestYboy]

tires need balanced or properly seated to the hub. the vibration shouldnt come from anything that you just did (removed and replaced an axle) because you're feeling it in gear while not moving. i'm wondering if the idle speed changed just enough to set up a sympathetic vibration under load.

[zoom zoom]

I have messed with the idle screw, maybe I should turn it up just a hair and see if it helps? It isles good in park.

About 15 miles into my trip to work this morning I started hearing a whirring sound, to me it sounds like the transmission making a noise, only does it under 40 mph. It wanted to grind a bit midrange through first too. I'm not sure what's going on, maybe we got a Festiva atx axel? Jacked up, I could move the axel in and out 2" or so, sitting on the ground the cv boot is stretched as far as it will go and theres no lateral shaft play. It was hard to get it to plug into the knuckle, I had the lca loose and still had to pull the axel out to get the axel nut on, didn't think much about it at the time.

If my car lasts long enough I'm going to try and get some transmission fluid this weekend and pull the axel back out and compare with my old one. I was rushed last night so I didn't do a side by side comparison.

[Safety Guy]

Yep, it sounds to me like that axle could be binding. You may be right about it's true nature and got the wrong part!

Karl

[FestYboy]

yeah that axle is too short!!!

[zoom zoom]

I called advance again and told them this is the third axel... after a painful conversation of explaining to the guy why he couldn't find any parts listed under transaxle, the difference between the transaxle and a transmission, and the difference between a cv axle and a transaxle, he finally told me the right axle is 40 miles away in zanesville Oh....and then said they wouldn't ship it to the store closer for me to pick it up.

I got ahold of NAPA, they had my axle in cleveland, but it should be there this morning, so I'm getting ready to go rip out that one in there now and return it at advance, then get the cheaper axle from napa (52$+64$core)

I'll update later when I get it all back together, thanks guys, hopefully this axle is responsible for the vibrations I'm hearing.

[zoom zoom]

ok, I got the right axle, it's identical in almost every way to the stock one....from NAPA.

Incase anyone is wondering,

ALL FESTIVA AND ASPIRE PASSENGER SIDE AXELS, MANUAL AND AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION, ARE CREATED EQUAL FROM THE AXEL NUT TO THE TRIPOT BEARING.

This is a fact, minus the threads for the axel nut, and axel nuts themselves, which is dependant on the manufacturer.

The difference is entirely in the INNER CV CUP.

[zoom zoom]

Alright, the axel is swapped, everything is good that I can tell. The noise is comming from somewhere between the bumper cover and the frontal radiator support area on the passenger side, like somebody didn't replace a bolt or a clip somewhere. (I haven't had the bumper cover off)

It doesn't vibrate while sitting idle, only when in gear. I removed the passenger caliper bolts and wire wheeled them and slathered on some high dollar synthetic racing grease my neighbor gave me, they came pretty clean so I think I can rule that out.

If I push on the bumper cover the noise stops, but I wonder if there's something wrong causing the vibration, or if I should just zip tie band aid the bumper cover and forget it, maybe its just normal vibration for being in gear?

I still have the issue with the wheel vibrating over 60, but I'm hoping that will be resolved when I get the tires balanced, rotated, and a front end alignment in the next couple weeks.



Also my mpgs dropped dramaticaLly (2+mpg) this week but I'm hoping its because of all the idling the car was doing each time I had to swap axels and top off transmission fluid.

The new exhaust manifold has 170k on it with an o2 to match, but looks better than the old o2 missing a shield did. I wedged the downstream o2 on the engine mount to have it somewhere, its not throwing any codes. Very few miles have been put on this new 1.5" manifold ->muffler exhaust. Car accelerates fine, like normal.

[Safety Guy]

So far so good then!

I think the tire balancing will take care of the over 60 vibes.

At some point, just take off the bumper cover and have a look-see.

Karl

[WmWatt]

1. Try switching the front tires side-to-side to see if it changes the high speed vibration. I don't mean take the tires off the rims, just unbolt the rims with the tires on them and put on the other side.

2. The thing ratting behind the passenger side bumper could be the horn. It's a bad place to put them and they rust. Yours could be loose. I moved mine into the engine compartment. I found an unused threaded hole on the passenger's fender wall.

[nitrofarm]

My ATX spire did the same thing till I shimmed the Hood Rubber Bumpers.The hood was getting a "Harmonic" noise. Put it gear waaaaaaaaaaaaa,take it out of gear silence. wtflub?

[zoom zoom]

Ok the vibrations are still there, seems like they're getting worse. Ill see about shimming the hood bumpers soon, but it seems to me line its comming from the bumper, ill probably take it off to find a couple broken studs or something but its just too cold for me to want to do much right now.

Axel situation is sorted out, but napa gave me the wrong seal so it needs pulled and replaced again later, doesn't leak much fluid.

I got both front tires balanced and it took out about half of the vibrations for a couple days, I heard a pop, sounded like I threw a weight off, and the vibrations came back. I didn't want to get the rear tires balanced until I filled one with slime, would they have something to do with it?

[Safety Guy]

Matt did you actually find a place where the wheel weight came off?

Do you have Slime in the front tires? For how long? Does Slime freeze?

Karl

[zoom zoom]

Just one rear tire got the slime. They put the weights on the inside of the rim so I can't see where one would have come off.

[nitrofarm]

Matt did you actually find a place where the wheel weight came off?

Do you have Slime in the front tires? For how long? Does Slime freeze?

Karl

It freeze's @ -30 F boils @ 220 F and is non flamable. As far as Vibration I kinda remember someone saying "Slime" will work like the "Equal Balance" product. But please dont quote me on that.