I'm trying to nail down a vibration while driving on the freeway, hoping for some tips.
First, some backstory:
I have a 89 325i manual trans. I have one of the oddball cars with the driveshaft balancer (pn 26111434254) on it. I pulled the balancer off 4 years ago when I installed a DSSR kit. I had some vibration from the driveshaft, but it was bearable.
Two weeks ago, I installed a new driveshaft from Driveshaft Specalist (in San Antonio) along with a new Meyle HD Guibo.
Before I ordered the driveshaft, I checked with Driveshaft Specalist and they said I would not need the driveshaft balancer with their driveshaft.
To my dissapointment, there's still some vibration. And it's worse than before.
I'm 99% sure I've installed the guibo correctly. I torqued all the guibo bolts to spec, got the driveshaft to diff bolts "guten-tight". I put a pre-load on the CSB.
Here's what I'm hearing/feeling:
- At lower speeds (25-40 mph) , I can hear some prop shaft noise, but no vibration
- Vibration starts at around 40
- Vibration noticable at 60 mph in 4th gear (~3k RPM)
- Vibration is very noticable at 60 mph in 5th gear (~2.5k RPM) like a thump-thump-thump-thump
Put the clutch in, vibration goes away. That rules out wheels/tires as a culprit.
I've refreshed a lot of parts on this car in the last 2-3 years, so I'm scratching my head as to what's going on. Also pulling my hair out!! :)
- Rear and front subframes reinforced, powder coated, poly 80A bushings
- New wheel bearings all around
- New shocks and springs (Bilstein B8, H&R OE Sport)
- New rear and front shock mounts
- New rear half-shafts
- Metric Mechanic 3.73 LSD 3-disk
- 80A poly diff bushing
- New front control arms, 80A poly control arm bushings
- 80A poly motor mounts
- Beefier front and rear sway bar mounting with 80A poly bushings
- New wheels and tires (Maxilite alpina reps, Contential ExtremeContact DWS 06)
I don't really want to drive this long distance (it's not a pleasant drive with that vibration), not looking forward to the drive to the E30 picnic, but I'm going to do it.
One thought I had was that I probably over-torqued the bolts for the transmission bushings (80A poly) when I was putting things back together two weeks ago. That's not too hard to fix.
I have a 1 year warranty on the new driveshaft, so I'll be contacting them.
If that goes nowhere, I may see if a local driveshaft shop will check the balance just to make sure I'm not crazy.
Should I have put the driveshaft balancer back on? Is it necessary with a balanced driveshaft?
If you've read this far, you get a gold star for the day and I appreciate your dedication.
Open to any ideas, questions, and things to check.
Attaching pictures of the new guibo to see if I've done this correctly:
Thanks!
-Grant
First, some backstory:
I have a 89 325i manual trans. I have one of the oddball cars with the driveshaft balancer (pn 26111434254) on it. I pulled the balancer off 4 years ago when I installed a DSSR kit. I had some vibration from the driveshaft, but it was bearable.
Two weeks ago, I installed a new driveshaft from Driveshaft Specalist (in San Antonio) along with a new Meyle HD Guibo.
Before I ordered the driveshaft, I checked with Driveshaft Specalist and they said I would not need the driveshaft balancer with their driveshaft.
To my dissapointment, there's still some vibration. And it's worse than before.
I'm 99% sure I've installed the guibo correctly. I torqued all the guibo bolts to spec, got the driveshaft to diff bolts "guten-tight". I put a pre-load on the CSB.
Here's what I'm hearing/feeling:
- At lower speeds (25-40 mph) , I can hear some prop shaft noise, but no vibration
- Vibration starts at around 40
- Vibration noticable at 60 mph in 4th gear (~3k RPM)
- Vibration is very noticable at 60 mph in 5th gear (~2.5k RPM) like a thump-thump-thump-thump
Put the clutch in, vibration goes away. That rules out wheels/tires as a culprit.
I've refreshed a lot of parts on this car in the last 2-3 years, so I'm scratching my head as to what's going on. Also pulling my hair out!! :)
- Rear and front subframes reinforced, powder coated, poly 80A bushings
- New wheel bearings all around
- New shocks and springs (Bilstein B8, H&R OE Sport)
- New rear and front shock mounts
- New rear half-shafts
- Metric Mechanic 3.73 LSD 3-disk
- 80A poly diff bushing
- New front control arms, 80A poly control arm bushings
- 80A poly motor mounts
- Beefier front and rear sway bar mounting with 80A poly bushings
- New wheels and tires (Maxilite alpina reps, Contential ExtremeContact DWS 06)
I don't really want to drive this long distance (it's not a pleasant drive with that vibration), not looking forward to the drive to the E30 picnic, but I'm going to do it.
One thought I had was that I probably over-torqued the bolts for the transmission bushings (80A poly) when I was putting things back together two weeks ago. That's not too hard to fix.
I have a 1 year warranty on the new driveshaft, so I'll be contacting them.
If that goes nowhere, I may see if a local driveshaft shop will check the balance just to make sure I'm not crazy.
Should I have put the driveshaft balancer back on? Is it necessary with a balanced driveshaft?
If you've read this far, you get a gold star for the day and I appreciate your dedication.
Open to any ideas, questions, and things to check.
Attaching pictures of the new guibo to see if I've done this correctly:
Thanks!
-Grant
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