Driveline Vibration At +80kmh

[Red Sky II]

The Stagea has a vibration at speeds above around 80kmh. At first I thought it was a puncture repaired front left tyre but got that fixed and even swapped the front wheel to the back but it is still there.

Wheels have been balanced by at least 3 different places now, so not sure what is causing this. It feels like out of balance wheels but have been told it isn't, doesn't feel like an out of round wheel (my Skyline had that problem). It is a very fast but weak vibration and doesn't seem to do it at lower speeds, that I can notice.

Following a search of the threads, found this list from our guru (Sydneykid):

1. Out of balance tyres (are they balanced inner and outer? Or just one set of weights?)

2. Out of round tyres (easy to check on the balancer)

3. Out of centre wheels (do they lock securely over the hub centre?)

4. Out of round wheels (how is the run out on the inner and outer rims?)

5. Out of balance brake rotors (unusual, but does happen)

6. Worn wheel bearings (jack it up and check the movement, in and out top and bottom)

7. Worn radius rod bushes (you can see it, the rubber is torn and fluid leaking)

After that it gets obscure, eg; worn shocks can cause vibration after hitting a bump.

Therefore, should I just check each of these items in turn until find something?

Further, during my 100,000km service, the workshop noted something along the lines of front diff oil seal leaking - is this a major repair issue or just a case of replacing seals?

[ish]

mate its probably uni joints .... one has a tolerance out and is causing an unbalance vibration ... either that or you have thrown a tailshaft weight off (rare)

test by taking car to 80kms then coast (no drive) to see if it still vibrates usualy it will if its the tail shaft uni's as the tail shaft is rotating as fast as the wheels are driving it ...

Good luck!

[CruiseLiner]

Further, during my 100,000km service, the workshop noted something along the lines of front diff oil seal leaking - is this a major repair issue or just a case of replacing seals?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hey mate do u mean the diff front plate seal, or the sump to engine seal is leaking? the diff front plate is piss easy and the other is a pain in the arse.

just take front plate off, add gasket goo from nissan and put back on

Edited February 12, 2006 by CruiseLiner

[fergo308]

check the tailshaft centre bearing would be my suggestion,if you've already eliminated the wheel bearings,wheels and tyres.

it's possible someone has had the shaft out before and put it back in in a different orientation. normally this won't cause a problem,but if you have a worse-than-usually-balanced shaft,it would cause what you're describing.

just out of interest,how much balancing weight is on your wheels?

if there's a lot (as in over 50grams per side),that's indicative of another problem.

Justin...

[BoyWhoCriedWolf]

As above, or the gearbox mounts.

[Red Sky II]

Thanks for the replies guys and it is now time to begin the hunt to determine the cause of the problem and then the fix.

Will see how it goes but at least it is still driveable

As for your question Brad, not sure as they just put it on the invoice that the "front diff seal leaking".

[cogs]

Sorry to hi-jack your thread, but I've got a similar problem.. I get steering wheel vibration above around 80km/h. I took it to get a balance but the guy said the vibration is because of the tyres. He said because of how the tyres have worn they are impossible to balance. He said you can try balancing them as much as you want but the vibration isn't going to go away so he'd just be 'taking my money'. He said the tread had 'feathered' and that you can tell by running your hand over the tyres. So he says I need to get new tyres to fix the problem. Could this be true or he is just trying to get me to buy new tyres??

[sy300]

Feathering on tyres is caused by the wheels not being aligned properly.

Get a wheel alignment done. If you buy new tyres without getting the wheels aligned, the same problem will happen and you would have wasted your money on tyres.

[cogs]

Feathering on tyres is caused by the wheels not being aligned properly.

Get a wheel alignment done. If you buy new tyres without getting the wheels aligned, the same problem will happen and you would have wasted your money on tyres.

Thanks champ. Yea they did a wheel alignment. So this 'feathering' thing actually happens? Just get new tyres fitted and balanced and it should be good? Thanks again.

[3intheBack]

Just to add another suggestion:

Check that the casing of the tyre isn't letting go. This may show up as a deformation in the shape of the tyre - like a lump/bulge in the wall or flat part of the tread.

On a tyre on our caravan the deformation was hardly noticable at all except for the vague handling at speed.

The amount of tread left (ie age of the tyre) has little to do with it. Hitting a gutter or rock on the road may be enough to damage something internally.

If you're worried about getting had on a new set of tyres when the current tyres have plenty of life left, then keep the old set of tyres to use again later. If the new set fixes the problem then you know you can throw the old ones.

[GTR032]

The Stagea has a vibration at speeds above around 80kmh.  At first I thought it was a puncture repaired front left tyre but got that fixed and even swapped the front wheel to the back but it is still there.

Wheels have been balanced by at least 3 different places now, so not sure what is causing this. It feels like out of balance wheels but have been told it isn't, doesn't feel like an out of round wheel (my Skyline had that problem).  It is a very fast but weak vibration and doesn't seem to do it at lower speeds, that I can notice.

Following a search of the threads, found this list from our guru (Sydneykid):

1. Out of balance tyres (are they balanced inner and outer? Or just one set of weights?)

2. Out of round tyres (easy to check on the balancer)

3. Out of centre wheels (do they lock securely over the hub centre?)

4. Out of round wheels (how is the run out on the inner and outer rims?)

5. Out of balance brake rotors (unusual, but does happen)

6. Worn wheel bearings (jack it up and check the movement, in and out top and bottom)

7. Worn radius rod bushes (you can see it, the rubber is torn and fluid leaking)

After that it gets obscure, eg; worn shocks can cause vibration after hitting a bump.

Therefore, should I just check each of these items in turn until find something?

Further, during my 100,000km service, the workshop noted something along the lines of front diff oil seal leaking - is this a major repair issue or just a case of replacing seals?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey

I had a similar problem with my GTR. Driveline started to vibrate on medium to hard acceleration and only when it was about 70km/h and over.

First thing to be done was the centre bearing, did look pretty worn but didnt fix it.

Wheel alignment and balance on 2 different sets of wheels. Checked all rear bushes and links.

Replaced front prop shaft as the uni joint was pretty flogged out (wasn't affecting vibration as it wouldnt make any difference with this shaft out ie 2WD).

Replaced small rubber and metal sleeve mounts for gearbox crossmember, again, worn out but didnt fix problem.

Took out tailshaft and put back in but rotated it around from original position. From what the mechanic told me there is 4 different ways for it to go back in. He moved it one mounting positon around and it was all fixed.

It took a bit of money and research to get it sorted for an annoying problem but probably was a good thing to get all these worn out bits n pieces replaced before they broke or caused potential damage.

Jono

[Red Sky II]

Cheers Jono for those suggestions

Any recommendations on the order in which I should tackle this problem?