TCpete

So a few months back i noticed my car around 1500 rpms would vibrate a tad.. nothing major.. i thought it was because of the ES motor mounts since they were recently installed around that time... this was MONTHS ago.. over 6 months roughly..

Now to present day.. the vibrations have gotten considerably worse and a tad more harsh..

It happens in neutral when i rev to around 1500-1800 ..and even under load sometimes...

My opinion is that possibly one of my motor mounts could be going bad...

I ruled out a bad rod or anything dealing with the motor itself since at idle the car runs smooth as a whistle and anything after the designated area of rpms is pretty much smooth also.. engine has not lost power either...

MODS that are related to this problem area and could contribute are:
Energy suspension full motor mounts
crank pulley
CC stg4 clutch and 12 lb Flywheel (which i hate to death)
Ingals ETD (engine tq damper)

anyone else have this type of issue

im stumped...

* EDIT... this is happens in Neutral and in 1st gear or on load in any gear at roughly that rpm range

tcengel

Does it vibrate when you rev in neutral and also when in gear? With my motor mounts installed, the engive vibrates alot in that range. Did you remove the balance shafts also>

TCpete

no the balance shafts are intact... i never removed them.... and the motor mounts have been installed for over 15k miles.. even when the front was installed only for a few days the vibration was not as harsh... and when both were installed... the engine settles and did not vibrate as it does now when the mounts were fresh.. when they are fresh they are their stiffest. and soften up after time.

and yes.. in neutral i rev in that range and it vibrates.. and under load when going into 1st...

tcengel

I'd also check the ZPI crank pulley(agency power). I thought I saw a post going around about it gouging the crankshaft.

TCpete

i thought about it also but there are ppl with high mileage motors and if the pulley would have caused any damage it sure would been in the first 10k miles.. this motor currently has over 30k on this pulley... im pretty much ruling that out as i also beat this motor heavily... if it woulda affected the bearings on the crank it would toasted already.

tcengel

May not have affected the bearings, but the pulley is attached to the crank so if it's out of balance it could cause a vibration. Just throwing thoughts out there.

TCpete

i thought about it also.. but its been well over 30 possibly 40k miles on this motor.. so if it was unbalanced the vibration would have surfaced wayyy long ago..

im going to try to inspect my tranny motor mount and the rear since those take alot of beating... i gotta see if i can get some stock motor mounts from someone and try to see if thats the problem which im almost certian it is...

tcengel

All the mounts do is amplify the engine vibrations, they would not create them. Your engine is creating the vibration and your mounts are transfering the vibration to your chassis. I'd be looking elsewhere, most likely internally.

TCpete

ok so i spoke to a friend of mines whose a toyota tech and he told me to first try and clean out the throttle body with throttle body cleaner... he says they've gotten stuff similar what i am sorta experiencing and to first try cleaning it out so its gunk free... will update as soon as i can.

ElevationTC

Pete, i would love to put some help on this post..

but my car vibrates like one of those ghetto foot massages chairs at the mall!

Twin disk solid hubs, Front mount is SOLID, rear and side are ES. No balance shafts..
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In your paticular case, i would first check and make sure none of the motor mount bolts have loosened! Or broke, i have broken the front motor mount mounting bolts twice now!

Second is i would never ever never ever ever ever neverrrr eveeerrrr evvvvvveerrrr! EVER! switch out the stock harmonic balancer!

So heres a check list in no specfic order!

Swap back to stock harmonic balancer
check all motor mount pass through bolts
check all motor mount mounting bolts
have a friend rev the motor and see if you can pin point the vibration issue!

And some how help me sell my CC stage 4 clutch :_)

TCpete

hmm i never thought of the bolts breaking... i mean i know toyota has some weak ___ bolts on this car (ive broken a few here and there) but never crossed my mind the actualy bolt would break. You'd think they would be grade 8 bolts and hold but ive never heard of anyone breaking the bolt before...

as far as the pulley... like i said before... i think if anything would have shown up sooner it would have been that... i ETA that pulley on this motor (now that i look at my notes) has over 45+k miles... (car reads 60k) and these are 45k HARD miles... i beat it so much its something that definitely woulda showed up PRE 30k mile mark...

ill add some of those things to the list to check.

Windu

Check your exhaust system, My PTuning system was rubbing the cross member and I could only hear it between 1800 and 2000 rpm.

engifineer

An un-dampened crank pulley will many times cause slow damage that is sometimes hard to pin to one cause (which is why they should not be used ;) ). So it most likely would not occur in the first 10,000 miles. They can cause flywheel bolts to back out, cracked cranks, broken oil pump chains... you name it. If you read the posts where some of us posted links to lots of various manufacturer info on pulleys like this, you will see that the point that everyone seemed to ignore that we made was that there may not be this "boom its broken" moment. It can be a long, slow death that you may or may not see coming.

But.. to the vibration, I am assuming it is a vibration you feel, correct? Are you sure you dont have a slight miss?

I have seen a cranked crank cause that same thing as well.. and with an undampened pulley I would not throw that out as a cause.

tcridinclean

take the pastelitos de queso out of your intake...

TCpete

the reason im ruling it out for now is that some days the vibration is very minimal and other days the vibration is more agressive.. as the day goes on the vibration seems to go fade some and sometimes come back... if it had to do anything with the crank the vibration would be consistent daily no matter what the time frame... also its only happening in a certain range.. if the crank has ANY damage to it at all the vibrations would be constant through out the entire range and not just a certain target range. If crank or internal motor problems was the cause even at idle or high rpms the vibrations would be present and noticeable but they are not. if i had any of the other problems you have mentioned the motor would have gone already... but the motor still runs very hard and strong... this weekend ill be inspecting some of the mounts and ETD and cleaning out the TB as ive been busy.

will update as i make the inspections

kuo34

Good luck. Let us know what you figure out.

ElevationTC

pete.. i think the issue u have here is!!! You havint gone out and worked on it! lol!

gotta make some car time my friend! if u were local i would do it!

engifineer

I have personally known (and/or worked on) 3 cars with cracked cranks. 2 of the 3 (autos) only exhibited the vibration noticeably sitting with your foot on the brake in drive (low load, low rpm) and seemed to smooth out as you revved up. The only thing in your statements that would lead me away from thinking it could be a crank issue is the fact that it comes and goes.

Oh, and the 3rd of the cars above was my old truck, which broke its crank while driving down the freeway.. .so obviously there is more than a little vibration there

engifineer

Our stock pulley has no balancer on it at all. It is a harmonic damper, which serves a different purpose. A damper helps to prevent higher frequency vibrations from setting up resonance in the crank and causing damage throughout the motor. A balancer is actually an offset weight on the pulley which is used to actually balance the rotating assembly. Our engine is internally balanced.

But, you are correct in that it is not good practice to remove the damper.

TCpete

well heres a question: like i said before....

the vibrations only come with in a certain rpm range.. 1500-1800... at idle it purrs... at high rpms it purrs... my car is a manual... wether im in gear or not its same response...

im praying its not the motor but ill be checking the oil filter and opening it up around the next oil change and look for anything suspicious in terms of metal fragments or particles... that should give me a good idea if somethings the matter.. ill drain the oil in a clear coke bottle also and wait a few days.. if i have particles at the bottom occumulated then i know its the motor.

alot of ppl have talked to me about it and they have pointed out the same issues with the TB, and something along the lines of the mounts...all techs... and all know my mods...

my only true option after that will be to swap back the oem crank and see what happens after that...