mc01ta

I beg for help. 01 Trans AM M6 that has a vibration at idle that can be felt through steering wheel (REMEMBER at IDle it does this) and can feel throughout the car by touching anywhere, the t-tops, spoiler, etc. Car has done this BEFORE new clutch, new catback and new brakes/rotors. This is not a brake rotor issue, this occurs at idle sitting still. The car has 38,000 miles regular maintenance done.

I have a lid, catback, ported tb, new brakes/rotors, clutch, NGK TR55's wires, and thats it for now. PLease help me cure this vibration, everything seems secure and not loose. Looking for ideas. I am doing more maintenance by changing rear axle fluid and trans soon.

tim99ws6

iTrader: (31)

might wanna check bushings on the Torque arm and the tranny mount....that's always a good start

Is it a "car is missing" kind of vibration, an intermitent, or constantly vibrating????

mc01ta

it is not the trans mount. I will have the torque arm checked out. This is a constant vibration you can feel through the frame of the car, hands on steering wheel, through your butt while sitting in driver seat, ALL HAPPEN AT IDLE AND STOPPED COMPLETELY. When excellerating it isn't apparent and seems gone. The noise is audible too at idle, sounds like it is coming from everywhere, it is soooooooo hard to pinpoint. I guess the best way to say it is picture yourself sitting in your driver seat and hands on steering wheel and you can feel this/hear this vibration at idle in gear or not, it is constant and seems to be gone one out of first. THIS was like this before the clutch install, catback, and all other mods/maintenance listed in the first post. Any ideas PLEASE!! I've considered trading this car for another because it is soooooo annoying and nobody nor myself can fix it.

Kenafin_02TA

Considering it does it while idleing...I'd start looking at/around the engine. Drivetrain I don't think would do that to that degree while idleing...I'm just going to start throwing out ideas here..I have no idea if they're valid..but to me they seem like they could be causing it...motor mounts...have you checked those? have you checked whatever else is up there that holds the engine in place? Have you done any data logging to see if there's excessive missfires or anything else looking odd in the data? I know if I'm getting a lot of missfires, I'll notice more vibration..but it's not as bad as yours. If you open the hood when the car is vibrating, does the engine itself look like it has excessive vibration?

I *think* I read something one time about someone saying something about an engine being out of balance...I don't remember a lot about it, and I'm hoping someone that knows more than I do can chime in here, but I think basiclly the whole block and assembly wasn't balanced, and it would affect things. How you test for that...and if it could be your problem..like I said..hopefully someone that knows more about that will chime in.

mc01ta

Thanks for the reply. I'll have the motor mounts checked, engine doesn't seem to be vibrating. I put over 20 k miles on the car before this started so its not that its done this forever just started around 30k and doesn't seem to stop. Its funny, with all the snow it seems to have calmed down a bit sitting still, pretty strange.

BigE

iTrader: (2)

Did you have the flywheel resurfaced/balanced when you put in the new clutch? An out-of-spec flywheel will cause idle vibration in a heartbeat.

mc01ta

everything is balanced. Remember this was happening before the new clutch and after.

BigBadWolf

And you are positive that it's not part of the exhaust system rubbing anywhere on the chassis? I had something similar until I figured out that one of the rubber mounts for the exit pipes had worn out.

out of curiosity, what RPM are you idling at? If you idle it up a bit with your foot, does it go away?

mc01ta

normal idle, i'll check all over the exhaust. Since I've added the catback it seems to be slightly more vibrations. Car runs great otherwise and hauls ***, not worreid about it being major. Doesn't burn oil or making any funny noises.

Rhode Island Red

iTrader: (2)

from my experience in weird vibrations , it could be that your studs on your y-pipe to cat connection have broken or the over-the axle pipe is hitting somewhere. Look at both y-pipe connections. I noticed that mine looked like the studs were still on, but closer inspection, showed the studs heads snapped off !! , causin an exhaust leak that would manifest in a weird vibration that would come and go periodically which could be felt throught the car more than heard. I believe that GM over torqued some of the y-pipe-cat studs, causing the prone to premature failure

In matter of fact I fixed my drivers side... now the passenger side connection is acting up ... (damned hard to cut as they are the strongest metal on the car)

replacing my exhaust studs on the y-pipe fixed the intermittent vibration..

the over-the-axle pipe rubbing as the source,would really be noticealbe as it would sound/ feel like it the source was in the back

good luck to ya (took me nearly a year to figure out the problem )

BigBadWolf

Yes but I'd be curious to know if you manually idle it up, does it go away. A lot of exhaust vibrations only happen at lower RPMs.

mc01ta

i'll check around the y-pipe. I had the over the axle pipe rubbing and had that fixed. Hopefully this will be the culprit. Otherwise this is one strange prob/vib that most don't seem to have or answers for. Thanks everyone for replies and insight, more than helpful

Rhode Island Red

iTrader: (2)

the only other thing I could think of is that you have a broken baffle in your muffler.
yes the vibrations occured at idle also

UnleashedBeast

iTrader: (2)

Keep me updated with your problem please as I am fighting a vibration problem that is very similar to yours.

Thanks