01 ss vert

iTrader: (1)

I have this too, but it's a pulley. Does it change with RPM?

WhiteStallion00

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As the RPM pulsates, so does the sound. Oddly, I can hear it best from behind the car, that may be because it's more open towards the back, or it may be reverberating through the exhaust, or it may be coming form the engine. I can hear it when standing on the side of the car, but not as obvious.

My concern is that towards the end of my commute, it feels like the engine is bogging down; not like it's not putting out, but as though there's more drag on it. The sound gets louder towards the end of the trip, to the point I can hear it over the exhaust at 65mph.

WhiteStallion00

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No noticeable odor or excess heat from anywhere, which I would expect if something was cooking enough to significantly increase drag.

WhiteStallion00

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In Park it pulsates as the RPM does, on the road it seems to be consistent with speed, which seems to point at the tranny. I had to gt off the freeway a few exits early and take the side streets home because it was making me nervous. Sit through a light and it gets better for a bit, so a rest helps it. going to put it up on 4 stands, change the tranny fluid and filter ad put some lucas conditioner in. Does bother me a bit that it seems to be loudest coming out the tailpipe.

trickie

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I was hoping this was an old thread and was expectingg to see a resolution but unfortunately I see that it's active so I will be following it I have a similar problem and just purchased four new slp bilsteins, still running de carbons, hope it helps. Good luck ws

WhiteStallion00

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It is active, I'm afraid. In fact, I just crawled out from under it to do some additional research. In my case, it's been a bunch of worn out parts along the way; bushings, shocks, etc.

Where I'm at right now is that I can make the problem almost go away for short periods of time, but it comes back. The binding I've been experiencing is in the sway bars; mainly the front bar. I take every precaution I can and make sure it moves freely before I button things up, but within 10-15 miles the chassis gets stiff again and the front bar has a lot of resistance. The mounts are still the original, and they've gone a bit oval, so they need replaced; I've already replaced the end links. The front bar is not bent, the rear bar needs an 1/8" washer to bring both sides equal.

I've also noticed signs of chassis flex that I suspect are playing a part. With the car level, the drivers door now creaks a bit; with the rear in the air, there's a point when closing and opening it that i can feel it catching. Some body panels seem to be a bit askew, as well, but I don't have any older pics of the gaps to compare with. When I'm underneath it, it looks like the whole drivers side of the tub slopes down to the outside while the passenger side is parallel with the ground, but I can't seem to prove that part.

So far I've found the following to be bad and replaced them:
Steering Rack
Front shocks (went with Monroe Sensatrack - feels nice when it works)
Front LCA bushings (moog)
Front UCA bushings (moog)
Front endlinks (moog)
Front sway mounts (not replaced yet)
Front tires

I guess that's all i've replaced. I re-lubed all the rear bushings (LCA are rubber moogs, sway components and torque arm bushings are energy suspension). Rear shocks seem to be in pretty good shape.

Cool28

iTrader: (2)

I hav Hal shocks I installed in the front had them set at 7 and stopping hard car would follow the grooves bad and just felt like crap. Turned the setting up to 10 and that feeling went away and it drives really nice now.

WhiteStallion00

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Well, as I said, the "wandering" is all but gone, kinda an anti-climatic finish, I guess. Right now I can get about halfway through my commute before the chassis stiffens up and it literally starts to push when i get on the gas coming out of high speed curves on the freeway, at 65mph with brand new front tires; that's about the time it starts to follow grooves in the road. Every bump is amplified and it's like there's no suspension at all. The body doesn't roll, weight doesn't transfer front to back and it feels and sounds like a tire is dragging.

Every night I go home and loosen up the endlinks and mounts on both sway bars and reset everything and it'll work for about half a commute. I notice that the bars become difficult to twist even after the endlinks are completely disconnected because the mounts have shifted; if I tighten them enough so that they don't shift, I can't move the bars very easily.

The front bar needs new bushings (arrive any day now) and the rear bar seems to be a bit bent where the bushings are, it's also worn out in those spots, as in it has a bit of an hourglass shape to it. The strangest thing is that the rear bar is wider than the chassis mounts, by about an inch (meaning I can't line up the endlinks side to side); I don't get that at all.

CONCLUSION
So, with all that, the conclusion is that several original stock components were worn out. My previous post lists the parts that have been replaced; the rear sway bar will be next, then a good set of SFC's because I swear this damn thing is bent (anybody got some bolt-ons for a vert they wanna sell?)

If I discover anything else, I'll add it in here. Thanx everyone for your help and ideas; I wish I could have found a single AHA!, but I'm kinda glad I didn't because the only stuff left would be more than I could afford.

CranMaro99

iTrader: (10)

Jesus, sounds like a mess. I would have given up a long time ago, as there still seems to be something more to this imo.

I've had numerous suspension and drivability issues on past cars and all were fixed "relatively" easy.

WhiteStallion00

iTrader: (1)

For example, when I left for work this morning, all 4 corners were at 27.25". I just got home:

RF: 27.5
LF: 27.25
RR: 26.75 (WTF?)
LR: 27.5

As it sits right now, a manhole cover will jar your spine. I'll go loosen up the endlinks and mounts and re-tighten them and it will all be normal until I get halfway to work tomorrow.

zerogravity779

iTrader: (1)

I had a 97 TA that would "wonder" all over the road when it wanted to. Replaced shocks, springs, bushings, ect... Then I noticed a little play in the wheel. Thought I had a bad seal or bushing in the rack. Got to looking at it, and noticed the "rag joint" (Steering coupler) was rotted pretty bad. Take a look at it. Have some on turn the wheel slightly from side to side, enough to move the steering wheel a little. See if there is ANY play in it. Mine had about 1/4" play. Yeah... it was allot. Changed it and the car drove like new again (in theory). They are only about $10 at the parts stores, and I find them on the Help Wall at autozone. Look at the coupler its self, and try to see if the rivets are worn.

WhiteStallion00

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That reminds me, I started by changing the rack, I knew there was a bigger $ item in there somewhere. I'll have to go back and edit the parts list.

No rag joints in these, not sure when they did away with them. There's what seems to be a bit of play where the column enters the engine bay, that's where I started, but I did as you suggested and the opposite (light hit to the wheel, which showed up in the steering wheel).

It drove great this morning until it gave out, and it's sudden; you hit the right bump and Dr Jekyll turns into Mr Hyde. The suspension becomes rock hard, it pushes at low speed (65) tire noise increases, road vibrations increase. You'd swear you were running on plastic wheels.

I do note one thing that bothers me more and more. I can see the camber in the LF, but the RF looks like it's straight up and down if not slightly top out. there have been times when it felt like it "went over the top" when turning left and I wonder if it didn't do just that and fold the RF under a bit. I have half the mind to get in there and put some recognizable camber in it just ot see how it feels. I don't trust the sheet they gave me, it says .1 LF and -.2 RF, but it sure doesn't look that way. I also don't buy the .04 thrust angle.

Anyway, I'm taking pics of the sway bars as they are right now, then I'll reset them and take another set and then another when I get home tomorrow and we'll see what's really going on. On several occasions I've almost mounted a video camera somewhere, but i'm sure the vibrations would kill it.

zerogravity779

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Yeah.... I was ready to call you out on the rag joint. I went out to my 99 TA with camera in hand to snap a pic to upload..... and um... yeah, there is not one there. So I did some looking on line and it seems the 98 and up didnt have them. Seems I have learned something. Sorry but I have no answer for you.

joecar

Do you suspect the swaybars are seizing up on their mount bushings...?

WhiteStallion00

iTrader: (1)

I had heard of these alleged "rag joints", and I think I saw a few on older cars; they look like an engineer had a few too many... I guess the thought was they would dissipate vibration.

Yeah, joecar, that's why I'm taking pics before and after this time. I know the front bar is jamming somehow because i can barely move it (w/o endlinks) after the suspension's gotten stiff. I had to cut 1/4" off one spacer to get the two sides to line up, with both LCAs parallel to the ground. The front fork must be tweaked, because laying the bar flat shows very little difference in the ends. I can see from one of the bushings that it was too close to the bend, as one side is stretched way out.

As for the back bar, I cant get it to show up in a pic, but where the bushing is it looks a little like an hourglass and the bar as a whole just looks tweaked. It's got about 1/8-1/4" of difference between the two sides when laid flat and it's wider than the endlink mounts on the chassis by almost an inch, no idea how that happened. The way I've been mounting them lately is:

1. snug mounts
2. tighten endlinks so they are straight and in the correct position
3. loosen mounts to remove any binding, then tighten them down to snug + 1 turn
4. loosen endlinks and re-tighten to snug + 1 turn

One of the rear mounts wants to be all the way forward in it's slots, the other wants to be all the way back and slightly cockeyed. The front bushings themselves are shot, but with just one mount tight, when i spin the bar, the other mount moves up and down (towards and away fromt he chassis).

So, yeah, I think they're binding in their mounts but I'm not sure what's triggering them unless the chassis tweaks to a point where they can bind and they can't get unbound.

Finishing buttoning them up for the night and will take more pics, tomorrow afternoon I'll take more pics and compare the positions of everything. Maybe the chassis is tweaked; actually, probably it is. A lot of things "look" like they're out of whack, but when I measure they're not, so i dunno.

SS SLP2

iTrader: (8)

OP I have followed this from the begaining but I do not remenber all the replies, have you checked to be sure the cradel is not moving on the body as this could cause binding and also without going back to reread all the replies I seen to remenber you stated that at some points it appeared that one front tire was tilt in on one side and out on the other side, if the cradel shifting that would happen.
I would free all up again, at this point go under the car and mark with a srribe the mounting points of the CRADLE TO FRAME then drive 10-15 feet stright forward at this point stand a roofing square flat on the payment and slide it up next to each front tire measue at top and at botton of each rim and record the measure for each wheel, drive the car untill you have the freeze up problem at that time measure at top and bottom of wheel from the square again and compare to your first setting AND LOOK AT THE POINTS WHERE YOU MARKED THE CRADLE TO FRAME
hope some of this rambling helps, Johnny

WhiteStallion00

iTrader: (1)

Not so sure about this Marine Grease, though. It seems more sticky than anything else. Not to mention it's all over al 4 pair of my mechanix gloves, all of my tools and up until this afternoon, all over the car. WD-40 to the rescue

I've virtually lived in my garage the past couple of months with this thing; it's a friggin nightmare out there; I'm ashamed to even let anyone peak in the door.

Is Marine Grease really the best stuff for poly bushings? What about rubber ones, or those new semi-hard ones from Moog? Will silicon spray work? What should I clean the poly bushings with? Why is the sky blue? What's wrong with my $@#&!%# car?!?!?!?

WhiteStallion00

iTrader: (1)

thanx, Johnny. Do you mean the K-member? That's where I always jack it (and I've been doing a lot of that lately); it seems there are several tongue and slot style joints all through that area, is that what holds it in? I think I'm following what you're saying, and it would certainly make sense. I know I found 4 (I think) bolts that I thought held the K-member on and they were all tight...

OK, confession time....

About 10 years ago I was following an SUV around an onramp at about 50. He straddled a bowling ball size boulder and I didn't see it until it was too late. That was the day I learned anti-lock brakes don't work at full wheel lock. Cranked full right, i went straight into the curb, probably about 30mph by the time i hit with the driver front wheel. Broke that wheel and bent the LR one as well. I wasn't able to find any chassis damage, but a couple of shops over the years have had trouble putting a good alignment on it. Even the last one (which I posted several pages back) looked rather odd. I still don't see any damage, but sometimes you gotta step back further to see it and you can only get so far away with jack stands holding it above you.

It's worth a shot, thanx, Johnny.

CranMaro99

iTrader: (10)

After all this time you now just mention you had a front end accident damaging front end suspension (and possible chassis) parts?

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Yeah um that would have been REALLY helpful information to have, like, 11 pages ago...