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Vibration on Acceleration

Wacky

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Hi Everyone,

As you can tell by my profile and low post count, I am a newby to this site. I have just recently purchased a VS S1 Exec Sedan with 168,000km on it. It's in great condition...drives nice, etc ,etc.

However, one thing that is really niggling me is a vibration upon acceleration, through to about 35/40 km/hr.

I can feel the vibration through the steering wheel and gearshifter.

I know I need to get a wheel alignment ASAP as it pulls to the right a bit, however I get the feeling it's something to do with the drive train, as rolling down a hill from 0km/hr does not cause this vibration, nor revving the engine in neutral.

This site has been a great and impressive source of information and initial reseach has led me to want to investigate the Uni Joints (I believe there are two of them between the gear box and the diff (?).

I am getting a workshop manual ASAP (I prefer Gegory's, but is it the best?), but I'm wondering if the symptoms match to Uni Joints, and whether there might be other issues, such as rubber bushes on various linkages (can anyone expand on the bushes info? Such as how many there are, what their proper names are, should I replace them anyway, if so, what do I ask for at the shop?)

Also, in Sydney (North Side) what are the best shops for these sorts of parts? Autobarn, Repco ?

Thanks for reading my long winded post...I hope I made myslef clearer than by writing a short confusing one.
 

Wacky

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I also just found this through the VS Faults sticky post:

Tail shaft centre mount - Commodores use a 2 piece tail shaft and the centre is supported by a centre mount bearing which is bolted to the floor. The centre mount bearing is caged in rubber which helps absorb torsional twist and vibrations, but the rubber can split which allows the centre of the tail shaft to rotate unsupported. Tail shaft centre mount bearings are readily available, but the tail shaft needs to be separated for installation, and correct reassembly is important and best left to qualified repairers. The tail shaft centre mount bracket is also responsible for tail shaft drive angle. When a vehicle is lowered, repositioning of the centre mount bracket spacers is required to correct the drive angle, and reduce vibrations during take off.
 

Patrio7

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yeah if my vs s1 comes under heavy acceleration [ with passengers or a trailer ] it makes a thudding noise from around the rear transmission area, i figured its a mount or rubber somewhere
 

Jamie_87

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my calais has same prob, cant work out why it does it, im thinking trans problem/tailshaft??
ive learnt to live with it,not gonna bother spending any more money trying to fix it, might as well save it for a better car.
 

boojak87

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I was told it's normal for a VS to shudder under hard acceleration. :confused: . It does get to be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes though because usually you associate the vibration with stress and it's struggling to keep up. If someone could pinpoint the problem and give a fix it'd be awesome. Thanks!
 

hako

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There are 1001 stories about exactly why it happens and just as many cures.
 

phatwagon4u

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Patrio7 said:
yeah if my vs s1 comes under heavy acceleration [ with passengers or a trailer ] it makes a thudding noise from around the rear transmission area, i figured its a mount or rubber somewhere
if you have symptoms like this it sounds like the transmission mount has broken,at the rear of the trans there is a rubber mount where it bolts the trans too the chassis,
what happens is the rubber mount seperates from its metal mount (they are glued together),so it creates a thud when the engine is under load.
they only way too check if the mount is ok is too remove the mount and bracket off your trans,if it is fu#ked it will fall into 2 pieces
hope this help:)
 

94 Stato V8

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Does the vibration cease as soon as you back off? While driving under light acceleration can you 'pedal it' to make the noise come and go? If so, my guess would be uni's and centre bearing. You can check what these are like by grabbing the tailshaft and twisting it back and forth with the car in gear (or Park for auto's) it will move a little, but it will move a fair bit more (or even clunk) if things are amiss. Also try pushing the tailshaft up and down, if the centre bearing is gone, it'll also move a fair bit.
 

betts

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yea my VR does the same thing only when theres passengers in the car though, ive also been told that VR's and VS's do this normally under heavy accellaration. ive had my car for yonks and nothing in the transmission has gone wrong so i figure its just a normal thing.
 
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