I just bought my first Vette 9/13 - only 43 years since I first dreamed of owning one! :yesnod: I have been following this forum almost daily for the past month, getting a lot of my questions answered, and enjoying the occasional :) humor. One of the funniest things I have ever read was the detailed response to the poor C5 owner who asked about changing his brake fluid :jester . I have learned more about my Vette here than anyplace.

A problem that is driving me crazy is a vibration that begins @ 63 mph and continues to at least 80 - the fastest I care to go until I know what is wrong. ( The fact I got 2 traffic tickets the 2nd day I owned it is also a factor :cry .)
It is a 96 LT4 CE Coupe with my second set of new GoodYear tires. The tire dealer says it may take several sets of tires before I get a set that doesn't vibrate! :confused: :confused: :confused: I had a 4-wheel alignment, but it wasn't that far out, and 4 different balancing attempts. It doesn't appear to be a drive shaft problem. Anybody out there heard of such a story?? Any ideas?? Not sure there's many Vette experts out here in the boonies, so need to rely on the wealth of experience I've noted here.

I still love my Vette, but this shakingggg is beggginninggg to gggget to me :jester Thanks for any help!! :flag :flag

 

I have seen countless GoodYear tires that vibrated. I had to send the same customer back to the Goodyear dealer 6 times because of it once.

Goodyear tires are junk because of poor quality control of assembly processes. There is no other explanation.

I recommend getting Falken or Khumo tires next time...they ride dead smooth.

 

Could be your drive shaft is out of balance. That is about all I can come up with if you have balanced and aligned your tires. Does the shaking change in frequency as you go faster? It also could be a bad wheel bearing(maybe), or perhaps a bad bearing or gear in your dfferential (not very likely).

Bob

 

Don, I notice that if I don't use my GrandSport for a week or more the tires flat spot and vibrate for several miles. Also does this vibration happen with your roof off? With my roof off the car vibrates at low speed. BTW I now pump up the tires with 40psi when I leave my car sit a while. This seems to get rid of the flat spotting. Gary

 

Were all the balancing attempts done by the same tire shop? Are they competent? Tire balance is critical. You need a two plane (i.e. inside & outside edge of rim) spin balance, or high speed vibration may be the result!

 

Did you or the tire dealer check the GG grove on each tire (inboard and outboard)? It is a narrow molded line in the tire near the edge of the rim. Make sure it is a consistent distance from the rim edge. This means each bead is seated properly. Also you can spin each tire on the car and look for lateral and radial runout on each tire and wheel (inboard and outboard) as it is spinning. This can also be checked on the dealers balancing machine. Also, you can return to the dealer and see if the machine gets a perfect reading or not when checking the balance. Every time I have tires balanced I have the wheel moved after the balance is finished and confirmed to be perfect to a new position on the cone of the machine. I then have it spun again to make sure the balance stays perfect. The cones the wheel mount to are often dented and will not locate the wheel consistently each time. I hope this helps. FrankLT4CE

 

I have an LT4 as well with the exact same problem. Comes on at 60+, is strongest around 70 or so and disappears around 80. I have changed tires and rims (now running 18s with Nitto). The goodyear tires acted the same. Since I got rid of the goodyears and changed rims and the vibration characteristics did not change at all, I don't think it's tires. So far, no shop can identify the problem and no one on this forum has been able to give a "I had that problem and this is what fixed it". Good luck, I'll be watching this thread for a possible new answer.


THEDEVL :reddevil

 

My LT4 has had vibration problem starting at about 80MPH since it was new. I now have new tires so I don't believe tires are problem. I suspect driveline balance. In a couple weeks I am putting in 4.10 gears & will balance both drive shaft & half-shafts. As Dave Hill said GM can't handle problems over the legal speed limit. Too bad!!! Want to hear about my temperature gauges that are within GM specs but read 10 degrees high?? No sour grapes from me, but Toyota is starting to look preety good!!

 

Looks like we are the unlucky few with this kind of problem. Anybody else got ideas about this?

THEDEVL :reddevil

 

I had that problem. I got new tires, problem gone. Falken's always ride smooth with no vibration. I think I got lucky with my current tires...I have mismatched Nittos/Khumo's and they do not vibrate, but my last set of Sumitomo's and Gatorbacks did vibrate.

When I worked ad Chrysler, we had to have Goodyear reps come out to proove to them that 8 out of 10 goodyear tires vibrated. His answer was to send them back as defective...but only if the customer complained.

If you want proof...find a willing person in your corvette club with a car that DOES NOT vibrate, and put his tires on your car for a test drive. You will have no further questions about it after you do that.

 

Thanks for the info. Tire dealer has offered to switch to whatever brand of tire I want (he sells many different brands-not a chain store). Chevy dealer I bought car from, who had the tires installed by this tire store, is also involved. They just got a "state of the art balancer" so want to try that first. Otherwise, I'm going for a different brand as you suggest. If anything works, I will post it.

 

Thanks Gary, so far I have been driving it almost daily as I can't stand not to! This will end soon, and I will put your tip to good use. I love my CE and can only imagine how neat your GrandSport must be. Don

 

Balancing was done by three different places - going for a fourth (Car dealer I bought it from has new Balancer and is doing it for free.) Thanks

 

Frank, they have tried most of what you suggest, but not moving the wheel after balancing to a different location - Iwill ask them. Thanks!! Each place I have taken it to has been willing to help, and have spent more than a normal amount of time on the balancing. The first set did have a hop in 3 of the 4 tires (the guy showed me as he was spinning the tires). Tire dealer then gave me 4 new tires, and I'm working on those now. Don

PS: I have seen your posts before, and admit to stealing your idea for a user name, as you probably guessed. I was in too much of a hurry to be more creative last eve. Sorry

 

If I get this resolved, I'll post it. I feel lots better just knowing I'm not alone (I think!). Thanks Devl

 

Thanks, Let us know if yor vibratin' ceases.

 

Women must love ridin' with ya :D:D:D

 

Hmmmm! Maybe I'll re-think this as a problem!! What's better than a Vette?
A vibratin' Vette! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

:yesnod: :yesnod: :yesnod: :yesnod: I think it should be an option for the passenger seat :D :D


[Modified by Glock'94, 10:10 PM 10/16/2001]

 

Don, No problem at all with the name. I like when LT4 owners use LT4 in their name since it helps other LT4 users spot LT4 info easier. If 3 of 4 tires (first set) had a hop then maybe something is wrong withe the wheels. Have the dealers checked runout on the wheels individually? No need to dismount the tires to check. Do you still have the hop (radial runout) on the second set? Let us know what you find. FrankLT4CE