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I bought my car at 67,000 miles with a wobbling balancer the previous owner claimed to know nothing about. I wasn't too surprised considering the guy only seemed handy enough to wax the car and most likely never looked in the engine bay too hard. So I have no idea how long it had the wobble for, but I changed it out immediately.
Thanks for the info everyone. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it. It's interesting to read that every balancer will fail. That's a lot of cars. Also, I may be wrong here, but I believe the LS1 motor was used in the Z28 and Firebird. Add those two production numbers in with the C5 and it may be more than 300,000 engines that the harmonic balancer will fail in.
I don't think anything Dorman makes anymore is very good, but I can't comment specifically on their balancers. I've had a lot of bad luck selling Dorman parts due to fitment/quality issues.
Powerbond is generally recommended to be an excellent replacement brand on these forums. I bought a Powerforce balancer from Professional Products and it's working great for 10,000 miles. I was lucky enough to have a local Vette shop nearby that installed it for $400.
I bought a Dorman coolant tank and it was way better than OEM !!! very heavy duty !!!
Since I autocross/HPDE my corvette in a stock class I have to use a stock OEM balancer. I bought my Corvette with a little over 14000 miles and the balancer went out at during a HPDE at about 18000 miles. When I replaced it--moved the steering rack--I also pinned the balancer to the crank. Another 18000 miles-about 2800 of it being on the street- later it is still perfectly balanced and does not wobble. Since my engine usually lives between 4000-6000 rpm it puts a heavy load on the balancer.
I would really check to make sure the balancer is going bad. I bought an 02 Vert with 39,000 on it last year. A friend noticed the wobble and said it might become a problem. After hours of research and speaking with a friend who's a retired GM service department manager, I found out that a noticeable amount of wobble is normal and considered to be within GM spec. I've put an additional 12,000 miles on the car in the past 14 months. Still has that slight wobble.
Bill Curlee and 8Vette7 gave me this advice: As long as there is no visible wobble of the actual metal parts of the HB as the engine runs it is fine. Paint a white stripe on the front of the outer ring damper and across the elastic to the inner ring. If the outer ring ever moves you will see it easily.
From: Central PA. - - My AR15 identifies as a muzzleloader
I believe in the Beer Fairy
Originally Posted by JR-01
Are Dorman balancers good?
I don't know if they're "Good" or not, as compared to others. It's a stock replacement and it's not $1M. I needed to put on a replacement and my choices were <$70 Dorman, $200 Powerbond, $400 ??? I forget who's that was but it came highly recommended around here.
I chose the Dorman and figured if the original lasted ~100K, I'd be fine with it. It was on for a couple years, never had an issue. I pulled the motor months ago and put in a new one and since this one will rev higher, I went with the Powerbond 25%UD for just under $200. It was pretty and all, but I had to clean it good with acetone, make a custom hanger for it, tape it off and spray it with clearcoat or I'm sure it would have rusted. I wasn't thrilled with that. Both of them have worked fine and I'm happy either way.
My '99 original balancer failed at 30k miles. I would not use another OEM one. There are too many failures documented.
I replaced it with a Powerbond and an ARP bolt. After 4 years it still had zero wobble when I sold the car.
I know I am cheap, but $750 or $800 made me think about doing it myself. I did it myself in my garage. I was working slow with a lot of breaks and taking my time to make sure I didn't screw anything up and I still did it as a weekend project.
There are a lot of good threads in this forum that I used for reference that helped a lot.
A couple of years ago I drove mine to a well known LS shop in Foxboro Mass. 3 hours away from me. SlowHawk performance I believe. He installed a 1 piece balancer to prevent the wobble from ever happening again. Even replaced an oil seal behind it, and gave me an oil change, Parts and labor was $750. They even did the job while I waited in his waiting room. They did the job in less than 3 hours, stating he had fabricated a special tool to help him with the install since they had done so many of them. I gave him $800 and said pizza was on me!
Originally Posted by OH2VET
I would really check to make sure the balancer is going bad. I bought an 02 Vert with 39,000 on it last year. A friend noticed the wobble and said it might become a problem. After hours of research and speaking with a friend who's a retired GM service department manager, I found out that a noticeable amount of wobble is normal and considered to be within GM spec. I've put an additional 12,000 miles on the car in the past 14 months. Still has that slight wobble.
I just bought a 1998 Corvette a little over a month ago and just checked out my pulleys and belts to diagnose a chirping issue. I believe I see a wobble in the HB, but do not know if it is within the normal range. Here are some details of my situation:
- Car only has 32,000 miles
- Prior owner had the belts changed a little over a year ago by the dealer (along with other service work like flushing/replacing all the fluids, to the tune of about $1,300 of minor preventative maintenance)
- When I spray water on the belt, chirping stops
- I don’t hear any other noise when the chirping stops
- The chirping only lasts about 5 minutes (it seems to completely go away after it warms up)
- I only drive the car for fun and cruising, I don’t drive it hard (I’m guessing I will only drive it a few thousand miles per year if that)
I have had to changed two balancers on my C5. I first replaced with a stock GM replacement. I ran it about 1500 miles and it started chirping and I checked and it was coming apart. I then replaced with a Power Bond stock replacement and now have about 8000 miles and not a problem.
If it was mine I would make sure it was not the A/C belt and the drive belt for sure. I would get a Continental elite new main belt that used to be the Gator Grip belt and install it and just watch the balancer. Mileage does not always mean that the balancer is not wobbling. Good luck
Had the stock balancer fail in my '99 without any of the warning signs, replaced with a Powerbond myself. It had less than 25,000 miles but that rubber was almost 18 years old.
Did the paint stripe on my '03 and I check it regularly.
I have had to changed two balancers on my C5. I first replaced with a stock GM replacement. I ran it about 1500 miles and it started chirping and I checked and it was coming apart. I then replaced with a Power Bond stock replacement and now have about 8000 miles and not a problem.
If it was mine I would make sure it was not the A/C belt and the drive belt for sure. I would get a Continental elite new main belt that used to be the Gator Grip belt and install it and just watch the balancer. Mileage does not always mean that the balancer is not wobbling. Good luck
What do you think about my chirping stopping after the car warming up after about 5 minutes of driving, Even when I get back home and just let it idle, I don’t hear any noise?
Had the stock balancer fail in my '99 without any of the warning signs, replaced with a Powerbond myself. It had less than 25,000 miles but that rubber was almost 18 years old.
Did the paint stripe on my '03 and I check it regularly.
Thanks, I’ll try the paint trick. Thanks for the photo, that helped a lot. I saw another post that used white shoe polish, and it was pretty much a mess.
Thanks. Mine is starting to wobble, so this spring when I get it out of storage I will get it done. Power Bond is better than OEM ?
It is my understanding OEM balancer wobbles is normal. Mine is wobbly you just have to keep an eye out on the balancer. The balance is two piece inner & outer balancer is compressed together and there's rubbler seal in between. If inner & outer balance starts to separate you can see it. Then you should replace it in my opinion. Also balancer can back out and starts to rub on the steering gear assy or back in. I marked my inner & outer balancer with a white out. Am I wrong people???
