Balanced already been changed?
Thread Starter
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 58
Likes: 13
Balancer already been changed?
The story is that I don’t have a great maintenance history on the car. It is a 2001 z06 with 44k and has been garaged it’s whole life. My parents owned the car and my mom passed it along to me when my dad died last year. Not having a great starting point to what has been done I went ahead and changed every fluid on the car, did plugs and wires, belts, thermostat and fuel filter. Obviously the balancer is a high failure rate but visually it has zero wobble and zero belt noise. The rubber isn’t cracked either. So I was under the car replacing the power steering rubber hoses and noticed someone had marked the front bolts for the lower a arms. I can’t imagine they came from the factory like that or why someone would have marked them unless they maybe took them off with the rack to do the balancer? I have attached pics below and was wondering if anyone could think of why someone would mark them and if they could glean anything about replacement or not from the balancer. Thank you.
Last edited by hondaracer2oo4; Jan 13, 2020 at 06:05 PM.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 2,515
Likes: 441
From: Arizona
Front cradle could have been dropped and marked for several different reasons. Looks to be an oem balancer and bolt. Based on the rust and weathering I would say this is original and never been replace.
i would mark the balancer and see if there is any separation over the next 3k miles. Im actually surprised there is no squeeling. That ac pulley looks like it’s in horrible shape.
i would mark the balancer and see if there is any separation over the next 3k miles. Im actually surprised there is no squeeling. That ac pulley looks like it’s in horrible shape.
Last edited by STRMLNE; Jan 13, 2020 at 06:17 PM.
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Joined: May 2011
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Likes: 13
Has the balancer already been replaced?
Sounds good. I didn’t think it had been replaced but the fact that it hasn’t seemed to have moved yet had me wondering. As far as marking goes, just run a paint pen from the inner drum out and over the outer drum and watch for any twisting which would show up as the lines becoming offset or the outer drum walking in or out on the inner?
The car actually came from Canada and even has a oem block heater. I believe the car spent a very short time up there and got some road salt on it causing the surface rust on some components like you see on the rack and the tensioner.
The car actually came from Canada and even has a oem block heater. I believe the car spent a very short time up there and got some road salt on it causing the surface rust on some components like you see on the rack and the tensioner.
Last edited by hondaracer2oo4; Jan 13, 2020 at 07:05 PM.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 34,479
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From: Central PA. - - My AR15 identifies as a muzzleloader
I believe in the Beer Fairy
If the car wasn't run hard the balancer doesn't really take that much abuse. I'm a firm believer that it's all the wide open throttle pulls and high RPMs that kill them. It's entirely possible it's original. Even if it was replaced it could very well have been done with a stock bolt and a stock balancer. Either way it's no big deal.
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 1,844
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From: San Jose, CA
If the car wasn't run hard the balancer doesn't really take that much abuse. I'm a firm believer that it's all the wide open throttle pulls and high RPMs that kill them. It's entirely possible it's original. Even if it was replaced it could very well have been done with a stock bolt and a stock balancer. Either way it's no big deal.
Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 87,302
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From: Western NY
Those paint marks appear to be on the lower a-arm pivot bolts, that are rotated to adjust the camber/caster of the front wheels. They have no correlation to whether or not the front cradle has been dropped, unless if the cradle was dropped, it didn't go back EXACTLY in the same place. But that would most likely affect only the toe-in and thrust angle.
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