Hi everyone its been a while. I have an 03 AE with only 18,600k miles. I always keep an eye on the balancer but never expected to see any wobble because of the low mileage. That said I did notice a slight wobble upon my last check. It should be noted it was slightly more than the last time i checked. So i brought it to my guy who specializes in vettes and all kinds of older muscle cars and exotic stuff. Weird but when i got there it wasn’t wobbling as bad .......id dare to say it was dam near perfect but still ever soooooooo slight again.
My question is is it possible for the balancer to be bad with such low mileage and is it possible for it to wobble ....then not wobble? Also he told me he uses OEM to replace it. When i question him about it just happening again if we use an OEM balancer he said that they did do something to it on the replacements so it doesnt happen anymore and he guarantees it. Is this true??? I saw a few out there and was gonna go with the ATI one i think. I’d hate to have it happen again to save a few bucks on the better product but he seemed confident it would be fine and like i said he guaranteed it.
Any advise would be appreciated🤷🏼‍♂️. Thanks
i should note I’ll be moving to Florida from Long Island next year and it would kill me to have to take it to the dealer down there simply because from what i hear there arent any private certified mechanic shops down there and I wouldn’t have any personal connections with anyone.

 

Lyle at c&s corvettes in Florida is the place to go. Check out his YouTube page. He has a video on balancers.

As far as the balancer, a slight wobble is not usually a problem. The wobble is an indicator that hb is starting to separate. The best way to monitor this is to mark the balancer with a white pen and see if the lines start to separate. I have not heard or seen of any design changes to the oem c5 balancer. I would def go with an ATI and ARP bolt and stay far away from the oem balancer. At 18k it is unlikely that yours is starting to fail. But anything is possible.

 

Thank u chogan835, yea i watch lyle all the time too. I haven’t heard of any change to the OEM either..... I’m assuming thats why they call it “OEM” lol. I was shocked at the mileage it’s starting at too. But I definitely noticed a change in it. Surprised to cause i only take her out in perfect weather and it’s always garaged and covered🤷‍♂️. Sure i get on it alittle on hwys but for the most part it’s adult driven and babied then back to the garage wiped down and covered again till next time. Anyway thanks for the input👍

 

Stepps:
You are obviously taking great care of your car. However, that won't keep a poorly designed part (HB) from failure. My '03 HB lasted a little over 59k and I saw no reason to replace it with a OEM. I certainly agree with the monitoring method that Chogan835 mentioned. I also changed mine out to an ATI plus ARP bolt.

Perhaps you can delay the HB replacement until you go to FL and a find a qualified reputable shop. I assume that you are going to ship the car south rather than drive it.

 

No matter the low miles. Most non metal parts have a shelf life. Your 'shelf' is now 18 years old. It's likely its time for a HB change. ATI is good, so is ASP. I'm running a 25% underdrive ASP since 2009, 27,000 miles, no problems.....

 

The stock balancer's rubber fails at both mileage and time. Yours's is 18 so yeah, it could be failing. If you put on another OEM balancer it too will fail over time. I'm doing my 02's this Spring and I'm going with an ARP bolt and Summit C2501 balancer https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-c2501 You want to replace it before it completely fails and does damage to other parts.

 

I have an '03 Z with 14k miles on it. I replaced the harmonic balancer when I had the car in the shop for other maintenance items, it had a slight wobble. I replaced it with an ATI balancer and ARP bolt. Like knewblew said, any oem will fail again over time, it's rubber, it'll fail. That's why i went with ATI, it's all metal. so no rubber to dry out and fail. If you replace it, while the front of the motor is accessible, replace the oil seal behind the balancer as well, it'll save you quite a bit in labor costs later on.

 

Thanks slapshot12 and all who responded. Im currently looking at the ATI and a summit C2501 but now i need to know what “no under drive” means? The ATI says it in the description 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

 

An underdrive HB is a HB that's smaller in outside diameter than the OEM piece. 10% UD is 10% smaller, 25% UD is 25% smaller. If the OEM HB is 8" diameter, this means a 10% UD HB would be .800" smaller. 8.00" - .800"= 7.200", or 10% smaller. 8.00" -2.00"= 6.00", or 25% smaller. Hope this helps you....

 

You likely want an underdrive pulley. The most common street application is 10% underdrive [ATI] crank pulley, although I ran a 25% ASP on an LS2 for years.

 

Since I've never had any trouble running a 25% UD, I'd go with that, if it was me. Also, my A/C compressor is now 21 years old, and it still works great! Part of the 'hype' the HB underdrive makers push is extended accessory drive life. I don't know if I buy into that, or not, but my alternator, power steering pump, and compressor are all original, so.......

 

I have read somewhere that the HB fail more quickly if you track and drag race more often. Normal street driving no issues or less

 

Well it's sort of complicated. ATI is one of the best HB at doing the job, but it only comes in 10% in our applications IIRC. ASP or other (don't go cheap) at 25% is an underdrive pulley, but NOT a HB. Some say it makes a difference in the longevity of the engine. But you def DON'T want the 25% if have a lot of draw on the alternator, like a big amplified stereo system. Alternatively ASP at least has a OVERDRIVE accessory pulley (forgot which one(s)), to offset some of that 25% (which is a lot relatively speaking).

Personally I would get an ATI which performs top of class, and just go with their 10% standard UD HB.

 

Go with oem. You’re not gaining anything with 10% or great underdrive. You don’t have a blower hooked up. LOL.

 

We're talking harmonic balancing of the crankshaft, NOT necessarily the few hp from underdrive. From my LS2 testing, 25% UDP good for 10 hp throughout, 10% UDP obviously less, but that's not the reason to run them.

 

just lose 10lbs by going on a diet. You’ll gain more horsepower than doing an underdrive.

 

Like I said, hp is not the reason to run one

 

There’s no reason to make your accessories work overtime either.

 

That doesn't happen in any scenario short of an overdrive pulley

 

Car's that have a blower use either stock size or overdrive not under drive