Vibrations/Rhumble on a GTS 2001 :-(

Viper-Giusi

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Hi guys

I'm writing a message here for a friend of mine who just imported a GTS 2001 from the US. I personally knew the car before, and the former owner is a good friend of mine, so I completely trust him.

We imported the car and after a long fights with governement to make it street legal, finally it is no the street. The car was in a garage for quiet some time, and we don't really know what happened there. Fact is, that my friend took the car, went on the motorway and the car was vibrating like hell, but only starting at 80 mph. He checked the tire pressure and instead of 29 psi, it only had 20 psi, so he corrected that. After that it was much better apparently, but still not good.

Saturday I drove it myself and it's scary, after you reach 80mph everything start to vibrate in the car til about 95mph, then it get quiet again...

We checked the wheels (had to take off some weights, but they should be ok now). Interesting part is, it does the vibrating much more if you accelerate only a little bit or not at all... if you really accelerate with it, then you can't feel anything anymore, it doesn't do it.

I know the question is not easy, but I thought I'll give it a try. Does someone has an idea ?

Ahh and btw, the car was in perfect conditions when it left the US.

I would be happy for every hint I get or maybe someone who had something similar ?

Thank you guys!
 

ViperGTS

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Sorry to hear that Giuseppe...transport damage seems to be very common!
My two snakes have been damaged also during the transport from the US!

I would not drive the car until you found the problem!
Drivetrain, rims, wheels, suspension, transmission, clutch, even the engine might be the culprit! If nothing else works out, call Helmut (Viperteam Autohaus Höllerich - Helmbrechts)
 
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Viper-Giusi

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Sorry to hear that Giuseppe...transport damage seems to be very common!
My two snakes have been damaged also during the transport from the US!

I would not drive the car until you found the problem!
Drivetrain, rims, wheels, suspension, transmission, clutch, even the engine might be the culprit! If nothing else works out, call Helmut (Viperteam Autohaus Höllerich - Helmbrechts)

Hi Markus

that doesn't sound good at all :-(... I think that my friend will bring it into the garage in the next couple of days, and he's not driving it, I too think it can harm the car quiet badly...

I'll keep you posted, thought about Helmut of course, but I hope we have guys here in Switzerland who can help too :cool:

have fun
Giusi
 

KNG SNKE

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My old gts would horribly vibrate at 75mph or so. Never got to check it out but we think it was uneven wearing of the tires or they were imbalanced.
 

treesnake

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I have heard of a broken engine or transmission mount acting like that... Especially on the additional vibration on acceleration.

Sorry to hear you are having trouble, especially after going through the import hassle. There's a lot of pretty smart guys on here and I'm sure they will help you.

Good Luck
 

BullRider

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I'll ditto the motor mount suggestion. Check them out and see if they're still solid. You'll have to actually yank them to see how they are. You can't tell just from inspection, as the rubber separates from the metal with little evidence of a tear. I replaced mine (and tranny mount) with urethane and its 100% better now.

Good luck!
 

InjectTheVenom

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If the motor mounts were shot you should also feel nasty vibrations before 80MPH... I'll bet it's a clutch throwout bearing gone bad. I have a bad throwout bearing on my car and it fits your symptom description perfectly.
 
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Viper-Giusi

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Hi Guys

wow ! I'm overwhelmed with the amount and speed of answers I got...

Unfortunately I forgot to mention one really important detail (sorry sorry). The vibrations are speed depended, and not RPM's... so we assume it can only be from the transmission back, nothing in the engine... because the clutch and so on, run at the same speed as the engine, and the vibrations come at 80mph, in any gear I am...

sorry about that... but I don't think we have a problem with the silent blocks or the clutch... it's still not shure that the wheels are not the problem... we're going after that now...

Thanks guys.
 

kcobean

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The behavior you're describing is common in the Chargers (I have one and have the exact same symptom at the exact same speed).

I'll almost guarantee that it's a wheel/tire problem. Perhaps the car sat long enough with low pressure in the tires that one of them is flat-spotted (actually out of round vs. having a flat spot in the tread). I'd swap wheels/tires with another Viper if possible and take it out for a drive....I'll bet the problem goes away.
 
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Viper-Giusi

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The behavior you're describing is common in the Chargers (I have one and have the exact same symptom at the exact same speed).

I'll almost guarantee that it's a wheel/tire problem. Perhaps the car sat long enough with low pressure in the tires that one of them is flat-spotted (actually out of round vs. having a flat spot in the tread). I'd swap wheels/tires with another Viper if possible and take it out for a drive....I'll bet the problem goes away.

Hey kcobean

that's exactly what we thought, so probably this week we'll bring my Viper with the same wheels and his Viper to the garage and let it exchange all the tires.... You just gave me a reason for that, I thought with the machine to 'balance' the wheel you would see everything, BUT a flat tire you can't !

Hey thanks a lot, that's possible !

Thanks.
 

99 R/T 10

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Report back, but while you have the wheels off, check all the u-joints! For example, if the driveshaft is loose enough, it will be out of balance. Also check the wheel hubs.
 

kcobean

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Hey kcobean

that's exactly what we thought, so probably this week we'll bring my Viper with the same wheels and his Viper to the garage and let it exchange all the tires.... You just gave me a reason for that, I thought with the machine to 'balance' the wheel you would see everything, BUT a flat tire you can't !

Hey thanks a lot, that's possible !

Thanks.

I would eliminate the wheel/tire assembly altogether before doing any tire swaps. Just stick your wheels/tires on his car and go drive it. If it still vibrates, it's something other than wheels/tires and you saved yourself a whole bunch of tire swaps (where you run the risk of scratching a wheel). If the vibration goes away, you know it's either the wheel or tire and can then swap tires to pin down which tire it is (or perhaps a wheel is out of round...that can be impossible to balance through all speed ranges too).
 

SquadX

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had this issue in a different car of mine as it started at 78mph and stopped at about 85. wheel bearing or axel.
 
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Viper-Giusi

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I would eliminate the wheel/tire assembly altogether before doing any tire swaps. Just stick your wheels/tires on his car and go drive it. If it still vibrates, it's something other than wheels/tires and you saved yourself a whole bunch of tire swaps (where you run the risk of scratching a wheel). If the vibration goes away, you know it's either the wheel or tire and can then swap tires to pin down which tire it is (or perhaps a wheel is out of round...that can be impossible to balance through all speed ranges too).

Hi kcobean

sorry I said it wrong, of course first of all we'll change all the wheels without touching the tires, just the wheels and the go for a drive... and if it's gone, then the mechanic has to find it, but at least we know what it is.. .

If it's still there, mmhh then it could be the wheel bearing or axel, that would be a shame and strange that something like that would happen on the transport :-(

I'll let you guys know... thanks a lot !
 

kcobean

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Hi kcobean

sorry I said it wrong, of course first of all we'll change all the wheels without touching the tires, just the wheels and the go for a drive... and if it's gone, then the mechanic has to find it, but at least we know what it is.. .

If it's still there, mmhh then it could be the wheel bearing or axel, that would be a shame and strange that something like that would happen on the transport :-(

I'll let you guys know... thanks a lot !

I've heard of cars being tied down so hard that suspension components were damaged in the process. I suppose it's possible that this was the case here, but we'll keep our fingers crossed that it's just a bad tire. I look forward to the answer to this puzzle.
 

skeetachya

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I have the same problem in my 96... Right at 80 mph it starts. I had my wheels balanced twice and on the last time they did it they noticed a slight bend in the passanger front wheel. Hardly noticable but it is there. I talked to chuck tator and he said it would be enough to cause the vibration even though the wheel balances out to zero. Hope this helps.

Adam-
 

ViperGTS

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Slight bend in the wheel?

We shipped over 4 Vipers this summer and 3 have damaged rims!

Transport people do NOT care about our precious cars - they drive it against whatever and scratch/damage the wheels...my new FE GTS (pick up tomorrow!) got 2 new rims after transport because they were damaged so badly.
 
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Viper-Giusi

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Hi guys !

ok we got it ! kcobean was right, it was one tire, we don't know which one, but it doesn't matter.

I brought my Viper with the same rims and tires to the garage and my friend brought his. the mechanic exchanged all the wheels and went for a drive, and it was gone.

The tires are 7 years old, altough still in good conditions, my friend planned to change them anyway in coming spring. He put the wheels back and pumped up the tires to 43 psi (instead of 29) and he'll drive the car only a couple of times now in winter.. and in spring he'll change the tires.

Apparently all those weeks standing around with less than 20 psi and old (not flexible) tires it was enough to create a 'flat' in the tire.

So guys, thanks a lot for your help and suggestions, the viperclub forum proved it's help again !

Have a nice week-end and drive safely.

Giuseppe
 
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