Two days ago I did a bunch of work to my car (1995 Integra GSR). I replaced both axles, both front upper control arms (used), front driver side wheel bearing, timing belt and tensioner, water pump, and spark plug wires. Now I have this strange vibration when I drive. While cruising I can feel it just a little bit, but when there is a load on the motor it gets worse. I can feel it the most in second and third gear at about 20mph and half to full throttle. But it seems like it's more rpm related than speed related. Like the vibration comes from something in the suspension or drivetrain when there is a load, and since the load is greater in 2nd and 3rd it's felt stronger than in 4th or 5th. And 1st just goes by too quick to really notice, but it isn't smooth. The car still pulls plenty hard, though. It doesn't feel like I lost any power at all. And the vibration is constitent and steady, not like a miss where it'd be uneven and unpredictable.

What else is weird is I can actual hear the vibration in the exhaust tone. It was worse yesterday, and today I got new front tires mounted and balanced, my rear tires re-balanced, and a 4-wheel alignment. But it's still there.

Everything seemed to be tight in my suspension. Nothing had any slack to speak of. The only things I can think of is if the driver side axle was suppose to be indexed to the intermediate shaft and it's now misaligned and unbalanced, but I don't think that'd be the case or else they'd be sold together. Right? That, or the hub isn't straight on the driver side and the wheel is essentially wobbling. I didn't do the wheel bearing myself. I took off the knuckle and had my stepdad put the new wheel bearing in. He's been doing this for 45 years and is very good at what he does, so I'd trust that the bearing/hub/knuckle is how it should be. It didn't seem like anything was wrong with it when I turned it before I installed it.

Also, my tranny mount looks pretty rough, but that was a preexisting problem. This is really bothering me because I'm afraid it's some weird harmonic vibration in the motor that'll tear it apart from the inside out. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

 

Well, yesterday I did some diagnosing, but to no avail. I jacked up the car and thought my driver side axle wasn't popped in all the way, but it was. I returned it anyways under warranty and tried another one, but it didn't make any difference (Well, I shouldn't say that. It seems like it got more subtle at first, but now after a couple hundred mile it feels just the same, if not maybe a little worse). I didn't tighten the motor mount chassis bolt all the way apparently, but tightening that made no difference. Also, I had a brain fart earlier. I thought the stabilizer that mounts from the tranny to the under side of the frame rail was my tranny mount. That's what looks to be broken a bit. My tranny mount is fine. But the Driver side motor mount does look like the rubber is trying to come out of the side of it, but the motor only moves like it should in the engine bay.

I figure the best way to describe the vibration is it feels like mild wheel hop on a slick, wet road. But I'm not breaking traction. And the vibration is definitely speed dependent, not rpm dependent. It can be felt a bit at cruise, but not near as much as under acceleration from about 20-40mph in 2nd and 3rd gear.

Anybody with any thoughts? I really cannot for the life of me figure out what this is.

 

If the axles aren't OEM, chances are it's the axles vibrating.. I ran 5 sets of autozone axles, the last time i ran them i had one axle bind while i was doing WOT pull which almost pulled me into a ditch. After that, i went and bought some OEM axles and not one vibration erupted from the drive system. GL

 

Is it something specific to these cars? I've never had a problem with Autozone/Advance Auto axles before, but if I can't figure anything else is causing the problem I'll try OEM axles.

I did notice the original axles had a piece of rubber around the middle of the shaft and my new ones don't. Is that some sort of dampener? Would a remanned Advance Auto axle have that?

 

As you, i thought it was something due to my motor.. I thought maybe my clutch was misaligned or something but after my axle bind scare, i decided to buy OEM axles so i'd never have that problem again and bam, no more vibrations.


Aftermarket, remanned axles do not have the large rubber piece on the axle to help with dampening. I know Raxles.com supplies OEM remanned axles, and people swear up and down how good they are. When i bought my axles they were ~$150 with an oem core. Unless you know somebody up at the dealership, it has to be an OEM core. Without it, it's quite a bit more expensive.

Or, if you plan on racing your car any, you might look into some Drive Shaft Shop axles as well.

 

Rebuilding oem axles ftw. Change the boots before they break. The rubber damper has nothing to do with vibrations and is not necessary.

 

Say what? 94

 

I take it you disagree? They are there to absorb noise, and really don't make a noticeable difference if they are there or not. Try it, don't take my word for it.

 

All of my boots were broken in two and my axles were clicking like crazy, so no re-booting them for me.

I looked up OEM axles last night and after seeing they were $300 for the pair plus a $70 core each I think I'm going to try some Hasport entry level axles (considering they're $300 w/o a core). Funny thing, a couple months ago I called them to get some advice because I knew I was going to need new axles eventually and decided against them. But not because I didn't like them. You know a company has great customer service when they'll steer you away from their products because you don't need them, lol.

I told them my plans for the car and the guy on the phone said I should just buy Autozone axles. He said they'd be plenty strong. Most people just get and extra pair and if one does happen to break they stick in the spare and go warranty the broken one. He said he'd hate for me to spend $300 on axles I didn't really need. Now that's what I like to hear, lol.

So anyways I guess I'm going for some entry level axles now. Does anyone know if they warranty their entry levels against breakage? I doubt I'd ever break one, but just in case it'd be nice if they did. I know DSS doesn't.

 

Also, I don't guess it'd make any difference on which route I should go, but my car is lowered. Idk how much to low to say it is, but I have an RMF rep header and the lowest part of the header is 4 inches off the ground and I have 195/50-15 S-Drives and they either sit right at the top of the wheel well or maybe tuck like a 1/4".

 

I called Hasport today. The guy I talked to was quite helpful. I told him my situation and asked if my axles could be the problem. He didn't really say they were the problem, but if it is the axles then they're probably just a little bit too long or too short, and that can cause some issues that I may be experiencing. He told me what to check on my axles and how to compare them to other parts store axles, but I think I'd rather just get some known good ones.

I asked what he thought of Honda OEM axles and he said they are very good. He even admitted they're better than their entry level axles and that for the same price ($300 for Hasport and $300 + $140 core charge) I should definitely get the Honda axles. Even if I were to get used ones from a junk yard or craigslist he'd recommend it.

So I guess I'm on the hunt for some OEM axles. Hopefully it'll fix my issue. Anyone have a pair of good axles they wanna sell me cheap?

 

Update time. So as it turns out the problem was my axles. I went cheap (sad to say) and bought some used axles from a guy on craigslist for $60. I didn't check with him to see that they were Honda axles (which they weren't), but for $60 I figured what the hell. Each needed one new boot, so I tried those quick boot things. Terrible idea. They're a PITA and after I finally got everything back together one boot came apart at the end plug and gave me a terrible vibration under acceleration between 50 and 60mph.

Anyways, I took the new axles I pulled out back and as expected they couldn't give me a refund, only warranty them. But I did get them to trade them for two remanufactured axles. Since the new ones are obviously defective I figured a different brand would be a good try. So I installed those and viola, no more vibration. Smooth as can be. I do have to say, the remanned axles went in a lot tighter on the splines than the others did. Not so much to be worried about, but I'm pretty sure that slack is what was causing the vibrations. I didn't try to move them around while they were in all the way, but they were definitely tighter on the splines when pushing them in.

After all this mess I guess there is a good side. I can replace both axles in under an hour now, no sweat, lol.

Thanks for the help, everyone.

 

Glad to hear you got it taken care of. After reading your first post I had a feeling the axles were to blame. I've heard instances of people going through 5-6 sets of autozone axles before finding a set that didn't click or vibrate. They are just very bad quality parts. OEM or Raxles are definitly the way to go if you plan on keeping your car for any amount of time.