I jumped in my car today (2G) fired it up and immediately noticed a weird vibrating feeling. It was fairly suttle but I definitely noticed sumthin. After pulling away from my driveway and put the clutch in and pumped the gas a couple times and the vibrating was more intense, to the point where stuff in the cabin rattled a little bit.

I popped the hood and took a quick look. Nothing really looked out of sorts but it seemed like my cold air intake pipe was vibrating a fair bit. I suppose maybe this vibrating is originating from the intake manifold.

After driving around for a little why it seemed that my cold air intake was slightly quieter than usual as well, and the vibating, as suttle as it was, did not go away.

Does this sound at all familiar to anyone??? Could be something simple like maybe replacing my intake cone, but I don't know why that would cause any vibrating. Right now I just don't know where to start looking as it's a fairly suttle and vague problem.

If anyone has any suggestions lemme know and I'll check it out. I don't want a tiny problem to evolve into something more serious. I just installed lowering springs earlier this week so I'm a bit concerned that maybe something got jarred by a bump in the road.

Sounds like a motor mount might be going on you. With the car off try and pull the engine around does it move? if yes fix your motor mount(s)

No, no I don't think it's the engine mounts, however I think you're probably right in that the vibrating is originating from the engine. I tried puling on it but can't get it to move without moving the whole car. Like I said before though, there was definitely something weird goin on, but if anyone else was to look at it they probably wouldn't be able to tell since it is so subtle. Maybe I should just ignore it for a bit and see if it continues or gets worse?

Did you try to Rev up the engine under the hood, and visually see and feel where the vibrating come from?

Maybe a dumb suggestion, but what are your plug wires like? Make sure they are connected in the correct order.

Oil level good?

Do you have 272's ?

Maybe a skipped balance shaft belt.

Spark plugs should be fine. I replaced them with good plugs less than a year ago. However maybe I should check them out anyways. If one of the plugs was is misfiring firing would it cause a subtle vibrating as i'm describing? I know if they're not in the right order you would know right away.

Hey Sean what is the balance shaft belt? Are you suggesting that it could be damaged and cause a slight vibration?

It wouldn't be that obvious, probably just a little rougher than normal. I would think that if your car is running slightly out of spec (burning or leaking anything), then your sparkplugs won't last a whole year. They are cheap, replace them every six months if you do the work yourself.

It sounds like you have something more serious than that though. Good luck with the diagnosis.

Cheers
Trevor

I've checked all of the spark plugs now. They are all fine, however two were quite loose. After reinstalling all of the spark plugs I'm still getting vibrations. When looking at the engine with the hood popped I can't see visually any significant shaking. Now I'm at a loss as to where these vibes are coming from. It is definitely noticeable to me when sitting in the car whether simply idling, reving in neutral, or driving in gear.

Could it be that a month after installing my catback exhaust it has broken in all of a sudden and cause these vibrations? Not only am I experiencing some vibrations, it doesn't sound right either. Sounds and feels slightly rough. Also it seems that since this has been happening my usually extremely loud air intake has become much quieter.

Any comments or suggestions???

http://members.shaw.ca/costall/1000Q/answers-terms.htm#whatisabalanceshaftbelt

If it's skipped out of phase your engine could vibrate more than is normal. Happened to me, although at the time I didn't realize what it was.

Thanks for the link Sean. Good info to know. This could very well be my problem as the symptoms described in that article sound familiar to what I'm experiencing.

I have been driving for a couple days now and it seems to be driving fine, other than the "buzziness" as mentioned in that article. I was beginning to think that there was nothing wrong with the engine and it may be something loose simply causing some rattling.

I am gonna do a compression test tonight regardless. Then maybe take a look at the under side while it's on some jack stands and see if there is any visual vibrating. After this I suppose the next step is to check the balance shaft, possibly I will look in to removing it as this article discusses.

Has anyone removed their balance shafts?

Thanks again. Ciao for now.

nm, saw some discussion about this in another post.

I bet that is what I am going to do. The more I think about it the more it sounds like it's the balance shaft belt causing my vibrations, however the engine isn't vibrating visually, but you definitely feel it inside the car. Like one guy said, a butt massage at 3k rpm

Gonna look into it some more. Will post any findings.

my friend's balance shaft bearing was damaged that caused the extreme vibration on high rpms. we found the rear balance shaft bearing in the oil pan, we ended up taking both balance shaft belt off.

oh ya? Crazy bout the one in the oil pan, that's pretty funny.

I get more vibe at low rpm, high rpm don't notice it as much. I'm almost certain that my balance shaft belt is broken now. I looked in the timing belt cover and there is noticeable amount of rubber dust. Also my timing belt has a lot of striations on it. I don't think that should be happening, so i assume the timing belt has been rubbing on the broken balance shaft belt or sumthin.

Intentions are to take the shaft/s out now, regardless. With your buddy's did he go with a kit or the free method to remove them?

sorry, ic now that you said he removed the belts, so he left the shafts in there still?

Check this out. A pic of my timing belt with the grooves/scratches on it and also the timing belt cover you can see a bunch of rubber dust. This is not normal is it??

we took out the balance shaft. my old engine's balance shaft was removed so we just re-used it. YOu cant really tell from that picture, you need to take out your lower timing belt cover to expose the balance shaft belt. Dont just take out the belt, you need to remove the balance shaft also. Buy the kit and the gaskets. check vfaq for more instructions.