Ok, so I fucked up the car a month or so ago. Long story short the road fell out from under me (literally). Car ended up in a sink hole full of water. It went in at about a 20 degree angle about to the middle of the doors. The road was dirt, so no hard or rigid surface leading in to the hole.
Got it pulled out, got the water sucked out of it, fired it up (which shocked the hell out of me) and drove it 300+ miles back home. On the way home I notice it has a vicious vibration that starts around 60mph. Gets worse as speed increases, and even worse on decel. Goes away around 58 on decel. Car was NOT pulled out by the rear end or axles. Was pulled out by the rear sway bar.
Took it to Ford (because it is an insurance job, and I know the service manager there, and it is a mod friendly dealer). Got it on a lift and start looking around under the car. You can see very clearly where the road ended (so to speak). Maybe about at the front of the trans pan or so.
Got all the interior replaced, seat motors and wiring, seat air bags, throttle pedal, SRS control boxes, SJB, and ABS control system. That is probably a little over board but wanted to replace anything electrical that might have gotton wet. Now chasing the vibration.
Car still vibrates BAD starting around 60mph. Put the car in neutral while at speed and the vibration is still there. The vibration does not seem to be RPM related as we have ran it up to higher RPM in lower gears at a lower speed and no vibration.
Pulled the single piece aluminum driveshaft out and put in the stock driveshaft. This seems to have changed the symptom. Now it starts the vibration earlier, and appears to decrease at around 70mph. Actually the exact quote from the service manager was "it goes away at 70". But since I was not there when they tested it, I will not be so bold as to say it actually goes away.
So they hook their EVA machine up to it and take it out for a drive and all it tells them is that it is drive line related (engine, trans, driveshaft, rear end).
Well, you can run the friggin thing up to 6k RPM in first and the vibration doesn't happen. They did say that me having two different wheel sizes jacks with their EVA machine so they are going to pull a set of 17s off of another car on the lot and put them on the rear in place of my 18s and drive it again.
They are now saying they think it is a transmission issue. I just ain't sold on that yet. Plus the fact that my insurance company certainly isn't going to be too hip to the idea of pulling the trans and sending it up to Level 10 to be repaired! To me, if it were transmission related it would have to be one of two things. Either the input shaft or the output shaft got tweaked somehow. If it were input shaft related, I would think that RPM would play in to the picture and it would do it at "X" RPM regardless of the vehicle speed. And since it does it at speed in neutral at 1k RPM, in my mind that rules that out. There is no evidence what so ever of anything that would have caused the output shaft to be tweaked. Also, I think if it were output shaft related, and as bad as the vibration is, that the rear seal would be leaking by now (just my opinion).
So... what the hell.... Any ideas?
Got it pulled out, got the water sucked out of it, fired it up (which shocked the hell out of me) and drove it 300+ miles back home. On the way home I notice it has a vicious vibration that starts around 60mph. Gets worse as speed increases, and even worse on decel. Goes away around 58 on decel. Car was NOT pulled out by the rear end or axles. Was pulled out by the rear sway bar.
Took it to Ford (because it is an insurance job, and I know the service manager there, and it is a mod friendly dealer). Got it on a lift and start looking around under the car. You can see very clearly where the road ended (so to speak). Maybe about at the front of the trans pan or so.
Got all the interior replaced, seat motors and wiring, seat air bags, throttle pedal, SRS control boxes, SJB, and ABS control system. That is probably a little over board but wanted to replace anything electrical that might have gotton wet. Now chasing the vibration.
- Pulled all 4 wheels and checked balance and for a bent wheel.
- Driveshaft does not look like it even got wet, much less bent or touched in any way. Exhaust hangs lower than the driveshaft and it isn't even bent.
- Nothing bent as far as transmission mounts. Hell, they are cast so they wouldn't bend anyway, they would break.
- Trans pan is free of any scrapes or bends.
- Changed engine and transmission fluids. No contamination found.
- Pulled the rock cover off the front of the transmission, nothing up inside there.
- Checked the pinion angle, still at -2 which is where it has been for quite a while.
- Sub-frame, cross member, and motor mounts all check out fine.
Car still vibrates BAD starting around 60mph. Put the car in neutral while at speed and the vibration is still there. The vibration does not seem to be RPM related as we have ran it up to higher RPM in lower gears at a lower speed and no vibration.
Pulled the single piece aluminum driveshaft out and put in the stock driveshaft. This seems to have changed the symptom. Now it starts the vibration earlier, and appears to decrease at around 70mph. Actually the exact quote from the service manager was "it goes away at 70". But since I was not there when they tested it, I will not be so bold as to say it actually goes away.
So they hook their EVA machine up to it and take it out for a drive and all it tells them is that it is drive line related (engine, trans, driveshaft, rear end).
Well, you can run the friggin thing up to 6k RPM in first and the vibration doesn't happen. They did say that me having two different wheel sizes jacks with their EVA machine so they are going to pull a set of 17s off of another car on the lot and put them on the rear in place of my 18s and drive it again.
They are now saying they think it is a transmission issue. I just ain't sold on that yet. Plus the fact that my insurance company certainly isn't going to be too hip to the idea of pulling the trans and sending it up to Level 10 to be repaired! To me, if it were transmission related it would have to be one of two things. Either the input shaft or the output shaft got tweaked somehow. If it were input shaft related, I would think that RPM would play in to the picture and it would do it at "X" RPM regardless of the vehicle speed. And since it does it at speed in neutral at 1k RPM, in my mind that rules that out. There is no evidence what so ever of anything that would have caused the output shaft to be tweaked. Also, I think if it were output shaft related, and as bad as the vibration is, that the rear seal would be leaking by now (just my opinion).
So... what the hell.... Any ideas?