Driveshaft vibration HELP
 

Mod List - 2013 brz manual
1. Axle exchange Aluminum Driveshaft
2. Rear Differential - support outrigger bushing
3. Rear Crossmember - mount insert bushing
4. Transmission mount bushing insert
5. Transmission support mount
6. Rear shifter bushing - almost forgot about this one

Has anyone with similar mod list come across with horrible drivetrain/car vibration.
Vibration slowly starts at 75mph on 6th gear and gets worse as speed climbs.

Just last week I took the driveshaft to be balanced at a local shop (3000rpm) and they told me it is perfectly balanced.
With the stock two peace driveshaft you can barely feel the vibration kick in but then it goes away. I guess the two peace design is doing its job.

I have lifted the rear end of the car, removed the wheels and simulated a high speed drive but the vibration is still there. This was to see if the wheels where the culprit.

I think that the axles might have something to do with the vibration since in the video you can see that they are not perfectly centered/balance or what ever you call that.

Axle video -https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwa...ew?usp=sharing
Driveshaft video - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwa...ew?usp=sharing

Does anyone have any solutions on removing the vibration or has eliminated the vibration?
Anything can help.

Have you tried putting your OEM driveshaft back on? Have you checked the axles? Have you checked the wheels individually?

I have completely eliminated the wheels - lifted rear end of car, removed both rear wheels, and put the car on drive to simulate a drive at 75mph on 6th gear.

My next attempt will be to remove the axles and do the same thing.

I was using the stock driveshaft for a couple of months. I just reinstalled the aluminum shaft and got tired of the vibration and want to find the root cause of it.
The two piece design really helps on taking care of the vibrations.

How do you plan to remove the axles and run the car without spitting diff fluid everywhere? Do you have a video of this vibration? I'm curious how horrible it actually is. Can you have someone video the vibration from under the car while it's going to see where the vibration is coming from?

I cant imagine simulating this being safe...

So, (I'm a bit slow on the uptake today) do I understand correctly that you do NOT have the vibration, with the OEM driveshaft installed ...... ??

You said you have eliminated the wheels. Have you had them checked to see if they are out-of-round ..... ?? Back in the day, we used to "shave" them (made them nice and round).


humfrz

Have you thought of going back to more compliant bushings? I run the same axle exchange al driveshaft and have no vibrations (up to around 120mph, haven't been much faster) other than a really bad one at 20mph in 6th gear (bog basically).

Just stuffed a rag on each side.
I dont have a video of the vibration unfortunately. The whole back end of the car starts to vibrate and it feels like the car will start falling apart. It is hard to explain but the vibration is loud and you can definitely feel it.

OEM driveshaft does not create the vibration. Well at 75mph on 6th gear you can tell it wants to start to vibrate but it just smooth out as speed increases. Like i said the two peace design its doing its job.

From 6:30 to 10:30pm i replaced a rear wheel stud and while i was at it removed the axles and gave it a try to eliminate wheels and axles from the equation. Vibration is still there even without axles in place. (No air tools and working on my garage by myself makes things so dam hard/slow)

I got a feeling that the outrigger bushings are just too dam hard. Can a differential cause that much vibration?

Ran out of time and i just installed the oem driveshaft back on and put everything back together. Since its my DD. Tomorrow i will try and get the trans mount bushing insert and support mount out of the equation .

What a shame man. I have all of the bushing you listed plus Cusco motor mounts, but with a stock driveshaft and I don't have the vibration. Is there any wiggle room in the 4 bolts holding the driveshaft to the pumpkin? I wonder if you just try rotating it 90 degrees if it would help.

I HIGHLY doubt it's the differential causing this vibration. It could be a resonance starting from the engine and working back.. maybe motor mounts would help? You could also call axle exchange and pick their brains about the vibration.. maybe they've heard it before and have a quick solution!

Maybe set your phone up underneath your car and have it record what's going on. It would probably help you out a lot.

I always make sure that the driveshaft sits perfectly with the pumpkin.
once placed correctly there is no wiggle room. I have rotated the driveshaft on all 4 locations and nothing changes.

I dont think its going to be an engine resonance because when I get to 75mph you can definitly notice the vibration starting from the back and working its way forward as speed increases. I guess I can remove the driveshaft and simulate a drive that way we can find out if it is a trans or engine vibration.

I have not called Axle Exchange to see if they heard of any issues.
I did record a video from under the car yesterday but you cant tell it is vibrating. I will see if I can get one inside the car while driving at high speeds.

Figured I thrown in my experience with this issue as well.

I have a DSS CF Driveshaft and Whiteline differential cradle and rear subframe inserts and have the same vibration that happens right around 75mph too. This happens in all gears for me when I reach that speed. I tried rotating the driveshaft a few times but it didn't make a difference. The vibration is definitely coming from the back.

While its probably a combination of the 1 piece driveshaft, diff cradle, and subframe bushings/inserts that causes the vibrations, what pushed my car over the edge and caused this vibration to start happening at 75mph was the rear subframe inserts. I did the CF driveshaft and the diff cradle over a year ago and although I got some vibration from the rear when I was letting the car coast in gear (primarily from the diff cradle I think), I didn't have any vibrations specific to a certain speed. I did the rear subframe inserts this past winter and ever since I have the vibration at 75mph. Like I said, I don't think it is necessarily the subframe inserts fault, but the combination of all these parts that all reduce the amount of slack in the drivetrain in the rear.

So, my advice would be to get rid of the subframe/crossmember bushings if you want to get rid of the vibrations. I think getting rid of the diff cradle might do the trick as well, but my experience points to the subframe bushings as the straw that broke the camels back. My car is slowly becoming a track only car, so I'm just going to live with the vibration.

I seem to be having the same issue, and my car was completely stock. Started noticing it at 1000km old at around the 100km/h and it has progressively gotten worse. Now at 20,000km, had multiple visits to Toyota, had the diff rebuilt and still no luck. Their regional tech took it for a drive and the response was "they all do it, it is within spec, it's the way the suspension is set up." It got that bad once it felt as though the car was about to tear itself a new one, roads were wet, whether that had anything to do with it getting that bad?

Now I'm on a set of coil-overs which did help minimize the vibration a bit, but not enough. Back to toyota again next friday.

Most people get concerned when they feel a vibration come through their car, I'm now at the point where it freaks me out when it starts running perfectly smooth. It's just not right.

Ian.

BS on 'they all do it'. Do you have any choice where to service your car to maybe more competent shop?

[ame]http://youtu.be/G-Nunm3Sbzo[/ame]

It is currently being handled by Toyota Australia, need to go to who they say at the moment. Only due to the fact that after the regional tech said it wasn't an issue the case was reported to Toyota and the case was closed. I tried going to another dealer and told them what happened and because of it being reported by the tech they wouldn't do anything about it, even emails and calls to Toyota Australia didn't help. Had to put in a complaint with Fair Trade to get them to speak to Toyota. Got a letter from Fair Trade yesterday with this in it "David Cooper of Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited explained that they are still investigating the matter and will contact you directly to arrange a meeting." Would of been nice of Toyota to tell me themselves that they are still looking into the matter before complaints had to be issued. Anyway done is done, at least someone from Toyota got back to me.

Please keep us updated.
I definitely don't want a $450 driveshaft collecting dust in my garage.

I will probably give it another go tomorrow and Ill see what I can find related to the vibration.

Have you checked the hub bearing and see if any compliance issues there?

They lied to fair trade and told them the case was open when in fact it was closed. You should inform fair trade of that fact.

Thanks Wayno, done.

same issue . at 200km/h

Went to Toyota today and got to take the regional tech for a drive myself and got to point out exactly what the issue is. After they had it up on the hoist again, he's come back and said they can not see anything, but at a guess it could be a possible imbalance with the rear axles and will replace them to see if that helps. Hopefully in about 4 weeks the parts will be here and we'll find out if that's the cause. At least they are trying to do something about it now.

we had the same problem with our alu driveshaft but our subframe is raised in the back and we needed to tilt the front of the subframe a little bit so the driveshaft would clear the fuel tank.

Our vibration was pretty bad, we ran it on a lift and realised there is a frequency at a certain speed that deforms the driveshaft, it basically moves almost 1/2 an inch from side to side. We put the stock driveshaft back in and it never did it again.

I don't know if the same thing happens with a carbon driveshat but my friend didn'twant to spend and other 1200$ just to try.

So i guess anything that changes the way the rear subframe is hooked creates that with an aluminum driveshaft. It just doesn't seem stiff enough.

It would be nice though for makers of shaft request to add it in description for all resellers, to lessen chance of it becoming unpleasant surprise for customers After purchase.

I also have that issue at around 75 mph with the CF drive shaft and the harder bushings, but only when coasting - it disappears during acceleration. (The aftermarket pinion ring gear has more backlash than the original and the pinion protrudes much deeper into the differential-housing, which may also aggravate this issue).

sorry to bring this back from the dead... frazer, did you end up with a resolution? i have a small vibration at 75km/h and then above 100km/h. i've had it since the car was new (it's got about 9000km on it now), and the first time i brought it in, the tech said it was the stock tires. they did not offer to do anything about it, but i was there for another issue anyway.

i've since put snow tires on the same wheels (stock wheels) and the issue remains, so i know it's not tires. to me, it seems like an axle or a diff. it will happen at speed with zero load on the drivetrain, so it's somewhere in the rotating assembly.

peter