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General Information => General => Topic started by: Deutschbag on June 03, 2008, 09:57:26 pm

Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: Deutschbag on June 03, 2008, 09:57:26 pm
Hope I'm posting this in the right section. I've got a n/a 1.6 IDI in my 81 vw caddy and it vibrates. A lot. The entire dash seems like it's gonna fall off. It's only really bad at idle though, and this is hot or cold. I've been reading up and realize it could be a number of things: timing, compression, bad injector, motor mounts, etc. If my car seems to be running fine and pulls hard, what should be my first course of action? The motor mounts "look" okay, thought I can't really see in there all that well. The injection pump and the entire cylinder head are both recently rebuilt by a reputable shop, so the compression and injection "should" be good. The guy said he had the timing advanced a bit for easier startups, not sure by how much. If you guys could let me know what I should look at first, I'd very much appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

Here's a picture of the caddy if you're bored:

(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/hogborg/Caddy%20von%20Greg/newcaddy_03.jpg)
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: Vanagoner on June 04, 2008, 05:14:57 am
nice caddy- I especially like those wheels on it.
I'd say increase your idle speed until it is better.
your location?
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: subsonic on June 04, 2008, 05:19:17 am
How old are the motor mounts?
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: shegel on June 04, 2008, 08:20:40 am
my golf would be fine at idle and shake horribly when driving...(sound familiar) it was the front mount.
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: rabbitman on June 04, 2008, 10:46:09 am
The passenger side motor mount is usually the culprit.
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: jtanguay on June 04, 2008, 12:40:29 pm
Quote from: "shegel"
my golf would be fine at idle and shake horribly when driving...(sound familiar) it was the front mount.


sometimes that can be struts though too... but will be more noticeable at high speeds
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: Deutschbag on June 04, 2008, 01:43:39 pm
Well the car seems to be idling kinda high already, so I don't think it's necessarily the idle speed itself that's causing the problem, but I'll play with it later. I'm in the middle of a vacuum pump rebuild and I broke the hose on the positive pressure side of the pump so I gotta wait for a buddy to take me to the parts store, don't wanna spew oil all over my squeaky clean engine bay.

Upon closer inspection of the mounts, they do look cracked. The only one I can really see is the tranny side mount, there are definitely cracks. I guess I'll start with the mounts and move on to more in-depth things from there.

FYI, the car is only vibrating hard at idle, it runs amazingly well at speed, albeit a bit noisy from an exhaust leak.
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: Deutschbag on June 22, 2008, 01:37:39 pm
So anyone got any more thoughts on this? Reminder, it only vibrates like crazy at low RPMs (idle and just off idle), while running on the freeway and such it's just loud because of an exhaust leak.
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: Dakotakid on June 22, 2008, 05:05:48 pm
No, just the thought from above...the front mount rubber is split and it is now a matter of metal on metal inside the mount. The others are probably fatigued as well. Straight forward advice here. Been there....done it....stuff.
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: Deutschbag on June 22, 2008, 09:42:12 pm
Ok, I'll tackle the motor mounts first. What's the general consensus on motor mounts, HD style from Black Forest Industries (not poly, just HD), or stock?
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: FWD.MOTION on June 26, 2008, 08:14:52 am
hummm good to know...does poly and HD really make a huge differance?

which one would be the best one to get if I was to buy them one at a time?
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: jtanguay on June 26, 2008, 04:13:46 pm
go with a passat front mount if you want longevity... they'll last forever... but be warned they will vibrate a bit more.
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: FWD.MOTION on June 28, 2008, 07:38:52 am
Thanks Jay,  Hey Deutschbag your trucks amazing, Im dieing to find one here canadian side!

I got the front mount and Installed it today. Took it for a drive before tearing my IP apart to get the seals re-sealed up! On the viberations note, I defonetley think the poly front mount will rattle your starter bolts right outa the bellhousing!

but apon a dumping the clutch in any gear the torque transfer feels like it goes stright to the stearing wheel....solid solid upgrade

which mount is most important after doing the front one as alittle more money came in my mailbox but im still too poor to buy more than one at a time....

which will I notice most out of the passinger side mount, or top driverside mount, or lower trans mount?
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: burn_your_money on June 28, 2008, 08:04:23 am
bad injectors usually really show themselves at idle. I'd have them tested
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: DonGTI on June 29, 2008, 02:37:31 am
motor mount test routine...

Think it through and don't fully release clutch!!!

Put car in 1st gear and have someopne look at the motor with hood open
Pull parking brake/handbrake
foot on brake pedal
Slowly release clutch

IF the engine starts lifting up from the front, te its propbably front mount... looking at it closer you should see it being pulled up

if the engine sinks at the firewall/bulkhead thing then one of the 2 rear mounts is the one gone

in this case put car in reverse and re-do the brakes

try again and if the engine lifts from the back then one of the rear mounts is wrong... differenciate between which one by looking at which side rises most i.e. engine side or transmission side
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: FWD.MOTION on June 29, 2008, 05:06:17 am
right on that's a good idea to see where the engine's not tied down I guess it really shows which mounts broken if they were broken....

\what if you had the front polly mount, which would you buy next? non of my mounts are broken at the moment! Id just really like to see them all poly before the years thru but I gotta buy one by one!

so which is it?
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: DonGTI on June 29, 2008, 09:46:02 am
In order of most commonly damaged if you do not drive like my dad (20 miles a day at 20 mph lol)

Award of all the time being thorn is the one on the front
the one on the transmission side comes a close second
the only one still original on my 1988 gti and on most of my friend's cars is the huge one on the engine side
Title: Vibrations... and not the good beach boys kind
Post by: FWD.MOTION on June 29, 2008, 09:57:14 am
right on, Im going to buy the trans mount next

thanks for your input, Most of my freinds seem to still have the stock mount on the motor side as well!

Im really looking forwards to the differance a poly transmount will make...

will it be a lot stiffer?