Weird vibration under car!

[xaisomboun]

Whenever it rains or it snows outside, after my car has been out there long enough running, I seem to get this really weird vibration coming from underneath the armrest area...

The vibrations seem to be linked to my RPM's

This ONLY happens when its snowing/raining, other than that, no sounds whatsoever!

This is very puzzling to me and I was wondering if anyone had any input/same effects on their VR4's?

 

I laughed when I read this post, because I have experienced this same gremlin going on with my 1G AWD I just put together. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
It sure does catch your attention, but the handful of times it happens, it then goes away within ~20-30sec.
And yes, it only happens when raining or snowing.
I swore it was the water spray or slush spray pushing the exhaust into the rearend and maybe transmitting vibration.
But there are no rub marks on the exhaust and I did a good job of hanging it so it wouldn't hit anything.

You can flat-foot the car through the gears and the driveshaft never rubs the floor like I've experienced with bad carrier bearings in other dsm's.

Possibly this is a telltale sign of rear diff or xfer case issues? Dunno...never had either go bad on me before...

In any event, I'll be watching this thread, as the same issue has me baffled but I was too afraid to ask. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[mikus]

Also had this on a VR4, never had any related part failures and not sure what caused it.

I was thinking the temp differential in the metal of the exhaust might cause a position shift, and that shift resulted in intermittant rubbing.

 

[xaisomboun]

Sweet so I'm not the only one with this problem!

Yeah I remember the first day I drove her in the rain it made that sound and I was REALLY worried.
I stopped the car and looked under but it just looked normal.. wet and stuff..

I continued driving and then it went away after a minute or so..

 

[OMFGeofffff]

This happened with my old vr4 after having a test pipe put in. I read that the rain can sometimes cause the exhaust to expand/contract and if it's close enough to the driveshaft then voila!, clunk/vibration noise.

 

[cheekychimp]

My front wheel drive Civic did it as well. I am sure it is the exhaust alone that makes the noise, but I have no idea why.

 

[RayH]

When I had a ripped front CV boot there was a noticeable vibration when it rained and got wet.