3 Questions about probably the same thing

[darkz711]

1. When ever i get on the car from maybe an easy start, like say a normal start and drive it to like 2000 in first and then gun it to 4500 and then shift to second and hit about 42mph, my airbag light turns on for about 4 seconds then goes off. it does it at other rpm ranges and other gears too. What does that mean?

2. Engine definitely has some vibration that isn't normal. What is a good program for my laptop to monitor something like the knock on the engine and see if the car is being retarded down? Feels a little sluggish. I can't seem to find out what the vibration is. Took it to a mechanic and he didn't know either. I press in the clutch and the engine vibrates still. I engage the clutch and the car shakes. Gets real bad at higher RPMs and higher MPH (~80MPH and above -- Drag Strip at 101 was really noticeable and i thought the car was going to fall apart)

3. Last question. Since I have excessive vibration, my header bolts always come loose and I always have a header leak. What can i do to prevent that? I tightened them like last month and almost all of them are loose to the touch.

Any suggests?

[Crazy Canuk]

I will do my best to help you out, maybe give you an idea or diffrent direction to go in.

Question 1 is seperate from 2 and 3. With one not shure but I would look into if the car was in a accident or anything. If it was they may not have hooked the air bag up right or maybe a loose connection somewhere. For a air bag light to light up when shifting gears isn't right at all.

Question 2 and 3. I had a freak bad vibration with my car and since you have a 95 I would look into this, a missfire. Bad Optispark, wires, plugs or injectors any of those or a combination of those could produce a bad vibration and rob you of power and speed even if you dont think you lost any :P

with the header bolts, if you find and fix the vibration issue you will keep the bolts from undoing. Last time I had a missfire a cover on the bottom of my car came off from it. Use loctite 272 on the bolts (red) and that should help also use the proper torque when tightening them down dont just go by feel.

Hope that helps a bit, a missfire should throw a code the first step may be getting a scanner on it too btw.

***I did some digging and read that if the light for the air bag is on that the air bag will not deploy and it could even be the passanger side, best thing to do is take it into a shop and get them to look at it.

[Injuneer]

He has an OBD-I 95..... no misfire detection/code in OBD-I.

Vibration of that type is not knock retard. If it vibrates all the time, even when you push in the clutch and there's no load on the engine, that would also rule out knock retard.

Can you match the level of vibration to engine RPM? Heve you ruled out bibration related to driveshaft RPM and MPH?

Was your engine ever smoother than this, or has it always run this way? Or is this something recent, that started "small" and seems to be getting worse?

You need either an OBD-I scanner, with a special plug (your 95 has an OBD-I PCM and an OBD-II data connector). This would be a hardware setup, like the ones available from Auto Xray, Actron, etc. Or a laptop software setup that allows you to scan and log the data while you drive. Software is available from TTS DataMaster and Freescan.

Sounds lke a "miss" as noted above. If its always there, without regard to engine load, it could be a bad valve, bent pushrod, collapsed lifter, bad injector, broken plug, burned plug, wire with damaged insulaton, etc. Hard to pin down from the description.

There are at least two "locking" bolts for headers.... The Breslin bolts and the Stage 8 bolts. Alternatively, the ARP header bolts seem to hold better than most.

[darkz711]

He has an OBD-I 95..... no misfire detection/code in OBD-I.

Vibration of that type is not knock retard. If it vibrates all the time, even when you push in the clutch and there's no load on the engine, that would also rule out knock retard.

Can you match the level of vibration to engine RPM? Heve you ruled out bibration related to driveshaft RPM and MPH?

Was your engine ever smoother than this, or has it always run this way? Or is this something recent, that started "small" and seems to be getting worse?

You need either an OBD-I scanner, with a special plug (your 95 has an OBD-I PCM and an OBD-II data connector). This would be a hardware setup, like the ones available from Auto Xray, Actron, etc. Or a laptop software setup that allows you to scan and log the data while you drive. Software is available from TTS DataMaster and Freescan.

Sounds lke a "miss" as noted above. If its always there, without regard to engine load, it could be a bad valve, bent pushrod, collapsed lifter, bad injector, broken plug, burned plug, wire with damaged insulaton, etc. Hard to pin down from the description.

There are at least two "locking" bolts for headers.... The Breslin bolts and the Stage 8 bolts. Alternatively, the ARP header bolts seem to hold better than most.

vibration in the engine is from 4000 and above, there is a driveshaft vibration too because i can be doing 80mph and push in the clutch and the car still vibrates. My clutch pedal also vibrates.

[SteveH95Formula]

There maybe more than one problem. Try balancing your tires first and see it that helps. Its a cheap check.

[darkz711]

There maybe more than one problem. Try balancing your tires first and see it that helps. Its a cheap check.

oh, i have gotten that done, i had an alignment, had my driveshaft rebalanced, still get vibrations

[Injuneer]

oh, i have gotten that done, i had an alignment, had my driveshaft rebalanced, still get vibrations

Do you still have the stock steel driveshaft? If so, they generally do not respond to "rebalancing". The problem was so bad that there was a TSB that allowed many people to get a free replacement aluminum driveshaft, under warranty. Since it was only a TSB, is was limited to the warranty period.

Many people substitute the aluminum DS from a 1LE or the LS1 to solve the problem.

Have you checked for a broken tranny mount?

[Crazy Canuk]

I still think it sounds like a missfire. Another possibility is a broken engine mount. When is the last time you had your plugs, wires and distributer replaced. Also what kind of miles do you have on your car. Remember your car is over 10 years old too so it may be time for some maintance.

[darkz711]

I still think it sounds like a missfire. Another possibility is a broken engine mount. When is the last time you had your plugs, wires and distributer replaced. Also what kind of miles do you have on your car. Remember your car is over 10 years old too so it may be time for some maintance.

i dunno, i bought the car used so i dont know when the guy did it, if he did it at all. the car came with a box of new wires, so my guess is he didn't replace them.
I dont think my motor mounts are broken but i'll check into that tomorrow

[quote]Do you still have the stock steel driveshaft? If so, they generally do not respond to "rebalancing". The problem was so bad that there was a TSB that allowed many people to get a free replacement aluminum driveshaft, under warranty. Since it was only a TSB, is was limited to the warranty period.

Many people substitute the aluminum DS from a 1LE or the LS1 to solve the problem.

Have you checked for a broken tranny mount?[quote/]

Tranny mount isnt broken. It is the stock steel shaft. I will replace with the aluminum. I just had a hard hit on cash for being stupid at the casino so i need to recollect before i purchase the shaft. THat would reduce the drivetrain vibration as a whole but still my motor vibrates. Would there be a problem with switching my flywheels? I went from an auto to a 6 speed. I had the flywheel resurfaced on the manual.

[Crazy Canuk]

Another thing you can do is keep a eye on your mpg, that will give you a bit of a clue as to whats going on with your car.
With our cars its a pain sometimes to locate and find problems, and if you take it into the shop (like me) its expencive to get engine work done. Often the time and effort to get at wires or plugs to test them to find the problem, it makes more sence just to switch them out while your there.
To switch out plugs expect 4-5 hours, same with wires. Also about the same amount of time to switch out the optispark (distributer). Something to take a look at is if there is a leak from the water pump or if your engine bay has ever gotten excessivly wet (from cleaning or anything) both can kill a optispark. When I changed the above parts in my car my mpg went from 9 to 17 and took away 1/2 of the shaking.
I had my injectors flushed 2 times and for about a week it got better but I ended up having to take them out to get tested and rebuilt (1/2 the cost of new ones) where 4 of them were off. In the end that was the biggest help. Another note is if you change the optispark (a 300us part) switch out the waterpump too its worth it. At around 80k miles you should be looking for this type of work to be done.

[darkz711]

Another thing you can do is keep a eye on your mpg, that will give you a bit of a clue as to whats going on with your car.
With our cars its a pain sometimes to locate and find problems, and if you take it into the shop (like me) its expencive to get engine work done. Often the time and effort to get at wires or plugs to test them to find the problem, it makes more sence just to switch them out while your there.
To switch out plugs expect 4-5 hours, same with wires. Also about the same amount of time to switch out the optispark (distributer). Something to take a look at is if there is a leak from the water pump or if your engine bay has ever gotten excessivly wet (from cleaning or anything) both can kill a optispark. When I changed the above parts in my car my mpg went from 9 to 17 and took away 1/2 of the shaking.
I had my injectors flushed 2 times and for about a week it got better but I ended up having to take them out to get tested and rebuilt (1/2 the cost of new ones) where 4 of them were off. In the end that was the biggest help. Another note is if you change the optispark (a 300us part) switch out the waterpump too its worth it. At around 80k miles you should be looking for this type of work to be done.

alright at 93000