Apologies in advance for rehashing whats seems to be a recurring problem, but having some issues here...

My neon's having some very harsh vibrations from the front end that you can really only notice from inside the car. Outside you can neither see nor hear any direct cause for concern. They are present from the time you start the car through to idle and really only decrease when at a constant rate of speed while under minimal acceleration (usually around 50mph).

Recently Ive also picked up a squealing seemingly coming from the same general location and wonder if perhaps the harmonic balancer/pulley could be the cause of both my problems? It does seem to move a bit while rotating.

The motor runs strong with no power loss and handles equally well so hopefully if the problem is in that area it stops with the pulley... any advice would be greatly appreciated...

 

mine did that but it was tie rod ends on the blink, the pulley's would more like to do it at a lower rpm then hwy rpm's. I'm at the point now I'm just going to r&r all the bushings this weekend and avoid guess work.

 

Yea my bushings need to be replaced also, but i cant shake the feeling that its something else causing the majority of the vibration.

The squeal i have is almost like a whistle or howl and when i let off the accelerator this sound seems to pick up the pace until it kind of like slacks back off making the sound of almost a tea kettle or something building up then letting off pressure. The squeal does remain constant and paired with the vibration makes for a rather rage-inducing and worry-stricken experience.

After a little more research i've unconvered the possibility of the squeal being from the power steering pump or pulley but the motor itself seems to be running right, and the car handles great with no wobbles or slips. Seems for the most part tight and right but the symptoms are driving me crazy.

Thanks for the quick response and if anyone else can think of anything please address it here.. im stressin way too much over this im afraid. Hopefully its something simple and inexpensive that i'm just overlooking..

 

Put a Jack and a block of wood under the oil pan. Jack up the motor like half inch. see if vibration goes away or improve significantly. If it does, you need Motor mounts. Mainly the one on the passenger side next to the belt, sitting on the frame.
as for squeal, you might just have a worn out belt.

 

Hey thanks for the response! I will try this first thing in the morning and report what response i get.

As for the belts, from what i can tell they actually look like theyre in decent condition (i will look again while im at it). Do you think the sound could be the pulley for the power steering? The sound does seem to be coming from that general vicinity..

Please let me know if you think of anything else in the mean-time..

 

It depends on which belt. The Alternator belt is manually adjusted for tension, you can try tightening up a little.
As for the other belt with spring tensioner, spray some water on it, if noise disppear, you need new belt. Try a better belt brand like OEM, Gates, or Goodyear Gatorback.

 

I used some belt conditioner earlier this afternoon and it made the squeal lessen but there was still a much louder squeal (almost like two different sounds) which makes me question the pulley, not that im not questioning everything at this point.. I will definitely check again tomorrow morning before I head off to Pull-A-Part.

Based on this though, like you said, I will more than likely need a new belt at the very least..

I'll have to record some of these sounds.. they're pretty distinct and maybe they'll help further describe/diagnose my problem(s).

 

So I replaced the main motor mount (upper passenger side) and have noticed a considerably lower amount of vibration. I don't really have the money right now or I'd go ahead and replace all the mounts but for right now its definitely better.

I do still have this horrid squeal which does not seem to be directly related to either of the belts. It stops almost completely while turning and when I come to a red light. It sounds to me to be coming from the pulley coming off the power steering pump. It also seem like the tensioner has a bit of play to it also and I wonder if that could have something to do with the sound. Gonna do a bit of research and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the help and anymore thoughts on this squealing will be greatly appreciated...

 

before I figured out my water pump going bad, I took all the belts off and ran it to try an figure out what the issue was last summer, good thing I did the way my daughter drive this neon like a race car lol Belts are cheap insurance I replace them about once a year since this car has the under engine covers off. Not found one in a junk yard yet with a complete under carriage cover that's usable. That vibration can be a lot of things sadly, bent rim, cv axle, uneven wear or broken cords in the tire, she's even had wheel cover squeaks that took me a while to conquer lol.

Do you know when your last timing belt, water pump, & idler pulley was replaced?

 

Sadly no, I just bought the car not long ago and the former owner offered little to no information other than what he thought I wanted to hear. The only things Ive changed so far are the upper torque strut and the oil, but those are definitely on my list.
Oh and I also took off those hideous hub caps and pulled all the tint off (spent a couple of hours getting the adhesive off) after getting pulled over the other day.

I can say however that after replacing the upper torque strut the vibration has dramatically decreased. I get paid tomorrow (later today) and Im going to replace the lower torque strut and the belt tensioner.
The reason I still think its the tensioner is because after putting pressure on it (with wrench leverage) the other day, the sound seemed to just disappear until I let off.

Weird: whenever I shut the car off after riding a ways, right after the squeal subsides theres this awful sound like someone strangling a turkey or something.. Its quite loud and has scared 3 people to date. Clicked the key forward three times yesterday and got these codes: P0344(camshaft position sensor), P0440(evap malfunction), and P0522(oil pressure sensor low voltage). None of these say anything about this turkey problem Im having... :P

I did get a good deal on the car ($2000). It runs strong and smooth and handles amazingly but to me it seems like with these cars you cant just have one problem. If theres one theres about a half dozen to go with it.. just cant help but love the neon though...