My car vibrates like a son of a bitch under slight load when the torque converter is locked up. I had the transmission rebuilt last June and the builder under filled it by 3.5 quarts (bad data in the computer). In March I started getting a slight vibration when on the highway going up slight grades. It has steadily gotten worse and now fairly violent when it starts. My tachometer bounces during these events, leading me to think it is a problem with the torque converter. The shop that rebuilt it claims it's not a problem with the transmission despite the transmission fluid looking like glitter is in it and it's running at 240*.

If you want the whole story you can see it in these two threads:
Trans problem- Update 5-10-12 Important question - Problems with my car! - NAIOA
Transmission fluid temps - 2000-2005 Engine, Exhaust and Transmission - NAIOA

Anyways, I'm trying to think what else could possibly cause a slight vibration under load and the only thing that comes to mind is CV axle vibrations from being lowered. Does this even sound reasonable? Anyone that has experienced these kind of vibrations ever notice RPM fluctuations when it happens?

 

do you have shorter dogbones? i have heard of vibration from lowering becuase of the change in geometry

 

I haven't put in shorter dog bones yet, but I'm planning on making a junkyard run to pick some up in the near future to give it a test. I was just curious to see if the bad C/V geometry can influence the RPMs.

 

I don't see why the CV would hate lowering so much. I would start with the dogbones and see from there.

Is your MAF reading well?

 

just read throught most of your threads on NAOIA, under filled by 3.5 quarts if deffiniatly a bad deal especially after a fresh rebuild, how long did you run it befor you notice it was underfilled, i honestly think that plays the biggest roll in this whole thing, metal shavings in the trans just makes me quiver and the fact they where not small shavingins i would almost call them metal chunks!, ok 50 miles that is not soo bad but still enought to do some damage, if it would have been a quart low not so much a proble.. 3.5 ouch

honestly at this point i think it is a bad deal with the trans, i wouldn't rule out the torq converter, i would have hope they replaced it with the rebuild,

and with the rpm's jumping i would say that has more to do with the trans than lowering i don't see the geomitry of the cv's causing the violent shaking and jump in rpm's that to me sounds more like a bad converter or it's not locking/unlocking properly (sorry i kinda skimmed the ? on my first reply)

 

I went in to the shop and raised hell this morning and they finally did some legitimate troubleshooting. The mechanic thinks it's slipping in and out of overdrive. He plans on pulling the trans on Monday and sending it back to the builder to be torn down and fixed... I'm not sure why it was so difficult for them to figure it out, but it's being fixed after 6 months of me complaining.