I recently bought a 2002 Camaro Z28 M6 with 43K miles on it. The one thing that worries me is that at idle, the shifter vibrates visibly. is this a sign of something bad? or is it normal? Thanks.

 

Both the shifters in my LS1 Firehawk and LS2 GTO shake visibly at idle. It is not like it is bouncing all over the place, but you can see it. It is normal as far as I know .

 

Ok. Thanks a lot. I noticed that when i started it up at the dealer, and i thought it was cool. Then I signed id buy it, and later started thinking it may be a problem. The most sporty car ive driven before is a 2008 VW Rabbit, so I've got a lot to get used to. Cant wait to bring home to Camaro tomorrow

 

it's completely normal, they all do it. And if your in traffic use the skip shift feature, 1 to 4, that way you accelerate at a normal rate and it's alot less shifting to do.

 

I'm a bit skeptical of the skip shift thing. If you shift at say 2000RPM from 1st to 4th, won't you end up under 1000RPM? Maybe I'm missing something here.

 

I personally hate the skip shift "feature" on any LSx car which a manual transmission. The first thing I did when I bought my Firehawk and GTO was disable it. It takes 5 minutes. As far as I know, GM did this to give the car a bit of extra fuel economy to avoid the gas guzzler tax that is on the automatic cars. You can pick it up here: http://www.thunderracing.com/shop-by...ators_113.html or you can build your own with a few parts from radio shack. I bought the kit since it is sealed nicely against the weather and tucks away nicely. Thunderracing is also a supporting vendor here .

 

My shifter shakes:

http://homepage.mac.com/jakerobb/cam...ng-shifter.mp4

(Looking at that video, I'm surprised to see how tall it used to be, and how ugly that old shift **** was. )

Yes, you will -- and the car will be fine.

If it still bothers you, disable it as described above.

 

The shaking is normal... until you replace the engine mounts.

My engine mounts were trash by 28K miles, as were the mounts on the 2001 longblock that I purchased with 60K miles. My coworkers were junk by 50K when he pulled them out. Engine mount failure is extremely common with these cars, but it's often overlooked. No way to to confirm failure until you remove the mount and open up the clamshell.

 

[QUOTE=JakeRobb;6641769]My shifter shakes:

http://homepage.mac.com/jakerobb/cam...ng-shifter.mp4

(Looking at that video, I'm surprised to see how tall it used to be, and how ugly that old shift **** was. )


The one in my car is a bit worse. I guess new engine and trans mounts are now on the top of my list. Also, i didnt know the engine would be happy running under 1000RPM. Probably because I've driven 4 bangers, and one I5.

 

Yeah, it'll run fine down there. I cruise at 45mph in 6th gear (1000rpm) all the time!

In general, don't let it stay below ~900 for an extended period of time -- but it's fine to hit those points during mild acceleration.

 

Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Speaking of the tach, do you know what its normal for it to idle at? My tach shows around 600 maybe, and the weird thing is I've revved it to where the tach said around 3000RPM, but it sounded a lot higher to me. Is that a common problem? Or am i just too used to 4 bangers?

 

dont worry about replacing engine mounts, they're fine,

and I think the skift shift is great, especially in traffic, keep it 1rst while accerlating slowly, until about 2500 rpm, then the skip shift dash light will come one and you can shift straight to 4th and you run about 1200rpm, enough to keep it moving.

 

I just read what you were driving before this and all I can say is, be careful. You are going from a slow VW Rabbit to a car with enough torque to twist the VW in half. You are also new to RWD I suppose? Take it easy with the gas during turns. It will be easy to lose the rear if you blip the gas too much. Get used to the overall dynamic of the car. Of course, have lots of fun

 

haha, nope, thats my mom's car. i drove a 1999 saturn SW2 until today. The camaro's a beast for sure, but unlike most people my age, i know what its capable of, and i dont push it when i know i cant handle the results. I drove it 80 miles today to get used to it, and havent had any issues. thanks for the warning though

 

Bought my car brand new in 2001 and it did not have a gas guzzler tax.