So, the saga continues. In answer to the directional tire question, yes the Goodyear’s are directional. Grasping at straws, I had the tire shop dismount the front tires and swap them side to side. So, now I’ve had the tires rotated back to front and back, the fronts side to side. Front end rotational vibration is constant.
As for the idle vibration, the trans shop apparently cured it by “rotating the torque converter to the correct, balanced position”. I’ve never seen the trans pulled out of an Accord, but aren’t there some sort of locating pins or indicators for the correct orientation? Not sure why they couldn’t get it right the first time, however, idle is now smooth as silk.
As for the rotational vibration, their solution was to replace the right axle, claiming they observed “excessive whip” in the OE axle. Well, in my experience, both of our 2001 Accords have a scary amount of axle whip with the suspension unloaded and the car up on jackstands. As I was backing out of their parking lot, and with the shop owner standing right in front of the car, I hear this loud pop. Needless to say, I pulled right back in and told them to pull out their POS aftermarket axle and put the OE axle back in.
Suffice it to say, I’m done with these guys trying to figure out what the root cause of the rotational vibration is. I have no complaints at all with performance of the transmission. It does exactly what I expect it to do and significantly better than the OE which it replaced.
Not sure where I go from here, but somehow, I have to eliminate the tires as the cause once and for all. Maybe I can get a set of Michelins as a loaner?! LOL