Lyapunov instability of a "diatomic" system of coupled map lattices is studied and the dynamics of Lyapunov modes (LMs) is compared with phonon dynamics. Similar to the phonon case mass differences between neighboring sites induce gaps in the Lyapunov spectrum and LMs split into two types correspondingly. An unexpected finding is that contrary to the phonon case a nontrivial threshold value for the mass difference is required for the occurrence of the spectral gap and the splitting of LMs. A possible origin of such a nontrivial threshold value of mass differences is suggested.