Bad shaking at stoplights

[southernwake]

Hello,
My girlfriend just picked up a 96 Protege ( believe its a DX, no badge on it but has crank windows, manual locks, base model pretty much) and it idles great and drives fine with the exception of it shaking pretty rough at stop signs or stop lights. Once she starts driving again it is fine and not shaking. I have not driven it yet due to being out of town. I have had the chance to change the plugs and plug wires. Car still idles rough in drive at lights. I was thinking motor mount possibly but am not really familiar with this car yet so I wanted to get some ideas of things to look at that could be the cause.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[IshSonP5]

Automatic right? It sounds like it has something to do with the transmission. I had a 98 galant that did the same thing, and my fiances neon before i scrapped it cause of hatred for it. They were both due to transmission problems. You should get it checked out by a shop (unless you're savvy with an atx) and see if they can narrow it down.

 

[concept]

I have to ask, but why did she buy the car in that condition? My MX6 GT is a rough idler but that is its long stroke 2.2 liter nature. My Protege idles as smoothly as any car (except a rotary). There could be a small vacuum leak or as you mentioned, the motor mount(s) can be bad. But first, I'd clean the Mass Air Flow sensor with CRC MAF cleaner. I believe it is located in the top lid of the air filter box.

While you're at it, replace the PCV valve. It could cause problems if it gets clogged. A dirty EGR also tends to cause idle problems as well but that is not inexpensive.

 

[southernwake]

Yes its an automatic. I am going to drive it this weekend when I see her that way I can get a better idea of what is going on.

She had a dodge neon and it got stolen, only had liability coverage and the car remains missing as it probably will. She bought the car from a family friend, it was their son's car and it sat for about 3 years before it was driven . It was started a couple times a month and run. It passed emissions and has had several tanks of gas run through it as long as some fuel system cleaner. The rough idle has been there since she got the car and it has not gotten better or worsened.

I will check these things this weekend.

Thanks

 

[IshSonP5]

check on the motor mounts, you can try to shake the engine by hand (let the motor cool off a while so you don't burn yourself. If the motor rotates much front to back or side to side, you likely have a busted motor mount. Also, have a friend sit in the car with the brake applied and move the car from neutral to drive or reverse. A bad motor mount will be apparent by a much larger than normal movement of the engine.

If your engines RPM drop or fluctuate when you are stopped with the car in gear, it may be a vacuum related issue or related to you air conditioning. Does it happen with your Air conditioning both on and off? If only when its on, look there. You may need to service your AC compressor or belt. Your brake booster or other vacuum hoses may also be leaking, causing the engine to run roughly. You can usually see the brake booster hose, it's a larger black vacuum hose the goes from the brake booster on the firewall to the back on your intake manifold.

If it isn't one of these issues, as I stated happened with my other cars, it may be a more serious issue related either to your engine or your transmission. Engine vibrations you may not notice when the car isn't stopped, or a problem with your torque converter in your transmission could causes theses symptoms, but they would likely be more noticable at other times as well.

 

[Brains]

my auto protege shakes a little (not bad, though) and makes a bit of noise when it's in stopped in drive, reverse, or in park on a hill. I believe it's something with the transmission- when i shift into neutral the noise and vibrations go away.
I don't think it's my motor mounts, could be though, but i don't notice any vibration when i'm driving, or when i give the engine a little gas.
Although... me giving it gas in neutral when it doesn't make the noise... in neutral, doesn't seem like it would have anything to do with the noise.
Ok never mind that park.
-whoops i said park. i meant *part...
When the cars in park in my driveway, it rocks back a little and when it stops the noise and vibrating start. That's when if i give it some gas the problems (relative problems that is) go away.
IN other related whatever, my transmission slips from 1st-2nd and sometimes (but not always) from 2nd-3rd. If i let off the gas when it's about to shift/slip from 1st-2nd after some heavy acceleration (well.... a lot of gas) it doesn't know what gear it wants to go in. (the other option is floor it while the transmission is slipping)

Sometimes on start ups my rpm's drop to like 200- i've attributed this to: nothing, as it's not a real problem, and aside from starting up it never happens- i've got a fine idle when i'm say... sitting at a stop light.

i feel like i've got something wrong with my transmission- almost similar to the problem you're having, so perhaps if i learn the cause of my problem it may help with yours. However, I've elected to wait for the trans to kill itself so i can put a standard in. It will be expensive... a waste of time... but most importantly... for the lolz.
yep. lolz.
i'll let'cha know

 

[concept]

Brains,

How often do you change/have changed your transmission fluid? It looks like your tranny is slipping. Check the color of the fluid. It should be translucent pink/red.

 

[Brains]

we bought the car when it had around 132,000 or 123,000 on it, and i believe we changed the fluid at around 140,000, along with the filter- fluid was o.k. if i remember... but not quite a nice clear pinkish colour. Now the fluid's fine- I've heard that if you buy an auto that hasn't had it's fluid changed it's whole life you're doing it more harm than good by changing the fluid because, when you change the old fluid, you break loose all the gunk or what ever's built up in the tranny. Even though the fluid's new, the old build up is free now and it's in there damaging things... or something like that.

oh yea... it's slipping. Not as bad as our old ford windstar... yuk.

 

[IshSonP5]

we bought the car when it had around 132,000 or 123,000 on it, and i believe we changed the fluid at around 140,000, along with the filter- fluid was o.k. if i remember... but not quite a nice clear pinkish colour. Now the fluid's fine- I've heard that if you buy an auto that hasn't had it's fluid changed it's whole life you're doing it more harm than good by changing the fluid because, when you change the old fluid, you break loose all the gunk or what ever's built up in the tranny. Even though the fluid's new, the old build up is free now and it's in there damaging things... or something like that.

oh yea... it's slipping. Not as bad as our old ford windstar... yuk.

Yeah. If an atx has never had a flush or fluid change prior to roughly 100k miles it could damage it by doing so after.

 

[southernwake]

Any one have a diagram showing the location of the motor mount(s)? Will be trying to get this resolved in the next couple days and want to makes sure I know where everything is.

Thanks

 

[concept]

we bought the car when it had around 132,000 or 123,000 on it, and i believe we changed the fluid at around 140,000, along with the filter- fluid was o.k. if i remember... but not quite a nice clear pinkish colour. Now the fluid's fine- I've heard that if you buy an auto that hasn't had it's fluid changed it's whole life you're doing it more harm than good by changing the fluid because, when you change the old fluid, you break loose all the gunk or what ever's built up in the tranny. Even though the fluid's new, the old build up is free now and it's in there damaging things... or something like that.

oh yea... it's slipping. Not as bad as our old ford windstar... yuk.

That's probably the only time that I'd authorize a thorough tranny fluid flush. Leaving the old, worn-out fluid in there is guaranteeing that a catastrophic failure will occur, sooner, rather than later. The tranny shifter will start getting sticky and fuel comsumption will increase. At that point, it'd be too late to simply replace the fluid.

 

[Ishman54]

Hello there,
My 2001 1.6 also shakes pretty bad at lights, or any where else for that matter. Some times it'll just go away and run really smooth and others it will shake really hard and rattle everything. I'm really worried because at 139k the tranny died on me had a rebuilt one put it now at 170k and I'm afraid it might just be it again.
A little more info on the shaking it only shakes in drive without the A/C on when I pull up to a stop I put it in N to avoid the shaking. Its an automatic, the A/C does that flickering crap so I don't usually ride with it on. And just this morning I was driving and instead of shifting up my car seemed to have down shifted from third back into 1st? jerking the car forward and causesing the rmps to shoot up. getting really worried.