At idle when I am sitting in a parking lot or traffic the car shakes violently. It just started recently. I has a heavy shake to it, so it definately feels like it is comming from the motor, especially since the shake is in time with the motor.

Any ideas? Maybe motor mounts? Car has about 21K miles on it.

Thanks

 

Have you done anything to the car recently?

 

check for lose bolts on the mounts.....all so cracked mounts....

 

A loose connection or crack ignition wire will does that too.

 

check for fault lines..it could be a earthquake...tee hee...j/k ....check the motor mounts....make sure there still good ....

 

Someone suggested misfiring in a cylinder; does that sound at all possible? Might explain it since once piston isn't firing so things are thrown out of balance.

 

are you getting a CEL?

 

Misfiring will give you a CEL. Check your motor mounts.

 

That was what I thought but my roommate said it wouldn't.

I will check the mounts. Gonna have a mechanic look at it tommarrow so we will see what they say.

Thanks guys

 

yo0 prolly ate too many burgers

 

It could be a dead cylinder, if one of the plug wires is bad. With the engine idling, remove each plug wire from the spark plug, one a time, and put it back before going to the next one. The engine should run worse each time you take a wire out. If you remove one and the idle doesn't change, then that wire is bad, or it could be the distributor cap or rotor. One way or another, that cylinder is not getting spark.

 

wouldn't OBD2 log a misfire and trigger a CEL?

 

I would think so, but not sure.

 

So what did the shop say?

 

did they find that vibartor under you valve cover..that could be the problem .....

do you notice a loss of power ....while its shaking ?
if so then a dead cylinder could be the problem

 

misfire = CEL. there's a code for each cylinder.

 

Leaving in an hour to go to a buddies house and look at the car, will let you guys know. I have a feeling it is something with the plugs or distributor.

 

It is most likely the motor mounts.

If it was a misfire, you probably would have reported the noticeable loss of power also.