Car Problems - Any Gear Heads Here?

LeHah

212 Squadron - "The Old Man's Eyes And Ears"
So I had to get my car battery swapped out of my 1996 Civic today. Not a big deal aside from the mere drama of the car cutting out on me and whatnot.

But now, for some strange reason, my car QUAKES IN ANGER when she's in Drive. I mean, I know a lot of cars do this but she's shaking pretty darn hard. I can turn her over no problem, and as long as she's in park she's all happy. But I put her in D and its like she has MS or something.

When I'm driving I can't feel it, only when she's in D and idle/under 10 mph.

I'm totally depressed and somewhat confused. I checked under the hood but all the belts look good and to boot - I'm not a qualified mechanic by any stretch of the imagination. All I can think of is that it's the engine mount or something to do with the transmission, and since I don't have a lift or a pumpjack at home, I can't even inspect that to my limited ability.

Fucking great. Car has only 118k on her and she dies now? I can't afford another one.

I've come to a conclusion that the thing can be shaking for any number of reasons. The first one that occured to me was the rear motor mount, which scares the shit out of me. Thats a lot of money I do NOT have. Also it could be too much oxygen intake in the manifold or improper fuel intake due to a malfunctioning sensor.

It's not smoking, thankfully (Blue is oil, black is running too rich and I think white is coolant?) which means that it's not the motor it's self, as I've ruled out a broken piston head.
 
Im no expert but Ive worked on plenty of cars with my brother who is a damn fine mechanic. Are you certain your shuddering is coming from the engine? I see that at faster speeds it seems to smooth out? Does it shudder sitting in park? Some problems can result from tires maybe having a broken steel belt, possibly a loose tie rod. I know broken steel belt in a tire can smooth out at higher rates of speed.

I only can relate with problems Ive had with my own car. Sucks when you think it could be one thing it turns out to be something else completely unrelated. Sorry I really can't help much unless I drove the car in person. Even then I would ask for expertise from my brother but alas hes on vacation :) .

Also has it over heated at all? I know my cougar kept on over heating for about a year or so. Finally one night while almost to work the car started shaking alot. I parked it and went in and worked my shift. Came out in the morning thinking/hoping I was just really low on gas (Maybe some premium would help:D ). Tried to get to the gas station almost made it and my car turned into a cloud machine. Had a blown head gasket which is quite common on older cars with cast iron blocks and aluminum heads.

Sorry I couldn't help more I really havn't had much experience with foreign cars. But you could look around on the net and ask true gear heads on their sites as to what may be the problem.
 
Stone48420 said:
Are you certain your shuddering is coming from the engine?

Thats a good question. I'll check on my drive home from work.

Stone48420 said:
Does it shudder sitting in park?

When the car is in park, she idles very well. The moment I shift into Drive, it starts shaking hard but gradually goes away once I accelerate and is gone by 15 mph.


Stone48420 said:
Some problems can result from tires maybe having a broken steel belt, possibly a loose tie rod. I know broken steel belt in a tire can smooth out at higher rates of speed.

The tie rod makes some sense but I have no idea how to check that.

Stone48420 said:
Also has it over heated at all?

Not once.
 
Another Thing

What type of motor do you have? Is there any history on the car that could be useful or relevent? I was looking around on this site(http://www.autoforumz.com/) but Im sorta new to trying to find car solutions on the internet as I usually consult my brother and friends. Maybe it could be useful for you.

I feel your pain it sucks being broke and having car problems that threaten to take your method of transportation to you source of income away from you. (that was a mouthful)
 
When you say the drama of the car cutting out on you ,
were you in motion when it died ?

If so while getting out of the flow of traffic did you run over
any thing or off the road in a rough manner ?
 
If your talking to me yes I was in motion I could still move it was running on five cylinders. The sixth was sucking coolant in and pissing it out at an amazing rate. The intersection I was at was flooded with white smoke. I turned off the road as soon as possible and shut the car off. I didn't hit nothing or kill nobody. My brother ended up pushing the car all by himself down a backstreet to the auto shop where he used to work.

Afterwards I had the heads checked for cracks (there were none) and I had them shaved. Put them back on the car and still driving it to this day. Course it took awhile for me to trust it again. Strange feeling when your car is broke then suddenly working again. Every car Ive repaired for myself I always have that nervous feeling that somethings wrong with it even though its running fine.

Now if you want some stories about people getting hurt in automobiles ask me about my old pos jeep :).
 
The only thing I can think of is that your engine is idling too low. When you are in drive and not in motion there is actually more of a strain on the motor than when you are in motion. As you speed up, your engine stops idling and the rattling stops. Your idle could be low enough that your engine is barely even running while stopped, hence the strain. A local shop could just tune it to raise the idle, but this is just an educated guess, I couldn't be sure without actually seeing it myself. Hope this helps.
 
LeHah said:
So I had to get my car battery swapped out of my 1996 Civic today. Not a big deal aside from the mere drama of the car cutting out on me and whatnot.

But now, for some strange reason, my car QUAKES IN ANGER when she's in Drive. I mean, I know a lot of cars do this but she's shaking pretty darn hard. I can turn her over no problem, and as long as she's in park she's all happy. But I put her in D and its like she has MS or something.

When I'm driving I can't feel it, only when she's in D and idle/under 10 mph.

I'm totally depressed and somewhat confused. I checked under the hood but all the belts look good and to boot - I'm not a qualified mechanic by any stretch of the imagination. All I can think of is that it's the engine mount or something to do with the transmission, and since I don't have a lift or a pumpjack at home, I can't even inspect that to my limited ability.

Fucking great. Car has only 118k on her and she dies now? I can't afford another one.

I've come to a conclusion that the thing can be shaking for any number of reasons. The first one that occured to me was the rear motor mount, which scares the shit out of me. Thats a lot of money I do NOT have. Also it could be too much oxygen intake in the manifold or improper fuel intake due to a malfunctioning sensor.

It's not smoking, thankfully (Blue is oil, black is running too rich and I think white is coolant?) which means that it's not the motor it's self, as I've ruled out a broken piston head.

My car did the same thing for a while... I had the spark plugs replaced and it ran fine... personally I think you might just need a tune up... that might solve the problem... although they did say that my transmission needs to be replaced... but that was two years ago... more then likely its one of those things.
 
Is your transmission shifting action more rough than usual? Does it hunt for revs as it is shifting?

Personally I don't think its a transmission problem though.

Check your idle speed, clean your idle control valve, make sure the cables to the battery terminals are clamped tight - nothing more insidious than a dodgy electrical circuit.
 
If it is fuel injected you don't have to worry about the idle speed. Does it vibrate when you step on the gas when it is in park? If the engine runs smooth at various rpms while it is in park then it is probalbly not the engine. You might try shifting into 2nd or 3rd directly and see if it still vibrates. If it only vibrates in "D" it is definitly a transmission problem. Check the transmission fluid (when the car is running) and make sure it is not too low or high. If the transmission fluid smells burnt that is also a bad sign. Thats all the advice I can give you without taking a look at the car.
 
If the car is fuel injected you don't have to worry about the idle speed. If it is carborated it can be adjusted but don't touch it yet. Does the car shake (out of the norm) when you press on the gas while it is in park? If it doesn't it probably isn't the engine. Try running the car in 2nd gear instead of drive. Does it still vibrate? Check the transmission fluid (when the car is running). If it is low, top it up. If it smells burnt this is also bad. That's about all I can think of without seeing the car. If all else fails, take it to a mechanic.
 
Well, whatever it was - its not there any more (for now).

I took the car out last night and she didn't give me any problems, nor on the way into work. I tried everything I could think of - different gears, park, idle, acceleration, hard turns, braking - nothing. Everything seems back to normal, knock on wood.

I'm not sure if that should make me more or less concerned though. Thanks to everyone who posted.
 
LeHah , How did you discover your need for a battery ?
Did it just not start , or did it die while you were driving ?
 
I had just finished pumping gas, went to start my car up and it wouldn't turn over. The dash would light up but the motor wouldn't do jack.

I originally thought that they had switched to ethanol added fuel which has caused a problem with some cars (There tends to be water in gas station tanks, which cars are use to but this additive apparently absorbs the water, making the gas you pump more "fuel rich") but that doesnt seem to be the case.
 
O.K. , that explains everything and dispells some of my concern .
If you were driving when the car just died it would have indicated
an alternator issue . Replacing the battery would have only been a
temparory fix . Poor fuel or water in the system would explain the
shutter you mentioned . Put a bottle of dry gas through the system .
Buy a cheap one , "HEET" by Gum-out , is good , STP and Chevron
have a lot of un-needed cleaners that drive up the price . A bottle
of dry gas will extract any water from you fuel sytem and help keep it
out . Yes ! When they change the gas formula's , it dosen't hurt to add
a bottle to help keep the water/crud from clogging up the injectors
or fouling up the wonderful sensors in all the new vechicles .
 
Nah, I was sure it wasn't the alternator from the get-go. There would always be the tell-tale click when I tried to turn the engine on
 
I had something similar with my volvo, the gear shifter was out of fluid(same circuit as the power steering). between 80 en 90 MPH, the gear kept shifting up and down. adding more fluid and bringing it back at normal level fixed this.
 
Kindly leave the Transmission Holy War at the door.

Or my A/T driving ass will have to run you over, then do some peel-outs on your corpse. :p
 
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