I often receive questions regarding engine vibration like why their engine vibrates so hard at idle or at low RPM, and how to fix such vibration issues.
Whether you have a petrol or diesel engines, both are going to vibrate hard overtime due to long years of use or abuse from improper maintenance.
So if your car engine vibrates beyond normal, then you have issues to deal with as soon as possible. Read on and I’ll discuss some reasons why your engine produce irritating vibrations.
Causes of Engine Vibration and Possible Solutions
First off, vibration in cars is a normal thing. Once you start up an engine, vibrations can occur constantly from metal to metal contacts, improper wheel alignment or balance, or just simple loose bolts.
But what if your engine is the one that vibrates hard? Unusual vibration often occurs upon engine ignition, but they can also be felt when the car is idle, during acceleration or in low RPM.
Heck, others even complain of loss of power.
So if you already identified that your engine is the one that vibrates, then you need to know the root cause of vibration and be able to fix the issue. Here are 5 causes and possible solutions of engine vibration.
Bad Engine Mounts
Damaged engine mounts (also called as motor mounts) is a common cause of engine vibration especially when in idle or upon engine start up.
Your engine is installed or mounted to your car’s under chassis via engine mounts. Most engines have two to four engine mounts depending on the brand and model.
To figure out if your engine mounts causes shaking or vibrations, just put the gear in neutral and see if the engine vibration decreases. If it does, then one of your engine mounts need to be replaced.
Another way to identify if your engine mounts are bad, is to see how your engine shakes upon ignition. If it shakes wildly than normal, then you have a bad engine mounts.
Engine mounts can be replaced by supporting your engine with a floor jack or putting it in an engine hanger. Carefully remove the worn mounts and replace accordingly.
Faulty Drive or Timing Belts
Worn out belts can either trigger squeaking sounds or tremendous engine vibration, or even both! These can come from drive belts (sometimes called serpentine belts) and timing belts.
Belts cause issues when they are pretty worn out due to long years of use, incorrect tension, loose or dry conditions.
With belts not working as it should, can cause other engine parts such as fan, alternator, AC and many others, to under perform and trigger strange sounds and vibrations under the hood. It may also lead to damage of these parts.
To fix this issue, make sure that all your engine drive belts including timing belts, are in good conditions, tension and are not dry. Dry belts can cause cracks and lead to prematurely damage. So you may need to use belt dressing spray to counter this.
Another simple way to fix this is to replace your drive belts with new OEM parts to avoid any vibration issues.
Poorly Adjusted Fuel Intake System
Improper fuel intake adjustment can result in the engine to produce vibrations because it is not getting the right fuel-air mixture.
Unknown to many car geeks, idle problems that cause engine vibration can be fix by simply adjusting or calibrating the idle on the carburetor or cleaning components in the fuel intake system.
This helps the fuel to flow into the engine more easily creating cleaner and more efficient combustion for your car’s engine.
Dirty Spark Plugs
For spark ignition gasoline engines, spark plugs is one of the common reasons why engine vibrates or shakes. This is because of worn out, dirty or faulty spark plugs, which prevents proper fuel-air mixture ignition in the cylinders which leads to misfires.
And when cylinders misfires during idling or at running speed, the engine will vibrate uncontrollably. Good thing is that, most car owners already know that spark plugs are the culprit when their engine starts to cause vibrations.
To fix this, simply replace your old worn out spark plugs with OEM parts.
Loose or Disconnected Hoses and Bolts
If your car has recently undergone overhaul or general cleaning like air intake system decarbonization or many others, then your hoses, bolts and clamps have been removed already and improper reinstallation of these can cause mild to uncontrollable engine vibration.
For example, a loose hose can’t properly feed the engine with coolant or fuel-air mixture which will result to vibration and misfires. Same goes to bolts that are not torqued properly will lead to metal to metal sound and vibrations.
To rectify this problem, you only need to tighten clamps, bolts and ensure that hoses are not leaking air or liquid. Much better if you replace the hoses with a new one.
Summary
There you have it!
The next time you feel any vibration or hear unusual sound coming from the engine, then look for these aforementioned possible causes.
It’s very satisfying if you can pinpoint and fix any car issues yourself! So stay tuned to my Youtube channel and keep reading my posts so you’ll stay up to date in any car-related matters. See you on my next post!
