My 2003 Accord EX 4 door 4 cylinder automatic with 110,000 miles has an engine vibration. When I am in drive and stopped, whether the car is cold or not, it has a horrible engine vibration. If I put the car in neutral it stops. It happens 98% of the time and seems to maybe also follow some sort of cycle with a fan or something.

This is my 4th Honda and my worst car experience ever. Please help put me out of my misery.

Jennifer

 

1993 in the post title?
2003 in the text of the post itself?

Anyway, there's an engine mount that's vacuum operated to get soft when idling in gear. Maybe that's messed up?

In 1993 it's the rear mount, down low between the engine & firewall. In 2003 I think it's the front mount out by the radiator. Whichever, that system can fail. Good electrical connection to the solenoid? Broken/disconnected vacuum hose?

 

Sorry for the Typo s/b 2003 not 1993. Thanks Jim. I will look into your suggestions.

Jennifer

 

Front mount (#9) has a vacuum hose that eventually leads to a solenoid valve (top left without a number). Look for disconnected/cracked hoses?

Turn off the A/C. Select floor ventilation so the A/C doesn't run anyway. If you have automatic climate-control you'll have to figure out how to completely prevent the A/C from running.

Get help from someone you trust...
- All warmed up, engine idling, hold the brake & shift into D or R.
- Unplug the electrical plug from that solenoid.
- The vibration should get MUCH worse.

Other ideas...
If this happens only with the A/C cycling, maybe it's the idle RPM falling too low.

Watch the external drive belt to see if anything is wobbling? A bad bearing in the tensioner pulley might allow a lot of wobble under the extra load of the A/C compressor?

 

Thanks Jim

I'll try this out. I have found it gets slightly better with the AC off but not much. After searching around some more I found another review that said they replaced the mounts and it did not make the vibration better better.

I'll have to ask my husband if it was this car or our previous Acura that we had the pulley replaced in. I do know we have had the blet repalced for being to stiff.

Jennifer

 

have you had and work done prior to the issue?, such as the timing belt, balance belt?

 

You can't rule out the engine mount just because someone else had vibration that was NOT caused by the vacuum-operated engine mount. Test it, then you can rule it out. Either that or you'll know it IS caused by the mount.

That other thread might be someone who started throwing parts at the problem without diagnosing.

 

No. The work I was thinking of that we had done was on our Acura TL (timing belt). We did have the serpentine belt changed a year ago on this car though.

 

Thanks Jim! I will have my husband test the mount and look at the condition of the hoses. Hope we can locate the issue!!

 

Jim, we unplugged the electrical plug from that solenoid and the vibration did get a little worse...so I assume that means that the solenoid and motor mount are working properly? All the hoses are connected and look fine.

The vibration is bad in gear at idle and much worse with the a/c on. I can't see a wobble of the accessory drive pulleys, but that probably shouldn’t be ruled out. What should the RPM be at idle and if it's too low how is that adjusted? Thanks!!