I have a 1993 Nissan Sentra and today my car began to shake quite a bit while I was idling. Also, I felt like I had lost a noticable amount of power while driving, but I'm not sure if this is just percieved or definite. Anyways, my initial reaction was that I lost a cylinder and this was unbalancing my engine, possibly through a broken injector? Does anyone have thoughts on what else this could be or if possibly I'm right? Or maybe also how to test my car myself? Thanks in advance.
2007-06-13 16:22:18 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
Most likely it's one bad cylinder out of four. Find the bad cylinder by pulling off one spark plug wire at a time - if the engine goes down to 2 cylinders or quits, that cylinder was OK, so put the plug wire back on, restart it and move on to the next one. If the engine idles the same with one spark plug wire off, that cylinder is bad. Hold the spark plug wires in a dry rag or you may get zapped!
Now you've found the bad cylinder, shut off the engine and leave it to cool. Take out the spark plug and check for damage, burnt or contaminated with soot or oil. If the plug is just contaminated, clean it off and leave it to dry, then put it back in and try the engine again. Check that plug wire also - it should be a high resistance (10k Ohms) but not open circuit; replace the plug wires as needed. If the plug is burnt or damaged, intall a new one then check the other three for the same.
If the spark plugs are now OK but it still idles on three cylinders, it could be a vacuum leak, a bad fuel injector or low compression in a worn-out engine. These three are in increasing order of cost to repair. Good luck!
2007-06-13 17:35:15 · answer #1 · answered by Andy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just a theory, your engine support, or probably the engine mount could be busted a needs to be replaced. It is because my Toyota corolla was also shaking and the problem was the Toyota engine mount.
2007-06-13 18:47:21 · answer #2 · answered by Jessica M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well it sounds like you might need new motor mounts if its shaking hardcore while at idle i doubt its anything mechanical in your engine it dosent sound like it atleast to me
2007-06-13 17:12:51 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋