The car is shaking at idle HELP!

[two4tee]

I woke up this morning and started the car and at idle the car was shaking. I let it warm up and the car is still doing it, drove it around the block and it feels like I was running on three cylinders. The car was running fine yesterday and then all of a sudden this. I did notice that when I drove the car the idle would suddenly drop to bellow 500 and then stall but not all the time it did this. What could it be? Help guys.

[MikeDeuce]

Did you check that all your spark plug wires were plugged in all the way?

[two4tee]

Yes. All of them are in. The car was running fine up until this morning.

[mjjstang]

what about your timing? I find that even running on 3 cyl, my engine is quite sound.

[sr240mike]

Could be a few things. I huge vacuum leak, running on 3 cylinders, a broken motor mount, or idle not adjusted right. I think it would be closer to a vacuum leak if it runs rough and stalls.

[crioten]

check fuel injectors

(simple way to do this)

while the car is running, take out one of the spark plug wires at a time, then put it back in...if the car doesnt get worse on one of them that you pulled then you know which one it is...

get a friend to lend you their good fuel injectors :)

[The Hamsterball]

um.. wow..

the same exact thing happened to my friend on his dual cam with 264K miles.

his engine just started shaking a lot after he started it one day.
it basically was blown.
piston rings :(


I don't know if it's going to be the same story for you (but you said that you feel like you'er running on 3 cylinders).

I would check compression.. and hope for the best.

[two4tee]

Hey critoen is spark plug wires or injectors, not so clear as to what you are talking about.

I seriously don't think the motor is blown, I just check the compression 1 month ago and all cyliners was at 180 1 through 4 and I have about 220k on this motor.

[-usmd-180sx]

2nd the vaccum leak.. check all your hoses and mostly the one coming off the throttle body.. a nasty leak can do this to a car out of nowhere..

[asbestos]

check plug wires, same thing happened to me it turned out there was water in my spark plug valley due to me degreasing the engine the previous day

maybe you could do a semi tuneup cap, rotor, plugs, and wires all at once

[two4tee]

Thanks guys for all your input. I did change all that as far as spark plugs and stuff. I did do what critoen said and it seems like it is the fuel injector # 3. That is the only one that did not change when i pulled the spark plug wire. Anybody know of any DIY on replacing fuel injectors?

[crioten]

sorry if it was confusing, but what i meant was pull out the spark plug wires to see if one of the fuel injectors might be bad (this only works if you KNOW that the plugs and wires are good)...another thing you can do is fill up with the highest octane and then put some fuel injector cleaner cleaner in the tank, and see if it goes away (this is only a temporary fix and will just help in diagnosing the problem)

fuel injectors are pretty easy, just unplug the harness and undo all the bolts/ screws that hold them in there...