Steering wheel vibration during idle

[Blkblurr]

My 89 SE-i has a lot of vibration when I am idling and in drive. The vibration is bad enough to cause my sunglasses sitting on the dash to move around. If I put it in neutral the vibration is greatly reduced. Barely noticable. I know some on this board have said it is the engine mounts needing replacement but I wonder if anyone has had this problem and fixed it by replacing engine mounts? The manual says it may be a bad torque converter and this is what I originally suspected. Anyone have experience with fixing this problem?

[Blkblurr]

I can't believe nobody has had this problem

[Ace]

I have the same problem with my lx-i

[NeubJ]

My car's vibration varies with the weather and seems very similiar to your problem. Colder equals more vibration. I had to replace 2 engine mounts due to them being cracked and worn out. So I went ahead and replaced all four. After that it made a little difference.

When you replace the torque converter let me know if the vibration stops.

[Oldblueaccord]

What RPM are you idling at in drive? Sounds like your idle is too low.

wp

[Blkblurr]

Im at 700 to 800 rpm

[danronian]

Before buying my 5-speed lx-i I read in many places that vibration at idle, in drive is very common in the 3g accord automatics. I even test-drove some newer hondas that have the same problem (autos that is).

[Oldblueaccord]

I read thru the book but I'd still look at the motor mounts. Thats real common to go bad on older Hondas.

Might try a little higher idle and changing the tranny fluid .


wp

[danronian]

The mount that makes the most difference is the tranny mount by far, so if you only want to fix one, do that one.

[Blkblurr]

I think I'll replace them all while I'm at it. That would be much less money than replacing the torque converter.

[HondaBoy]

mine has a vibration to it. i'm thinking i have old hardened motor mounts. i'll maybe replace them some time soon. mine makes a vibration in drive or reverse only, so only when in gear. in park or neutral there's none. its done it for a long time though. about the tranny mount, isnt it a solid metal one, not rubber? i know there's a bumper thing under the tranny, dont know if that makes much difference, its gotta make some though. mines old and deteriorated.

[Blkblurr]

Well I finally bought all new engine mounts and trans mount. I will liet you know after I put them in if the steering wheel vibration goes away. I bought all Honda factory parts.

[2drSE-i]

mine vibrates alot too........but its only really bad in cold and wet weather, and only in drive. its really annoying in combination with my glovebox........is there anyway to fix that!? (off topic)

[Blkblurr]

What's up with your glove box?

[daamizin1]

mine does the same thing with the glove box. it only does it when im in drive at a complete stop and im idling around 800 or 900 rpm and its really annoying.

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

Yep, idle vibrations from worn motor mounts has always been a Honda thing. Automatics mostly cuz the engine is under some load at idle, whereas a manual is not. That is why starting in '94 Accords with automatic they started using a vacuum modulated hydraulically adjustable rear motor mount, that would soften up at idle to help prevent vibrations, and then fill up and harden when you hit the gas to keep it in place. New mounts make a huge difference, at least in mine. Although mine never vibrated badly, I replaced them about 2 years ago and still to this day I can barely feel the car running at idle (and it's so quiet I can't hear it either, lol). Torque converters usually don't cause vibrations at idle unless the weights somehow come off, but I've never seen that happen. They will cause vibrations going into overdrive though if the lockup clutch is worn, they'll 'chatter' like a regular clutch might do.

Let us know how the new mounts feel though. Remember too that they'll need to settle in a bit and get broken in, so it might not smooth out completely for a couple days. I need to do this on my dads car too, his SE-i auto vibrates alot as well

[2drSE-i]

the glove box rattles like a mother!
when i hit bumps, when im idling....not really when in driving under normal conditions
but when u run over those white little bumps to warn you of an intersection, its anoying as hell!
anyone know how to fix that?

[Blkblurr]

Well I finally got all the engine mounts replaced. What a difference it made. All the vibration is gone and the car feels like new. I replaced all of them except the dog bone. My front mount was in two pieces which allowed the engine to move quite a bit. The rear was collaped and very hard. The trans mount was hard and cracked. The bottom line for all of you that have this same vibration is, changing the mounts definately corrects the problem. My vibration got so bad you could see the front bumper vibrating when in park. Hope this helps the rest with fixing this vibration problem.

[POS carb]

this can be temporarily fixed by raising the loaded idle. I'm not sure where the adjustment is on LXi's but the carbed cars have it on the driver's side of the carb right by the firewall

[Blkblurr]

Even if I raised my idle to 1200 rpm it still vibrated quite a bit. Since the front mount was broken I had to change it anyway. Might as well change them all to fix it correctly.

[Blkblurr]

One thing I forgot to mention is that it was fairly easy to change the mounts. It took me about 3 hours total and this was the first time I had changed mounts on any Honda.

[SE-i_WinterBomb]

the glove box rattles like a mother!
when i hit bumps, when im idling....not really when in driving under normal conditions
but when u run over those white little bumps to warn you of an intersection, its anoying as hell!
anyone know how to fix that?

The glovebox screws are most likely loose. There is a panel below it that you can take off, giving you access to the bottom screws; the others can be accessed by opening the glovebox--phillips head. I had the same prob---soo annoying especially at a stoplight in drive. This cured 95% of the noise.

[DBMaster]

For the glovebox you can buy some little self stick rubber cushions and stick them next to the original ones. It might tighten up the door just a bit. I did that to mine a few years ago and it helped.

I think the vibration thing is more of a design issue than due to wear. Of course, worn out motor mounts will make it worse. I did find that if one is worn out they all need to be replaced.

They finally solved the problem in the late 90's with electronically controlled fluid filled mounts. Depending upon the load fluid is transferred between the mounts. The 2.3 liter four in the old style Odyssey I had (same motor as the Accords) had a super smooth idle.

If you think our cars are bad you should check out an automatic Escort. My 93 was horrible in traffic and at lights. They all have the problem. If you see one at an intersection check out the tailpipe. You can see the exhaust shaking like crazy. Replacing the motor mounts in that car just made it worse.

[IN_ONE_ACCORD]

Mine only vibrates bad when I have the a/c on and am sitting at a light, so I upped the idle and its fine. Park idle is high though. I need to look at my mounts.

[Blkblurr]

Mine only vibrates bad when I have the a/c on and am sitting at a light, so I upped the idle and its fine. Park idle is high though. I need to look at my mounts.

I believe they changed them in the 4th gen Accord. They also added counter rotating balance shafts in the engines. This is another reason the newer engines are so smooth.

[DBMaster]

Yes, I forgot about the balance shafts. Those first appeared in the 2.2 liters that they started using in 1990.