Vibration

[billyaccord]

I just sold my '88 a week ago and bought a '89. When Im in drive and idling the car vibrates alot, mainly the steering wheel. Have any of u had this problem cause it wasnt present on my first Accord and what did u do to fix it?
Thanx fellas

[Strugglebucket]

That's a common problem with these cars. Really the only thing you can do is try to get the idle as smooth as possible. Do a tune up and see if that helps.
With the automatic you're always going to feel some vibration while stopped and in gear.

[A20A1]

Whats is the rpms? Are you carbed or EFI?

[accordlxi2.0]

the motor mount's the one in front more than likely.
i say replace the side and the front. plus loosining the mount bolt on the front and side, the start up the car let the engine warm up to normal temp. shut it off, tighten the bolt, that seem's to help too.
if you can get em right now. . . .
and you have a carb, my ghetto way of solving this problem, was lowering the idle to 250rpm's in drive, i did'nt feel a thing.

i guess i got lucky on the 88 cause i don't feel a thing even when it was missing

[smufguy]

yeah do u have a carb or efi? clean out the carb/throttle body with a cleaner. Also where do u get gas from? do get cheap gas from shitty gas stations or do u get em from mobil or sunoco or exxon? also, change ur fel filter. Its only $16 (efi) and like $7 (for carb).

[billyaccord]

I have an automatic carbed accord. The accord i had before never made such a vibration as this and it was an automatic too. I dont think its the gas i use, i use pretty good stuff. I think it might be loose engine mounts. The rpm is 750, it only does it when im in drive and like stopped at an intersection or something.

[smufguy]

give the carb good cleaning and bump up ur idle to 850 or 900

[Strugglebucket]

and you have a carb, my ghetto way of solving this problem, was lowering the idle to 250rpm's in drive, i did'nt feel a thing.

i guess i got lucky on the 88 cause i don't feel a thing even when it was missing

that's amazing.
I have yet to drive any 3rd gen accord with an automatic, carburated or FI, that didn't have SOME annoying engine vibration transmitted through the steering wheel while you were stopped and in gear.
You can minimize the problem by making sure your idle is smooth, or I guess raising the idle might help too, but the point is that you still feel whatever vibration IS there.
I think it might have something to do with the rear engine mount being attached to the same cross-member that the steering rack is mounted to, but I don't know. now that i'm thinking about it, the torque converter is more likely to be a culprit since putting the car in nuetral stops the vibration in the steering wheel. but now we're talking about vibration being transfered from the engine to the transmission (and back maybe, and through the mounts?) to the axles and suspension and into the steering rack and i need to stop because everyone should just do a 5-speed swap and then they won't have this problem. yeah...

[billyaccord]

the torque converter is more likely to be a culprit since putting the car in nuetral stops the vibration in the steering wheel.

Putting the car in neutral also make the engine run a little higher to around 1000 rpm so thats why it might not vibrate.

[Strugglebucket]

even if it idles at 750 or below in nuetral you won't feel it in the steering wheel. the car itself may vibrate more, but not the steering wheel like when it's in gear.

[accordlxi2.0]

i had my 86 when the idle was at 1,000rpm's or more in drive you did'nt feel the vibe's.
but when the idle in drive was 850-700 rpm's you could feel it esp. when the engine was cold, everything vibrating as if the car came with a messaging feature or something.
but the rear mount went bad (it was my fault).
so i was able to replace the front and side mount with a junker 3g.
that sovled the problem when warm, but when the engine was cold it was the same a little.
but i lowered the rpm's to 300, when in drive, and that helped MAJORLY, i was surprised that the enigine could run a those rpm's. but it was nice.

my 88 had a major miss, i mean you could feel some vibes when it was cold and they wore off somewhat once the engine wramed up.but i did'nt know it till like the starter finally gave out and i replaced it started it up. the engine was shaking bad turn's out the previous owner tried to do a tune-up his self and screwed in the sparkplug wrong.

[smufguy]

carbs are a pain in the ass. and they throw a fit in the northern winter time. im glad i switched to efi. no problem ever since.