a Car shaking at idle is a common occurrence and there are a few places the fault may lie. Normally this isn’t a big problem and should be easy to fix. That being said, you shouldn’t drive like this. The small problem creating the rough idle may get worse and create bigger problems. If your car is shaking at idle rather go see a professional as soon as possible to avoid any further damage to your car or engine.
6 Most common reasons to “Why is my car shaking at idle?”
1 Engine Mount
Engine mounts have the job of securing the car engine to your car body and lessening engine vibrations. Engine mounts consist of brackets with pieces of rubber attached to it. This rubber significantly reduce engine vibrations and noise. When these mounts get worn out and the rubber cracks and breaks creating metal on metal, you will start to feel the vibrations of the engine more causing your car shaking at idle. If you leave it like this more engine mounts will wear down creating even more vibrations and a rough idle.
2 Fuel Injectors
Fuel injectors are being used in internal combustion engines. These include compression-ignition engines (diesel engines) and spark-ignition engines (petrol engines). Fuel injectors uses a small spray nozzle to spray fuel under high pressure and deliver fuel to the engine for combustion. Over time these small nozzles may get clogged by by-products of combustion. Faulty injectors fail to spray the right amount of fuel into the engine for combustion which will result in your car shaking at idle.
3 Spark Plugs
Old, worn or dirty spark plugs will fail to create the proper spark to ignite the air-fuel mixture within the cylinders. Faulty spark plugs will cause the cylinders to misfire and cause your car shaking at idle. Sometimes a simple cleaning of the spark plugs will do the trick, but they are relatively inexpensive and just replacing them is an option.
4 Engine Hoses
Car engine hoses is another culprit when you feel your car shaking at idle. Your car has multiple vacuum hoses that gets rid of fuel combustion by-products like gasses and fumes. These vacuum hoses are connected with your engine at various points and over time they will perish and crack which will cause leaks or can even break of entirely. When this happen, your engine may start shaking and performance will be low or even come to a complete halt.
5 Engine Belts
Your timing belt or other belts in your engine might be worn out and become loose and not performing the way they should. The timing belt synchronize certain engine parts, and a worn-out timing belt will cause timing of some components to be out. This can result in your car shaking at idle.
6 Air Filter
Your cars air filter will filter out all contaminants in the air entering your engine like dust and dirt particles. The right amount of air is mixed with fuel sprayed by the fuel injectors for combustion. Over time dust and dirt builds up clogging your air filter. This will result in less air coming through for combustion. This will cause your engine “running rich” which means not enough air is coming through and results in your engine receiving too much fuel reducing fuel economy. This can also cause your car shaking at idle.
Conclusion
The cause of a car shaking at idle may be and in most cases is a simple problem to fix. Most of the time just replacing one part will fix the problem. The reasons for a car shaking at idle described in this article are the most common ones and they are all relatively inexpensive to fix.
Most of these causes will automatically be fixed with a car service. Now I am not saying to wait till you need to get your car serviced, as said before a small problem might become a big problem when left for too long. Taking your car for its service on time will prevent a lot of these issues creeping in eventually.
