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Shaking in Drive at stop light

18K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Thomasgeorge1 
#1 ·
My daughters 1999 with 4 cylinder 2WD. When at a stop and in Drive or any forward gear there is severe shake or vibration. A lot of it coming with the steering wheel shaking rather violently. I thought perhaps it was motor mounts but my mechanic has ruled that out. Any other ideas? It does not do it in Park , Reverse or Neutral and my solution till now has been to simply slip it into Neutral at a stop and back into Drive when the light changes.
 
#2 ·
From the description the problem could concern the transmission or torque converter. Has the transmission fluid level been checked to make certain that it isn't low? Does the fluid look OK - not as if it has been overheated (burned appearance)? If the problem isn't due to the fluid then it could be a problem with the transmission itself.
 
#3 ·
Thanks, I'll check that out. Its in the shop today getting new front brakes and an oil pump. It developed the dreaded oil pump leak and could not fill it fast enough. This Rav4 will go to my youngest end of summer. The one that drives this one is off to U of A and we are looking for a newer model for her. Interesting thing is we test drove a 2007 with a 4 cylinder and it acted the exact same way. So wasn't sure if this was a common issue.
 
#4 ·
does the engine idle smoothly out of drive?, a poorly running cylinder will cause excessive vibration at low RPM. would be worth getting the spark plugs checked/replaced and run some injector cleaner through the next tank of gas.
 
#6 ·
Mine started doing the same thing over the winter. At least on mine it's because the idle has dropped to around 650rpm. If I adjust the idle screw to 900 the shake goes away. I took apart the idle control solenoid and cleaned it but it honestly wasn't as bad as many on this site. I suspect mine is caused by the idle control failing. Interestingly enough I've been playing with a OBDII port adapter and it's showing the throttle position at 11%. I suspect this is because my idle screw is turned in slightly to minimize the impact until I can get a solenoid.
 
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