2000 esteem 1.8 vibration at idle

[cjwa]

I didn't see anything in the forums on this so here goes. Vibrates at idle especially when AC is on. I noticed that it has a timing adjustment, but where do I point my light, I see no gauge/degrees BTDC thing on any pulleys. Thanks a lot for any and all help.

[Dmitry]

If it makes you feel better, I have the same problem. My car vibrates, but not always. Sometimes it's strong enough to get all the way to the steering wheel. It's mostly at idle too. I'll let you know what I come up with.

[fordem]

The probability of the ignition timing being off is slim to nil - but if you want to check it, there is a pointer on the front cover just above the crankshaft pulley and a notch on the back edge of the pulley - you will need a timing light with an advance dial/scale.

Please be aware that you probably need to lock the timing advance before setting the timing and let me know where/how you connect your timing light

[jim_naisium]

I have a 2002 Suzuki Esteem 1.8 that also vibrates at idle, I have the (US) fuel injected, non-distributor (four coil packs), version of the engine.

So far I have not done anything to try to fix it, something that I did have to do was replace my alternator last weekend since then I have noticed that the vibration is about half of what it had been.

My two best guesses on this is that at idle the fuel mixture is slightly off or too lean (not enough fuel in the air/fuel mixture), or the idle circuit in the throttle body assembly is partially clogged. If I ever figure it out I will post something about it.

[MysticX]

If it makes you feel better, I have the same problem. My car vibrates, but not always. Sometimes it's strong enough to get all the way to the steering wheel. It's mostly at idle too. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Almost every 4 cylinder vibrates through the steering wheel at a stop, it's normal.

As for the vibration of Jim and cjwa, you might want to test the spark plug wires and plugs. It sounds like not enough voltage is getting through for a reliable spark.

[jim_naisium]

The version of engine that I have doesn't use spark plug wires there are four coil packs that plug directly into the spark plugs, I am going to pull the plugs and check them though I don't remember if I replaced them when I bought the car.

[MysticX]

The version of engine that I have doesn't use spark plug wires there are four coil packs that plug directly into the spark plugs, I am going to pull the plugs and check them though I don't remember if I replaced them when I bought the car.

Yeah, I have the same engine. I meant the wiring to the coil packs and the packs themselves. Careful when pulling the coil packs as one of mine's boot kind of stuck to the engine. I ended up breaking it because I wasn't careful removing it.

[cjwa]

I forgot that I posted this thread because for a while no-one responded. Still vibrates at idle, and I just changed my plugs and they were covered with white powder which tells me the engine is running too lean. so now i would like to figure out how to adjust the mixture. BTW no change in vibration with new plugs. The thing vibrates so much that it rattles the inner workings of the windows. If I give it just a little gas and bring the RPM's up to 1k the vibration stops. What RPM's do you guys have at idle? Also, my engine is the one with the four coil packs for the plugs. I would really like to find more info on tuning this car myself, if anyone knows of other websites or anything. Thanks for the replies.

[fordem]

These are EFI systems, which as a rule have no adjustments for mixture or idle speed - if there is a problem with either parameter you need to find and fix the problem, rather than adjust to compensate.

Mixture is usually automatically sensed and compensated for using an O2 or lambda sensor in the exhaust, idle speed is usually sensed from the cam position sensor, and compensated for by some form of idle air control valve.

Depending on the market the car was built for there may not be an O2 sensor, if yours is one of these, there will be a resistor that can be used to adjust the mixture, however, my earlier advice to find & fix the problem rather than adjust to compensate still stands.

[cjwa]

Thanks fordem, I forgot to mention that I put a cold air intake system on the car which is the likely cause of the lean mix. The car does have an oxy sensor, so I should prob put a new one on. Looks like it has a MAF in the intake and so maybe I will try and clean it. Thanks for the input.