[dollarbill89]

I am having problems with my Acura (1996 Acura RL 3.5) vibrating when you have the brakes pushed in & the car is in gear reverse/drive. The vibration is very bad in dash & steering wheel. If I am stopped & it is vibrating I can put the car in park or neutral & the vibration goes away. Then I can put it back into reverse/drive & the problem comes back. I have noticed that the RPMS drop down when the car is put into drive/reverse from about 1000 RPM to 635RPM. While holding the brakes I mashed the gas to bring the RPMS up a little & the problem is still there. I know the RPMS should drop some when put into gear but not sure how much or if the problem is somewhere else. Can someone please tell me if they have seen this or a known cure for this problem. I would appreciate anyones help... DOLLARBILL89

 

[tibbsy]

Vacuume leak maybe?

I had a Volvo that had similar sickness. It turned out to be a cracked vacuume hose. Your brakes use vacuume to work and so does some equipment on the engine. It was a cheep fix. I hope you find something like that.
As far as your RPM's dropping to 650-700, I think thats normal while in gear with brakes on & engine warm. Does your engine still have a slightly higher RPM after a cold start?

 

[dollarbill89]

I had a Volvo that had similar sickness. It turned out to be a cracked vacuume hose. Your brakes use vacuume to work and so does some equipment on the engine. It was a cheep fix. I hope you find something like that.
As far as your RPM's dropping to 650-700, I think thats normal while in gear with brakes on & engine warm. Does your engine still have a slightly higher RPM after a cold start?

Yes, the rpm's are slightly higher. I will check all of the vacuum hoses...
thanks

 

[dollarbill89]

Yes, the rpm's are slightly higher. I will check all of the vacuum hoses...
thanks

All of the vacuum hoses and intake gaskets are fine. By reading the service manual the RPM's are correct also.

 

[dollarbill89]

Yes, the rpm's are slightly higher. I will check all of the vacuum hoses...
thanks

Has anyone ever had problems with the motor mounts or transmission mount causing this problem? I have check them for being cracked are torn and all of them check good. I just don't no if they can be worn enough to where the rubber on the mounts, is not giving enough spring action and letting the engine vibration travel through the frame..

 

[jinny]

I've had bad motor mounts on another car and I can't remember symptoms that you discribed...

how's the tranny fluid level and/or condition? are you using genuine honda ATF?

 

[dollarbill89]

I've had bad motor mounts on another car and I can't remember symptoms that you discribed...

how's the tranny fluid level and/or condition? are you using genuine honda ATF?

The level is ok and the tranny is running great. The last time I had the transmission serviced was at a Honda dealership. I guess they used the ATF fluid.

 

[97prelude]

Im not sure if Acura's have carbon deposites, but you might want to take your TB off and rub your finger through there and see if it turns nice and black. You may just have carbon deposits throughout the engine? needs to be cleaned. I had that problem with a car of mine, and after doing the cleaning it minimized the shake. I also changed the sparkplugs at the same time.

But it also sounds like a tranny problem.

 

[cesar]

I have the same problem with my 98 RL. Dealer cleaned injectors and it didn't go way.

The mechanic said it was due to torque and front wheel drive. It gets worse when the A/C is on. I only use Super Gasoline, Mobil 1 and injector cleaner every 3k miles, but the vibration you explain has not gone away.

I thought it was the motor mounts, but they said they were fine.

 

[rspiment]

Hello everybody first time post. I have been trying to solve this problem for a few years now with no luck. The dealer changed the motor mounts, had the vacuum hoses checked and so forth. There are no error codes. This drove me crazy for 3 yrs!
I have owned my 97 Acura RL Premium with 62,000 miles on it for 4 yrs now with this problem. Nobody seems to know the cause of this annoying problem so i gave up and lived with it. It would be great if someone could come up with a solution...Rob

 

[Rachel]

it might be due to faulty engine mount. My 2.5 yrs old RL have engine mount replaced at about 60,000 km ; it was done under warranty. Appears to be pretty expensive to replace

 

[rspiment]

Hello Rachel, yes its very expensive to replace. Mine were replaced under warranty but the problem didn't go away.

 

[dollarbill89]

Thanks everyone, I am convinced that the problem may very well be the torque convertor inside of the transimission. I have just finished replaceing the fuel filter (which was stopped up), spark plugs (NGK only), Timing belt(136000 miles which was not in to bad of shape), balance shaft belt (a little loose), crank seal, and both cam seals (which were hard), all drive belts. I removed the IAC motor (idle air control), to see if the screen and ports were build up with carbon, it was. I clean the throttle body and re-installed everything in it appropriate place. Guess what the vibration is still there. I will live with it for a little while.

Before all of this my check engine light was on, I pull the code and it was exhaust gas recirculation poor, so I removed the EGR and cleaned out the ports and pull a vacuum on it to see if it would hold, it did. I cleared the code and restalled the EGR. I drove my car for about 10 miles and the light came back on. It is the same code. What should I do next, replace the EGR valve?

 

[rspiment]

Hello dollarbill89,

Wow you did alot of work! It's great you did all the work yourself. I also went nuts looking for a solution to this. The torque converter is a expensive repair I think, that sux. When I first looked at the car for purchase, it ran so quite that you didn't even know the car was running lol. Now i'm stuck with this annoying vibration As far as your egr valve, shake it, if it clicks its good if not replace it. Btw are you planning on fixing the torque converter? If so please keep us posted. Rob

 

[dollarbill89]

Hello dollarbill89,

Wow you did alot of work! It's great you did all the work yourself. I also went nuts looking for a solution to this. The torque converter is a expensive repair I think, that sux. When I first looked at the car for purchase, it ran so quite that you didn't even know the car was running lol. Now i'm stuck with this annoying vibration As far as your egr valve, shake it, if it clicks its good if not replace it. Btw are you planning on fixing the torque converter? If so please keep us posted. Rob

Thanks rspiment, I will check the EGR to see if it clicks. And as for as the torque converter, I am not going to tackle it right now. I wish that Honda would come up with a additive so we all could just put it into the Transmission with the fluid to cure this problem...........

 

[rspiment]

dollarbill89 wishful thinking. I doubt that an additive will cure this problem. I don't think even the engineers know what causes this vibration. My wish is that they, the engineers at Acura, would come up with a solution or even a reason for the problem.

 

[rspiment]

Bump

 

[kenken3686]

I had this problem, and i had it fixed...
I got a new train for the car... and then everything was fine...
but it is very costly =/

 

[rspiment]

Hmmm. My transmission shifts well, no error codes and the D4 light does not blink. Did you have error codes and so forth? thx

 

[rspiment]

I wonder if the transmission mounts have anything to do with this vibration. Any comments?