Engine shakes while coming to a stop.

Hi CarPros,

My vehicle is a 2003 Nissan Altima S, with the 2.5L engine, approximately 173000 km.

I was hoping I could get some advise about an issue which started happening recently.

It started with the Service Engine Soon light coming on. Then the car (engine) would shake violently while coming to a stop, almost as if the car was going to stall.

I had the Service Engine Soon code checked and it was showing up as a P0301 - Cylinder 1 misfire. Thinking the engine shaking was related to the misfire, we had new spark plugs and ignition coils put in. Unfortunately, that did not resolve the issue. As a follow up, we had a compression test done and had the fuel injectors checked as well. No problems found.

The interesting thing was by putting the car in neutral just before the engine started to shake would prevent the shaking from occurring. Did not really notice much fluctuation in RPMs either.

After doing much research on the Internet, it appears this is a fairly common problem, but the diagnosis ranges from bad motor mounts, faulty head gasket, transmission problems, replacing spark plug wires, needing to reprogram the computer for idle under load, faulty camshaft / crackshaft sensors. The list goes on.

Before taking it to the dealer and having them diagnose this, I was hoping someone else has may have encountered this and has a better idea what the issue could be.

Also the car is burning oil, which is another known issue with the 2.5L engine, but not sure if the shaking engine problem is related.

Thank you!