Issue with shaking at idle and acceleration

HONDADUDE007

MEMBER
1999 HONDA ACCORD
4 CYL
AUTOMATIC
180,000 MILES

Hello,

My car has been having issues, shaking at idle, especially when it is in drive. It also shakes when in neutral.

Also, the acceleration from first to second gear can be rough almost like it sticks for a second. This is less of a problem if I press the gas pedal down harder and accelerate fast.

I suspect the problem has to do with my throttle body and/or air mixture in the car that affects idle speed?

Also, I noticed that pressing the shift button down on the center console stick was harder than it used to be. However, this problem was noticed months after the other problems I previously mentioned.

What is strange is that the car does not have a noticeable shake when driving and operates fine in higher gears. There is no check engine light, but I do feel I am getting lower gas mileage.

Some possibilities I am considering:

1. Throttle body being dirty.
2. Air filter being dirty.
3. Transmission issues?
4. Numerous other factors influencing idle performance and also shifting into second gear.

I would very much appreciate your help and any suggestions you may have as to the problem.

Max

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Hi Max,

I would agree with most of what you are saying. However, the one thing you did not mention is a vacuum leak. Assuming you don't have codes and your engine mounts are okay then a vacuum leak is the most common cause of rough idle. Again, if you have any codes then this could change but based on what you said, I would follow this guide on how to find a vacuum leak. Then I would agree that a throttle body issue could through off your idle but this is more likely to cause a stall.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-use-an-engine-vacuum-gauge

If you don't find anything with this then we need to check for codes if you have not already done so and then pull the spark plugs and see what they look like. Feel free to post some pictures of them if you need help determining if they are an issue.

Let me know what you find and we can go from there. Thanks