94 Toyota Camry Excessive Idle Engine Vibration
Tagged with: automotive • Camry • engine • repair • Technical • Toyota
I was sitting on the toilet (where I usually come up with some of my brilliant ideas) and thought, “I never did write a post about my car, with the rough idle.” So without further delay, here you go…
Long Post Ahead
For as long as I could remember my 1994 Toyota Camry LE has had a rough engine idle. And when I say rough, well that’s an understatement. You can visibly see the Steering Column shake and the dash vibrates so loud, it makes an annoying noise.
Needless to say the car is essentially worthless because of the shake, no one would ever buy it. And I was kinda worried about it because I didn’t know what was causing it and I wanted to make sure the issue wasn’t affecting other components.
I have had multiple mechanics look at the car, and I have scoured the Internet Tubes, only to hear the same damn thing… the motor mounts. But I have replaced the mounts twice and the shake still persists. Plus if the motor mounts were the issue one would think the engine shake would persist at higher speeds, and not just at idle.
Well DOF knows about a real good mechanic right outside of town. So I took the car there with hopes of something more than, “It’s the motor mounts.” And the first thing I heard of course was that’s the problem. I told him the entire life story of the car and the guy said they would figure it out if I brought it in.
After everything they said the problem was a bad balancing shaft. Apparently the balancing shaft sits next to the Crank and takes a lot of the vibration away from the engine as soon as the gas pedal is pushed. It’s supposed to take away the force of going from zero to any MPH.
Unfortunately the problem is cost prohibitive, but I can deal with that. I know as long as the engine doesn’t start shaking from side to side I will be okay and I can fix the motor mounts again if I need to, to extend the life of the car. For now I am happy knowing what the problem is and having one less thing to worry about.
Besides, I ride my bike all the time anyway and only average about 2 times a week for driving a car. 
Welcome to my blog! Topics tend to focus on Science and Technology, but I throw in personal stuff too. I hope you enjoy!
November 6th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
The good conservative answer would be that it has to be the clearly visible, easily replaceable and inexpensive motor mount. Have you ever actually seen a “balancing shaft”, hmm? Saying it’s the “balancing shaft” is just an anti-car liberal plot to make us all ride bicycles all the time.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:57 am
LOL, I have never seen one… That’s it! I’m starting the Balancing Shaft Twoofers Movement!
Two of the motor mounts are visible and replaceable in about 2-4 hours time as long as there is a second jack for the engine. One of them is down below when looking straight at the engine. It can be tricky to get out.