Car vibrate when stop at light

Often my car would vibrate when I come to a stop at a light or stop sign. Is that normal for all cars that have aged? My car is 2008 and have ~70k miles. Is there something going bad or is there some maintenance that I should be doing and missed?

Something’s not right. My '08 Fit is smooth as silk while idling. The problem could be in the ignition system, clogged fuel injectors, or even a broken motor mount.

What’s the RPM reading when the car is vibrating?

What kind of transmission do you have?

Describe the vibration.

Any noise along with it?

Has your fuel mileage changed at all?

How long has it been vibrating like this?

And does it continue to vibrate when you put it in neutral?

By the way, when you say “vibrate” do you mean physically or audibly? Or both?

“is there some maintenance that I should be doing and missed?”

I don’t have the ability to consult a Honda Fit Owner’s Manual, but you do.
If you take a look at your manual and compare the Honda maintenance schedule contained therein with your maintenance receipts from the past two years, you will be able to tell whether you have maintained the car adequately.

That being said, it is possible that you have a broken motor mount, but I think it is more likely that skipped maintenance is to blame for this “vibration”.

The RPM is a bit EDITED LOWER than 1000 RPM. I have the AUTO transmission. It don’t happen all the time. The vibration is at the steering wheel. Kindda like engine vibrating I guess. I do not notice any extra noise but I have to open my window to examine it. The mileage seems unchanged. I forgot when the vibration happens but MAYBE the last 10k or 20k.

It do not vibrate when I put it in neutral but I THINK I can hear it in the engine.

Vibrate physically.

Thanks

I do all my oil change to synthetic before the oil change reminder reach 10%.

Filters are good.

I did not know about the transmission fluid change until ~50K which I did right away. I when to dealer to work on that and they told me to just do plug and drain instead of flush.

The only thing I know that I suppose to change is spark plug at 65k.

My daily driving involves a lot of going over drainage bump. But it don’t happen all the time.

I also notice that SOMETIME if I have idle vibration and I had to rev up the engine to get on ramp etc. When I idle again sometime it goes away.

Just to add to my symptoms.

I also notice that SOMETIME if I have idle vibration and I rev up the engine to get on ramp etc,when I idle again sometime it goes away.

EDIT Sometime after I fill up my tank the vibration goes away too.

The vibration is not violent but it’s not smooth in idle as expected. I will examine more on my drive home tonight.

“The only thing I know that I suppose to change is spark plug at 65k.”

You told us that your car has ~70k on the odometer, but you did not tell us if you did actually change the spark plugs at 65K miles. (60K miles would be more typical, but perhaps your model has an atypical interval of 65k)

In any event, fouled spark plugs can definitely cause uneven idling, as well as a reduction in fuel economy, reduced power, and difficulty in starting the engine. If you have not yet experienced problems with starting–trust me–you will if you don’t replace those spark plugs.

Or, in other words, if you have decided to “save money” by not having the spark plugs replaced on schedule, you are undoubtedly wasting money and contributing to the symptoms that you are currently experiencing. When you replace them, make sure that you use the same brand and model number that are specified in your Owner’s Manual. Other brands/models of spark plugs are unlikely to work as well as the ones specified by Honda’s engineers.

And–whatever you do–DO NOT use Bosch’s fancy “high technology” spark plugs. I have seen a huge number of problems resulting from the use of those plugs.

1000+ is too high an idle for a fully warmed up engine. You should be at about 750+/-50. The vibration you feel is the engine straining against the torque converter.

Possible causes for high idle include a bad IAC and a bad temp sensor. The Idle Air Controller controls idle speed, and the temp sensor if it’s bad could be telling the ECU that the engine is colder than it is, upping the idle. I’m going to suggest the temp sensor, because the IAC should throw a code and the temp sensor will not.

Take it to your shop and have it looked at.

I am sorry the rpm i stated is wrong…it is 1000+ when I start my car cold, I got confuse. When I idle warm it is under 1000.

The car makes ticking sound (I guess it’s the valves) and a low rumbling sound at idle.

I suspect the vibration occur even driving but the road makes it hard to detect/confirm.

I will take it to a shop but I want to get an idea what it is, I plan to go to the dealer. My usual shop will just tell me the car is getting old. (I bought a 20K Santa Fe to them in the past for similar problem and that’s what they told me…)

Thanks

I think I know when does the vibration occur…

It is around ~1000 rpm. I rev my engine slowly from ~700 to ~4000 and the engine vibrates only around ~1000. Once I rev pass 1500 or so the vibration is gone.

No problem. We all misstate thing sat times.

I agree with the others about the likely need for basic maintenance. But, if it’s more than that, it’ll need some hands-on diagnostics. Assuming the engine mounts looked good, the first thing I’d probably do it throw it on a scope and see what the traces look like. Changes are that there’ll be an erratic spark. The cause could be obvious by looking at the waveform, or at the very least it could be isolated to a specific cylinder for further consideration of possibilities like a flakey injector.

I think the real bottom line here is that it needs a diagnostician.