Rough Idle When Stopped
 

Hi Everyone,


New to the forum and still very new to working on my own vehicles, so please bear with me :icon_mrgreen:.


So my wife has a 2005 Neon and it idles very rough when it is stopped at stoplights. It only does it when stopped and in Drive, if I put it in Neutral or Park it goes away, and also goes away when we start to accelerate.


We have already had the spark plugs replaced and that didn't help. Then the mechanic thought it might be because the rubber was gone on the motor mount (I think?) so he replaced that, and now it seems like it is even worse. I'm tired of getting yanked around and paying mechanics to fix stuff that isn't broken so now I'm here. I am VERY green when it comes to fixing vehicles, but starting today I'm going to slowly learn because I'm tired of shelling out big bucks to mechanics and dealers.


What do you all think it could be? Is it something that a newbie mechanic like me could try to fix?


Thanks in advance!

How many miles? Which engine? Check engine light on?

The car has about 145,000 miles, but it has been doing this for the last 2 years/30,000 miles or so. It is the 2.0L engine and the check engine light is not on. It is not just a slight shake either, it is like a rattle-your-teeth shake. She has just been putting up with it but I would like to fix it if possible because it is super annoying and I'm afraid that it could cause further damage in time.

Do you know which "motor mount" he replaced?


Do you have a tachometer? If you do, what is your idle speed when you are stopped and in drive?

Honestly, I have no idea. I just gullibly nodded my head as he explained to me what he thought was wrong with it. I don't think there is a tach on the dash but I can look in a few days, the car is currently sitting at the airport parking lot since my wife is out of town. Sorry I can't give more information :/

Pretty bad if you don't know if you have a tach. Lol. Really can't do much for you if you don't have the car in front of you to do some basic troubleshooting. Post back when you have the car back.

^Haha yeah, I don't drive the car much so can't remember about the tach off hand. Like I said, I'm very new to this too. :D Will post back when she gets home.

Unless it was an SXT, it wouldn't have a tachometer from the factory. The motor mount (assuming it was the actual motor mount) was likely replaced with an aftermarket mount which isn't a filled mount like the Dodge one. That could be a contributing factor and/or the strut mounts weren't aligned. The whole mount situation seems to be the main cause of the bad vibrations in these cars.

have to check out the condition of all 4 mounts, if they are OK, then you will need to do a engine mount adjustment procedure