1995 Toyota Camry vibration issue when stopped in Drive

[dale_885]

Hi all

I recently gave my 1995 (SXV10 MY1996) Toyota Camry CS-X to my mother and when I gave it to her it was vibrating a bit when you are stopped at the traffic lights in Drive. The vibration almost completely goes away when you shift into Neutral or are in Park.

The car drives perfectly fine I recently drove it from Brisbane to Adelaide to drop it off to her no problems at all. However she has had it about 2 months now and said the vibration has got increasingly worse and is now really bad at the traffic lights. The car has close to 300,000km on it however is in immaculate condition both mechanically and cosmetically.

Prior to driving it to Adelaide, I had all the engine mounts replaced plus a general service and changed the spark plugs along the way when stopped in Melbourne + put some injector cleaner into the tank. I didn't really notice any difference after the engine mounts were done. The car has had a lot of money spent on it over the last 2 years (15,000km since all the work) servicing basically every part of the car, timing belt and water pump was done, leads, plugs, air filter, oil leaks fixed, brake pads, tyres, coolant change + thermostat, cv joints, all new suspension front and back + lots more.

The only thing I hadn't changed was the transmission fluid and after inspection it was quite dirty (and also the car didn't really like to drop back into second gear when you put your foot down or go up a hill without manually having to do with the gear shifter), so I changed the filter plus fluid approx 6 months ago (around about 1,500km before my drive to Adelaide).. after the new fluid had gone through the car was able to drop down to second gear itself when required so I was happy with that as it was the only thing that bugged me about the car.

Once I arrived in Adelaide I checked the transmission fluid again as the car didn't seem too eager to drop back into second as much as i wanted it to (it still was, just not all the time) and the fluid appeared to be reasonably dirty again - not too bad - and no where near as dirty as before i changed it. However this was only about approx 5,000km after I last changed it.

I may just be imagining it or it was a coincidence but it seemed the vibration started/got worse after the transmission fluid change.. I can't be completely certain as this was just a spare car that a family member was using prior to driving it down to Adelaide. I was thinking of getting my mum to take it to a mechanic and have the transmission fluid completely flushed to see if this will improve anything.. as when i changed it before it was just a drain and refil not a complete flush.. so some of the old fluid would have still been within the trans itself.

Does anyone have any other ideas to what it could possibly be?? I've been reading up a bit and have come across various suggestions and other people saying it could be the torque converter within the transmission or the distributor cap needs cleaning, the exhaust brackets/hangers and even someone saying get a top engine clean.

Any advice or someone who's had the same problem would be great! I dont really want to spend anymore money on this car as its had a lot more than its value spent on it over the last couple of years!

Cheers

[OldMech]

Hi. You've done well in the process of elimination. I'd keep at it as I love the cars and you've spent so much.

My next step would be to replace the distributor cap. It sounds like ignition trouble but .. ??

I wonder if the cheap and simple way is just to increase the idling speed. I'm Old School.

See if the vibration is that it's just on the verge of 'dying' because of low idling speed combined with a slightly age-tired engine..

K.I.S.S. (Meaning of course: Keep It Simple Stupid.) ;)

But you are not there. If it was in Melbourne I'd love to look at it.

(I like Adelaide very much. More than Melbourne nowadays.)

Laurie Edward on Facebook.