So here is my issue. I've got a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport. When sitting at idle, the engine shakes and vibrates. I can feel it most on the gas/break pedals and the floor directly under them. The shaking isn't anything drastic, but I know it's shaking more than it did when I first purchased it a year ago. When I start driving, the vibrating seems to go away until I actually stop the car again. There doesn't seem to be any issues with power, and the engine sounds normal. It is definitely worse in drive or reverse. I am noticing now that changing from park, to neutral, and then to drive is causing more a "kick" in the car then it did before. There seems to be a more drastic bump when changing gears.

The jeep has 63K miles. I probably took it out to the beach about a dozen times last summer, and that's the extent of it's offroad use so far.

My first thought is motor mounts, but I wanted to see if anyone else had experience with idle vibration on a cherokee. I'll be able to get a good look at it this weekend. Any ideas??

 

sounds like you're on the right track to me

 

X2 on the motor mounts. hows your idle? high, low? the engine will move around a bit more when it's idleing to low.

 

Thanks for the replies. Idle RPM is 900, but every 10 seconds or so it surges up to 1000-1100, and then back down to 900. Thinking about it now, I don't think it was doing this before, but I also wasn't looking out for it. Based on other cherokees, is the idle RPM and fluctuation abnormal?

 

This could easily be a simple throttle body cleaning issue. If you have low mileage like that I would think that it has taken a lot of short trips causing some carbon build up. I would clean the throttle body and tps up. Then try running some sort of top end cleaner. Run some injector cleaner also. Try the simple stuff first.

 

Sea foam usually works well in cleaning carbon build up and will give you a smoother idle. Only $10 at the auto parts store.

 

Great. I'll do these things this weekend and also take a look at the condition of the motor mounts. Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll follow up with the results.