geo engine vibration

[sgeorge]

ok i have had this little geo convertible for over 2 years and i am ashamed to say i kept forgetting about the little car. i was under the carport 2 houses up from me its my rental house. any way it is in great shape no ruse 131500 miles on it paid $750.00 for the little gem. before i started it up i changed the oil check the belts and hoses put a good hot battery on it and she fired right up suzuki for you. i cant remember if the engine vibrated when i parked it over 2 years ago or not didnt drive it long after i bought it i havent had it registered yet. anyway i put fresh gas and a half of can of seafoam in the tank. changed the plugs the old ones were black with soot like nit had not been firing with a good strong spark. it has great pick up and go out on the road. i am going to change the oil again this weekend as i put the other half of the seafoam in the crankcase. the oil before was jet black. do these 3 cylender engines run smooth when properly tuned or do they have a shake at idle. i have had over 20 geo trackers and they do not vibrate or shake when tuned good. also built by suzuki.
also if anyone here needs their ecm rebuilt i can do that for you. done approx 130 by now. steve

[Mike_Van]

My '96 1.0 l, 3-cyl., 5 spd. shakes a bit at idle.

[sgeorge]

why do these engines shake. mine seems more than normal shake. steve

[Mike_Van]

IIRC, 3-cylinder engines are not as easy to balance as say, a 4-cylinder or other engine with an even number of cylinders (straight or V-configuration).

[GeoMetron]

Originally Posted by sgeorge

why do these engines shake. mine seems more than normal shake. steve

Metro engines are pretty hard to balance and that balancing act gets harder as the engine ages. I would recommend getting it tuned up, getting it timed as perfectly as possible and make sure there's no build up in the exhaust that might make the engine work harder than it needs to. You also might want to check your compression especially is the shake is enough to where you can visibly see the car shaking rather than just feeling it.

It might also be adviseable, if you can do your own wrenching, to take out the flywheel and have it tested for balance and wear.

A few years ago I had a different metro convertible that started shaking and it turned out to be a catalytic converter that was very clogged up. I fixed that and most of the shaking went away. But the underlying reason for the build up was not fixed. I replaced the whole vehicle with another metro. So I never figured out what caused the initial build up in the exhaust.