I have a 2000 Maxima GXE and earlier this week I had the strangest problem. After I was driving for a while, when I had to brake on the light, my car started vibrating real bad and at the same time the "Check engine soon" lit up. So I pulled over and it still was vibrating real bad. However when I put the car into parking mode, the vibration disappeared. When I put it on drive gear it started vibrating again.

This vibration occurs only when the car was in drive gear mode. After around 15 minutes, the vibration stopped and I took my car for a long drive and the check engine light went away. I took it the mechanic and he said there was no problem in the car and he couldn't reproduce the problem I was referring to. I am not sure what to do. Do anyone of you have experienced or known of this problem. If so, please shed me some light on what to do.

 

perhaps a bad engine mount (automatics have electronic engine mounts)? Or a tranny problem. Sorry those are pretty obvious, but all I can think of.

 

Not exactly the same problem but my car was vibrating in drive gear after they replaced my front motor mount. I went back and they fixed it by readjusting the motor mount and resetting the ECU, at least that's what they told me.

 

Did the dealer check the PCM for stored faults? Even though the CEL went out there can still be a stored fault generated when it first came on. Sounds like you might have had a engine miss issue here. Coil(s)??

 

I think that could be motor mounts too. But how can bad moter mounts triggers MIL?

 

Was it only vibrating really bad or was it lurching on you at very slow speed (idling)? If it was lurching, then it is probably a misfire problem, otherwise it is probably something else.

 

It was occuring on low speeds or when I started hitting the brake... It was definitely not happy when I came to a complete stop... when I started to accelerate the vibration almost went away!

Thank you all for the quick responses!

 

I just found out that the ECL reported a problem with the O2 sensor on the Bank 1 Sensor 1. I am not sure if this error would cause the vibration. Anybody have any experience whether O2 sensor crapping out would cause the vibrations I am seeing.

Lets say that if the O2 sensor is perfect, so what exactly would be causing the error on the Bank1 Sensor1? Do you think replacing the O2 sensor is a good idea?