shuddering on warm idle

[chunk97]

Hello,

My 1997 corolla (4 cyl./1.6 L/Automatic tranny)) shudders and almost stalls once the engine has warmed up and the car is in gear (drive or reverse), especially when I have the AC on. Shifting to neutral and turning the AC off helps but I can still detect a few "hiccups". The car also hesitates a bit when shifting from 1st to 2nd gear (from being stopped to starting- i.e. driving after stopping at an intersection). All these signs started about 2 weeks ago and is getting worse (more violent shuddering, stalling on some occassions while idling in gear). Today the "check engine " light came on also. It drives fine when it is already moving (past 2nd gear I think) even with the AC in full blast.

What could be the cause? How much to fix it? I recently got the car and the previous owner probably didn't do any of the scheduled maintenance (60K, 90K, etc.). It has about 138,000 miles on it.

Thanks

[JohnO356]

Go to Auto Zone or Advance Auto and get the code read. I've read that California forces these stores to charge for reading the codes, but I think it's minimal. That will provide a starting point to diagnose the problem. A lot of things it could be.

[Dirtjump9]

Yeah, get it checked out and have someone read the codes. On the other hand, make sure your idle is not set too low. When I got my Corolla out of the garage in the spring (it had been sitting for a year), the idle was a bit low and it showed the same symptoms as your car seems to have. I adjusted the idle a bit and now it's great!