I have noticed every once in a while (while stopped at a red light/traffic) when the car is in gear (I haven't felt it in park) the car will randomly shudder.

Not sure to what extent yours go, but that seem to be common behavior in Corolla (with rpm slightly fluctuating in the 600-700 area).

 

Possibly, but it seemed a bit more intense than what I'd consider normal on a car this new. My last car was a 2004 VW that had really bad misfires at the end of its life, so maybe I'm just really sensitive to that.



Is it still reasonable to change out that spark plugs at 45k miles? I ordered some since I'm planning a bit of a road trip in the next week or so and I don't want things to get worse while I'm away from home.


EDIT: The car stays below 700rpm most of the time. It might be up to about 1000 with the AC compressor turned on. The shudders feel like minor misfires, but I'm not getting any lights or anything.

 

I highly doubt it's the spark plugs. Yours are probably fine, I don't think they need to be changed this early. These plugs are supposed to be good for 120K, and even then, they are probably in reality good for 150K. My Camry does something similar although it's not too noticeable, when stopped at red lights in gear. You can see the RPMs increase a little, I think the vibration has something to do with the computer telling the car to take in more air to maintain RPMs. If the vibration bothers you, I'd probably first clean the throttle body and replace the air filter to see if that helps at all.

 

Sounds good, thank you so much!

 

My 2016 corolla randomly does this only while stopped at red lights as well. Thanks for the info

 

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