12th May 2008, 12:51
I've found that shifting into neutral significantly ameliorates the slight vibration at stop lights.
Drivers of standards either hold down the clutch or shift out of gear at stops.
My ZX2 is a 2000 model.
The odometer reads 85000+.
7th Oct 2009, 17:41
All ZX2 's vibrate at idle in drive and sometimes a little in park. Every single one of them (unless you have one of the very few 2.0 SPI engines). From the time the rolled off the assembly line regardless of year or age. Anyone who says they've corrected theirs must be an engineer to rework a faulty design. I sold these cars for a few years, had salesman demos, went on test drives with customers and heard the same complaint over and over.
In my career at Ford I had never seen, nor heard of any service bulletins that corrected this problem. And I would have known because I wound up buying an off-lease 2001 ZX2 with 17000 miles on it, and the trademark vibration. The vibration is a small price to pay because the car now has 99000+ rough NYC miles on it. Aside from brakes, tires and fluids I have not had to put a single cent into this car.
One thing you can do to make it SEEM smoother is try to insulate any rattles inside the car. One thing that rattles with the vibration is the hard plastic cover plate between the speedo and the top of the steering column (that makes noise on all Escorts). If the headrests are extended they'll make noise too. The power window cables inside the doors will also buzz and rattle too with the engine vibration. I also had to adjust my hood and dab a little more caulk between the skin and ribs of my hood, at idle it made it sound like worn valve lifters.
It's a fantastic little car, don't hate for one minor design flaw. BTW Ford didn't design it, Mazda did.
19th Jun 2006, 10:11
I'd like to comment about the idle shaking. It's not necessarily the motor mounts. I have a 2000 model myself and had to take it in due to the rough idle. My tech had found that Ford had put a service bulletin out on this problem. When Ford had installed the motors, depending on year, they were not put in straight. This caused the vibration issue which resulted in the engine being taken out and re-aligned. Also, the engine and transmission mounts to be replaced. Once this was taken care of, the shaking no longer occurred. Just a little FYI.