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Does anyone have experience with motor mount troubles out there? I'm trying to figure out if I have a problem with my mounts. I realize a technician could tell but I'd like to try to and feel it out myself. If anyone replies we can go from there. Thanks in advance.

Been there, done that. What problems are you having? Excessive engine movement? I'll tell you what the tell-tale sign is of a bad mount(s): When you turn the car off, and on the last revolution, the whole car jerks. That's what my car was doing. Don't visually inspect them. Mine looked fine from the outside but were still too old.

Mounts, as both I and Josh will tell you, are not fun. The two front bolts are easy, but the back two bolts are a biatch. You have to jack up the engine a good way, and reach the bolts from above the car, and you have enough room to cycle your socket wrench through one notch, that's it. Very tedious.

But it was a huge improvement for me. The car felt quicker, like maybe the engine was sending more power to the wheels and less to moving itself around. That clunk after shutoff went away too.

My symptom is a rattling sound in the engine bay that comes through the body. Every time I start it or sit at idle in park it will make this sound like something is loose and just rattle around. It's not a quick rattle, like a high to moderate freqency noise, just a loose sounding noise like something smacking around. It mostly sounds when starting the car. I'm puzzled so far. It sounds like it could be a transmission mount if there is one.

What about a loose heat shield? I've got one of those and it sounds just like what you're describing.

-Brian

There is a tranny mount.

I had my motor mounts go bad, to the point where the car would violently shake when turning off the engine.

I replaced all mounts (minus pitch stop, since ours is steel anyways) with STI Group N mounts, and the difference is amazing.

More noise though.

Rattling could be from a heat shield. I had a rattle, and it turned out to be my heat shield hitting my exhaust.

I've had heat shield problems before and this doesn't initially remind me of that. I can't find a good word...maybe more of a rumbling noise or a ratling rumble if that makes any sense. In either case it's a low pitch noise. The engine doesn't shake at all when shutting down so I'm doubting it's an motor/engine mount. I know for sure it's not the one near the front of dash end of the bay.

Does it sound almost like bad main bearings? I've had that for a while occasionally on start up for over two years even though it drives great and oil pressure is fine. Haven't been able to figure it out, but I don't suspect the mains in my case.

Steve

I don't know. I have no clue what a bad main bearing sounds like. I'm familiar with bearing noise and this sounds nothing like that at all. It's not a scraping or whirring noise at all more like something banging against the wall of the engine compartment or the frame possible. I've looked for it to no avail.

if it is your tranny mount, does your shifter vibrate a bunch or jiggle when the engine rpms drop down? If it is it could be a tranny mount. If you can crawl under the car see if you can move the tranny at all by pushing on your driveline. I could move mine a good deal. After changing my mounts I couldn't budge it.

Engine mounts are a pain in the @$$. I did them without much of a problem, but it doesn't mean it was fun. The back bolts take some patience.

The way I knew they were bad was the engine had excessive movement, and one of the mounts had busted and lost all its fluid. When I pulled it out....it was in two pieces.

-Ryan

I think I heard this mystery noise the one day we were driving around and you pointed it out Scott and it didn't sound like a tranny or engine mount to me(not that I'm an expert). It did sound as if it were coming from the pulleys or the vicinity of the front of the engine. You know how it is though, what you are hearing and what I thought I heard after you pointed it out aren't necessarily the same sound.

That's what I was about to guess with the whirring descripion - something rubbing from the belts? Are the fan housings loose?

Steve

I'm gonna see if I can get to the bottom of it this weekend. I have a buddy who'll probably let me put it on a lift so I can check the tranny mount and other possibilities.

Sweet, who's letting you do that? Paul or Alex?

Oh, I just read Matt's and Steve's posts. I'm not talking about the possible power steering pump problem, this is something else. It's hard talking about sounds without actually hearing them but this is something that's loose somewhere. I would guess it's not a moving part because it doesn't occur when the car is moving, only when it's stopped and usually in gear. It almost sounds like the time when my caliper mounting bolts were loose except that it's coming from the tranny area.

It sounds like a mount to me, creel. I had the same problem at one time.

I need new motor mounts now too. I have extremely bad motor movement. I can grab my engine and shake it side to side about 4-5". I thought the banging I was occasionally getting was my IC hitting the firewall but I think a lot of it is the engine.

Nuts, that sucks!!! Thanks for replying, I thought this one died too.

legacy92ej22t wrote:I need new motor mounts now too. I have extremely bad motor movement. I can grab my engine and shake it side to side about 4-5". I thought the banging I was occasionally getting was my IC hitting the firewall but I think a lot of it is the engine.

Yea man, that was really bad.

Go Group N. When you shake my engine the same way we shook Matt's, the whole car moves and the engine doesn't budge.

Ya, Phils are nice. There is absolutely no movement.

4 to 5 inches!!!! That's incredible I've never seen anything like that before.

well, I did it again today in the daylight (it was dark when I did it before) and 4-5"' is a bit of an exaggeration. It moves quite a bit but only probably an inch or so.

Enough to be concerned about power loss and possible parts breakage.

Ya, I need to address it. One thing at a time, man my list is long....

I got off of my lazy butt yesterday and checked out the engine mounts. There's nothing noticable going on. I feel dumb for not just looking at them to start out with. Oh well, I guess there's no harm in asking.

Matt, maybe you coul rap with me about your mounts.

creel wrote: Matt, maybe you coul rap with me about your mounts.

The jibby, the jabby, the hip hop scuby, the motor mounts me and you.
Are they bad or good, shakin' quakin' engine, just what are we gonna do?

Kinda like that?