I've been hearing a faint clunk from the title mentioned area when I pull into my father's driveway. It happens as I work the clutch to apply torque to pull up over the hump. This is the only time it is heard, I travel on city roads daily for a mile or so and everything is quiet other than when I hop into the driveway.

The car just passed inspection at Jones Acura so I'm thinking my motor mount is in the early stages of failure....if another bushing/etc. were bad enough to cause an audible noise the car would've failed inspection.

Anyhow, I have small stress tears in my control arm bushings but none look all too bad. The motor mount however appears to be missing a chunk of rubber....just doesn't look right.

Check out the pictures, I tried to get decent ones and hopefully you can make things out and give some feedback.

Thanks in advance.

Mount that looks suspicious:



Small tears, they are tears none the less but IMO shouldn't be causing a problem yet.



If you look close there's stress marks toward the bottom of the bushing....again, I don't think it's at a point where it would cause an issue.



As I said, these are the only questionable areas that I pictured. All others appear to be ok, the wheel has ZERO play from 9 to 3 and 12 to 6. There is no kind of awkward noise or anything while driving.

 

Also, if someone could clue me in on as to which mount I have pictured that'd be great. I'm still pretty unfamiliar with the car and the motor mount chart on parts sites is very confusing. lol

 

it looks like that motor mount is shot....that is the lower tranny mount

 

i get the same noise only when engaging the clutch....all my other motor mounts are new except for that lower tranny one, so most likely that is the problem

 

Thanks man, so we're looking at 22 in the diagram?

 

For your tranny mount to be gone that means some of your engine mounts are toast too. Cuz thee tranny mounts don't fail first "usually". So I'd do a thorough inspection of all your engine mounts. I'll try to post a pic of a better diagram later.

 

Here helps you understand why as well. Most of the stress is placed on the engine mounts first. Front and side engine mounts move more so they to tend to wear faster when compared to the rear mount. When those start to fail the stress of the increases movement starts to transfer over to the other mounts, rear engine mounts and then the tranny mounts go later. This is not always true but most of the time it is.

So don't just replace the tranny mounts w/o checking the others cuz you'll be in the same position again later. That's all.

Also remember the engine and tanny mounts are covered under the power train warranty which is longer than the 4 year/50k miles. I think it's 7 year/80k. Someone needs to verify or correct me on that one.

 

Thank you so much for all the information.

Unfortunately I'm at 86K right now but I will check with my local dealer just in case, I have a pretty good relationship with them and well...it just never hurts to ask.

I plan on doing that here in a few hours when the dealer opens, I'd like to see if they have a BNIB trans. mount that I can compare against the picture in my phone....something tells me mine is missing a chunk of rubber.

As long as I get more confirmation that I'm on the right path I will most definitely be ordering parts and preparing for a little overhaul during a weekend that I'm off work. A few mounts shouldn't be too bad, I've seen a few tutorials around here and am pretty handy with a set of tools. I'll also be sure to grab pictures and provide my thoughts on the shenanigans to help others that may have or will have a similar issue.

The plan will be front, side, lower and upper trans mounts. The outer tie rod boots are starting to show stress creases as well so those will more than likely be added to the list. I say that because I need an excuse to have the alignment checked and adjusted if need be anyways...just something I think is a good idea when buying a used car. Income tax return which I didn't even file yet FTW? FTL? lol

Car's the bread and butter.....gotta make sure it's healthy so I can continue to make a living, ya know? Especially with winter......the last thing a car should be during the cold months is unreliable.

I appreciate the information very much and will check back a bit later.

I hear ya on the motor mounts as well, the ex Volvo had 4 mounts that were known to cause problems...especially with the miles on a 1998 model car. I made sure to replace all of them as a preventative measure close to the time I purchased the car and sure enough never had to worry about them going bad again.

I'm sure I put a good bit of stress on the TL's mounts as well, it's been a few years since I've owned a clutch and combine that with how tricky and sensitive the TL's is and I can tell you that I've done some bucking around and LSD burn outs. lol

That's out of my system now though, I'll still romp on it a bit but fully engage a gear before going WOT. There was a few times shortly after I bought the car where I'd give it hell through 1st, 2nd and finally grab traction and launch pretty hard midway through 3rd. Damn it. Yeah, that's no good and I decided there will be no more of that.....not looking to replace a clutch any tim soon.

 

Hit up the dealer. Find a service advisor that's young (preferably in his 20's). Tell him you'll take care of him and hook him up with a $100 if he can get all the mounts replaced under warranty. They can just back date the miles on their invoice or state that these were already worn before the warranty was over and have Acura warranty it. Trust me. They do it all the time. Ive done this plenty of times at my dealer and still do.

Tranny mounts are the cheapest. If they say they cant do all go for the engine mounts. If it doesnt work at one Dealer go to anther. Just my advice.

 

I hear ya, I'll be updating the thread a bit later.

 

Well, the dealer informed me that the powertrain warranty goes to 7 years/70K miles and wouldn't cover any of the mounts regardless. I called two others and got the same response.....used car, no big deal. I did speak with a tech at Acura and showed him the picture of my lower trans mount and he said it looks just fine....

I was hearing the noise more pronounced this morning when I first left home, every time I released the clutch and engaged in the next gear. It sounded like it was coming more from the passenger side so I put the front of the car in the air.

Same as the driver's side, the passenger side front seems to be ok......no bushings/ball joints look out of the normal, no play in the wheel from 12/6, 3/9.

I also was tugging on the side/front/rear mount brackets. The motor would not budge one bit when pulling on the front/rear...granted I couldn't get a really good grip but I was tugging on the brackets secured to the motor none the less.

When tugging on this one:



I could get the motor to move and there was some sort of weird noise coming from the mount itself.....can anyone confirm that this is how it's supposed to be?

Basically I'm wondering if the side mount is supposed to be concrete stiff or if it's going to give some...

On an unrelated note I don't think I'm waiting another 20K to change my serpentine belt....it's getting some wear there on the center. Ah well, at least the PS Pump is all shiny. lol

 

This is how my car was when the front was toast. Dealer said it was normal. Everyone I showed this video said it should be replaced. Test mounts by revving engine with car in drive (front mount) and foot on brake. Have someone do this while you check. Do it in Reverse (Rear mount).

 

OP's car is 6MT, though I suppose you could just slip the clutch and rev..I'd hate to do that unnecessarily though.

I'd just have someone start the car in Neutral and see how much the engine moves. The engine does do a mighty kick once it starts after cranking.

 

Thanks for the video, I have a clutch so I'll have to play with it when I can get someone to watch.

I'm 99% sure it's the side mount, it's the only one I could get to budge, when I was tugging on it I was hearing a clunking noise similar to the one I've been hearing. Tonight after work I can hear that exact same noise from that exact area every time I engage 1/2/3 gears until the motor gets to operating temperature.

For now the plan is to replace the side mount, serpentine belt and the 2 side engine covers....

The dealer I bought the car from got mine in with very hard steering and took care of it with a new PS pump and I'm pretty sure they replaced the pressurized line as well as new fluid. I do not think they were careful at all removing the covers because the clips are broken and they barely sit in how they should. They're cheap and it bugs me. lol

I'll snap a few pictures when I replace everything along with some of my thoughts related to the repairs.

 

This issue has been fully resolved by replacing my side engine mount and mount to bracket 17mm bolt.

It still had PLENTY of life left but I have a habit of changing things before they break. lol

Edit: Thanks everyone for your responses and input!!