Engine Flexing....

latief · Post by **latief** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:11 am

I have a 2000 5spd, i hate these two things about it......

i hate the way the engine moves (flexes ) while changing gears, it feels like it jerks back and forth alot,,,,, i remeber when i first bought the car that it had less jerking than this, but once any mechanic touches your engine mounts, thats it, your screwed. i also have some vibration in the compartment which is ruining everything,,,,,,, i suspected broken engine mounts, the passenger side (load bearing and torque struts look ok), so all my focus was on the tranny mount, i changed it yesterday my self (that was a nightmare by the way, good luck getting the load bearing bolt back in after the pressure is released off the engine)...... any how, the problems of vibration and engine flexing still remain..... i know there are measurments that should be taken into consideration especailly for the upper torque sturt, and yes mine is set to spec ...

so my question is, why so much vibration? and why does my engine feel like moves too much? ( i feel it si sagging forward a little bit).... any ideas on what to do ?

thanks,

JRM · Post by **JRM** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:49 pm

stock engine mounts suck. cheap route is get some inserts. they will help alot with the engine "flexing"

Post by **Diablo0** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:05 pm

Well, here's the deal... you can either have one or the other, either comfort and the engine 'flexing' or you can get rid of the flexing but the vibrations will be wose. More than likely the mounts have just loosened up over time. Check the lower torque strut to make sure it isn't torn. If you want to get rid of the flex the cheapest way is to buy motor mount inserts.

http://www.modernperformance.com/dcx/sr ... unts.shtml

After instalation however the vibrations will increase as the movement of the engine is not being transfered into the body of the car rather than being absorbed by the mounts.

One other question though, if you're complaining about vibrations while at idle, what RPMs is the car idleing at then you feel the vibrations?

latief · Post by **latief** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:40 am

Thanks Diablo,

I undertsand that, but my problem is that i think it has more "flexing" than i think is normal....... in comparison to other non-neon cars. is it my car? or all neons like that? i do think that maybe the mounts got weaker after a while. but nothing is torn i checked.

the hardest one to check is the passenger side (frame- load bearing mount). it is impossible to check that one unless i take it out, which i'm hesitant to do........ any ideas or opinions on that?

Post by **Diablo0** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:52 pm

Only way you're going to compare is if you compare apples to apples, by that I mean find another Neon and and compare your car to that. The mounts do rip or tear every now and then but typically it's if you're really hard on the car.

There are 4 mounts on the car, one on the tranny which is the drivers side load bearing mount, the top torque strut that you can visually see, the middle main load bearing mount thats in the frame rail of the car, and the lower passenger torque strut which is covered by a splash shield. The upper and lower torque struts are the ones that take all the force from the engine flexing under acceleration. Check the lower torque strut to make sure it isn't torn, usually it's the top one that gets torn but to be sure check the lower as well. The passenger load bearing mount is pretty much impossible to check without taking the motor out.

To check the lower one though, you can either pull that spash sheild down a little and look at it or remove the splash shield by removing the 3 bolts and two push riviets. Once removed it's easily viewable for inspection.

latief · Post by **latief** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 4:18 pm

if i get MM inserts, street style, not race style, will that reduce engine flexing without causing a lot of vibration? what is the best brand and source for these...?

thanks,

Post by **Diablo0** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:01 pm

Yeah it'll reduce flexing and increase vibrations a little, not as much as race though.

I'd go with the Prothane mentioned above from ModernPerformance.

Wisher2 · Post by **Wisher2** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:02 pm

I just put in the front motor mount in my 97 I have the mopar race mount with race prothane inserts and I dont know what all the vibration is all about. There is a little vibration but nothing that is crazy.....It just feels like you actually have an engine in the bay.....I just ordered the race inserts for my 02 and will be recieving them within a few days

The only real good ones are the prothanes after that you just go up to solid mounts