Broken or loose motor mount

OK. I think I have found the main cause of all my overheating problems. I finally had a buddy of mine stand in front of my car while I was inside with the tranny in drive and foot on the brake. At the same time, I applied gentle gas to the engine and the damn thing nearly jumped out of the engine bay. Also noticed excess vibration driving it last night. I've either got a broken or loose front mount. The thing is, I never would have been able to see it myself without having another person to help me. Also explains why the coolant lines are getting cut. Explains overheating, fluid leakage and everything. The engine only jumps when it is being torqued. Won't do it in park or neutral. I'm gonna see if I can tighten the mount. If not, I'm gonna order a new one and take it to a mechanic. The mount isn't too expensive, but the labor to install it doesn't seem that easy.

Question. The car has been overheating since july. I wonder if the mount has been loose since then and over the past months has just gotten looser and looser. But, should this be the kind of thing a mechanic would notice right away. Or would they speciffically have to be looking for a damaged mount to notice it.

Shaun

Hi Friend,
I Am On This Forum Nearly Everyday Whilst At Work, During Lunch And Down Time. Because Of This Forum And My Shop Manuals I Have Done All Major Repairs (excluding Head Gasket) By Myself And Only With Basic Tools And Jackstands.

As To Your Overheating Problem I Dont Think It Is Related To A Blown Mount. I Had The All Too Typical Torque Sensor Problem With My Tranny Which I Had To Pay To Rebuilt When On Vacation In Arizona. I Have Replaced All My Mounts.

I See By The Picture That You Have A 2nd Gen Aurora With A 3.5l. Those I'm Not Sure Of, But On My 95' I Was Quoted Loads Of Moola For Any Of The Mounts. What I Did Was Rumage Through The Store Room Of My Local Autozone And Buy A Rubber Mount That Happened To Fit. It Cost $8.

If The Iron Part Of The Mount Broke, Which I Dont Know How You Could Break It. Then The Junk Yard Is The Only Way To Go. The Job Itself Take About 45 Min. If You Dont Have Any Probs. I Did The Rear In An Hour Last Week After My Steering Rack Broke Of And I Had To Easy Out The Bolts From The Mount -my Fault For Overtightening Them The Last Time. Again, This Was On The 4.0.

before you spend a ton of time trying to figure out how to fix a motor mount, find out if it actually IS a broken one!! Lots of people have wacky problems with these cars overheating and spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. Do a little diggin under the hood and under the car to ID the broken mount. My guess is jacks, jackstands, some wrenches, a few buddies, and a few beers can fix a motor mount.

Hell Yeah.

Heck..how do you think truck pulling and nascar got started. A few loaded guys said....we oughta make our trucks real powerful, hook 'em to that big hunk of metal in the field and see who can yank it the farthest....wooohhooooo!!!

Baron, I've had a problem with my 97 and after reading your post I thought you might be the guy to relate my problem to.
Two days after having my struts and shocks replace I started to hear a clunking noise especiall on uphill slow speed turns.
I had the struts rechecked and they thought everything was ok.
Another symptom that has been a problem is that the car will occasionally shudder violently when slowing down from a very high speed. I changed the front rotors and that helped and I'm about to change the backs but I'm not sure if they are related but I'm begining to think that the entire front end, including the motor may be shifting around when a load is exerted on it. Other that that the car rides smooth and has no vibration at 75 mph.
My local dealer said he thought it was my slightly leaking rack and pinion which he would be happy to replace for $1400. I asked if he would guarantee that it would fix the problem and of course he declined. Sure, I want to spend that kind of money so he can TRY IT!!!!!
Any thoughts?
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Because of my mount issues I have had to unbolt the steering rack a few times. If the rack is a little loose it wil make a hard knock when turning quick. I had to retighten that thing twice and the second time I broke the bolt off inside the mount. An easier fix than I thought with the help of an easy out. The bolts are a little hard to get too if you havent had to get to them before. They are on the top. The rack sits on top of the 'rear' tranny mount on the rear subframe. The two bolts are on top of the rack and angled. To tighten or remove, you get about 3 feet worth of extensions and feed them thru from above. It took me forever to get the extensions on the bolt, would take 5 minutes if you had help.

I would suggest checking for movement of the rack. A quick fix would me just to tighten it down. I think $1400 for the repair is awfull. The R & R on the rack is not easy but not worth that kind of money. I have 181,000 on my 'rora and I have never had a problem with the rack leaking.

The low speed slow down shudder was your rotor / brake combo. It shouldnt have anything to do with drivetrain mounting. I think the rack is a good point.

*I just thought of something. When you have your struts replaced there is a bearing plate between the strut and the body mount. If they didnt do this plate and it was beat up, you would get the klunking noise as well. Call the shop and ask if they did the bearing plate. It is part of the service to install this plate.