Checking engine mounts ... how to?
 

Could someone kindly give me a rundown of how to check the engine mounts on a 603? Mine's been vibrating a bit more than usual at idle ... nothing that's knocking me out of the seat, but enough that I'm wondering if the mounts aren't beginning to tire. Could just be the drop in ambient temperature (it's worse when cold and improves somewhat at oper. temp.), but I'd like to give the mounts a check anyway. What do I need to look for and where do I need to look for it?

:o

well
 

look down at the sides of the motor. the mount will be bolted on the side of the motor and will cantilever out to a point above the rubber mount. look all around this mount from above and below and see if any metal parts such as the strut are very close to the cross member or other metal things. if it is too close the metal parts will touch and make a huge racket. the rubber mount should hold up the motor so they won't touch. when the rubber begins to give out the motor will settle down 'til they touch.

happy looking

tom w

In my experience, bad mounts will cause the whole car to shake at idle or just coming back to idle as the car slows.

Thanks ... OK, I checked them out this morning as best I could ... not the easiest thing to do without a jack or lift or anything, and not a lot of light. There seems to be some black ooze sort of collected around the drivers side mount ... it's sort of caked on there in a manner such that I thought at first it might be a huge crack (:eek: ), but I wiped it off and I'm not sure the ooze actually has anything to do with the mount ... it might just be really old oil stuck there, or something else that splashed up from the road. What color is the gylecerol (? is that the substance I'm thinking of?) in a motor mount? I don't think that's what this was, and I think once I get the mount cleaned off it will look fine, but I'm going to crawl under there and wipe all the crap off when I can. Any chance this ooze is leaking (or has leaked) from the mount? Would it just come out of cracks or is there a specific area on the mount that it would come from?

Because everyone's been stewing in suspense over this, I'm sure, here's the motor mount resolution:

I did check these out and noticed, as I said in the above posting, that the driver's side looked cracked and had a gooeyness emerging from it. Knowing that there was no way in heck I was going to be able to do the job myself (no lift, no jacks, no tools, no knowledge ... bad mix), I took it to my indy back home and left it there for a week (it was a long, sad, Benzless week). As it turned out, the mounts were quite bad (not disastrously so, but enough to certainly explain the vibrato), so he replaced them. Unfortunately his assistant tossed the old ones ... he was going to show them to me so I could get a better look at how they broke down. Anyway, new mounts now, and the difference is very nice ... still rattles (it IS a 19-yo diesel), but not like a massage chair in a swanky mall "gadget store." So my baby's back, and smooth. :cool: Thanks for the various tips ... I feel some level of accomplishment when I can go in to the mech and sound like I know what I'm talking about ...