I had the driver'* side front transmission mount replaced on my car about 4 months ago. A few weeks ago when I changed my oil I noticed that it was loose. I took it back to the guys that did the work and they claimed they fixed it. Anyway, I noticed when I got it back that it did shift smoother. In the past few days the shifts have been getting rougher though. Anyway, I pulled it in the garage and looked at the mount and on the backside there is a black bolt that is loose. It has a flat head and it looks like it screws into the frame.

This is from the top side:


This is from under the car:


Is this supposed to be that loose? If not what could have caused it to loosen up?

I replaced this mount several times. If I remember correctly the bolt that you are looking at is not a bolt. It is preventing the mount from coming apart if the rubber was gone. I don't believe it is bolted to the front craddle crossmember. However, you can check the bolts to the crossmember: there are 3 bolts, you will feel 3 holes under the crossmember and you can check if they are tight. In 95 or 96 they added a shock absorber to this mount. I changed mine with one from a junk yard and the shift is even smoother.

Right.. that black piece you are calling a bolt is basically a pin with two ends on it. Over abuse the piece at the top of the pin slides up as the rubber mount keeps giving. At some point the rubber will tear and that pin will seem more and more loose.

Would you say that you are excessively hard on your car from stops? That is typically where this type of damage is typically done. It may also be the low cost mount that was used. Although I shredded a Napa one in record time because I had to remove the strut on it to fit the headers.

Not really. When they fixed the mount I pushed it to WOT 2 - 3 times to make sure it was shifting smoother (And it was). I normally don't get far up into the boost (Past 5 PSI). The piece of rubber on the black pin does flop around ( Because the pin isn't really pushing down on it).

Maybe it is just a placebo effect. I'll crawl under the car tomorrow and check the 3 bolts to make sure they are tight to the crossmember. I remember seeing two of them and they seemed tight.

Thanks for the input.

While under..look at the big block of rubber again. Does it appear to be pulling away on the top or bottom.?

Thanks for the help.... I crawled under the car and looked and there are 3 holes in the crossmember for the bolts, but only 2 of them have bolts in them. The one that is empty is the one closest to the center of the car. It doesn't look the mount extends out to that hole, so I don't think it would matter if there was a bolt in there or not. The other two bolts were on there very tight (I couldn't tighten them anymore at all).

I'm guessing you are talking about the piece of rubber held down by the pin. I checked both sides of it. The top didn't seem to be scarred and the bottom didn't either. The pin was loose enough though that I think I could have pushed the rubber so it was flipped around the other direction if I wished.


Is there something else with this mount that I can check? What else could cause the rougher shifting?