Motor/Tranmission mounts + axle seals

[hass]

Alright. I redid the entire lower and upper parts of my motor a few weeks ago.
Resurfaced, new gaskets.. etc...
New rotors, pads, calipers after that.

Now I figured I'd fix some other stuff.

So I'm like HEY, Aamco has free transmission checkups, and I think I may have a bad motor mount.
Which would lead to a long delay in when I shift from Park to Drive or whatever I'm going in.

So they do their checkup and what not...
Then they tell me, I have...

A broken;
Front Motor Mount.
Rear transmission Mount.

and a Leaking drive axle seal and I'm leaking transmission fluid. [I have never seen any fluid on the ground in the last 3 months since I did the rebuild, and I've been watching it like a hawk]
The drive axle seal seems to be an easy enough fix... If it really is indeed leaking it.
The guy said that would be the reason for the long shift delay.
Hayne's does a pretty good job describing that I guess.

Now my issue is, where in the hell are these motor mounts?
I look in my handy haynes manual, and it has like one paragraph and two pictures about it. and I can't really even tell what I'm looking at in the pictures...
Just says between the oil pan and the chassis.

I asked the guy at aamco to show me the broken mounts, but he told me that he can't allow people in to the shop while cars are on the lift. [they only have 2 lifts, and mine was the only one in there]
When the lady that got her car looked at before me was able to go in there and see her car when they told her she needed new brakes... o.O

I haven't been able to find anything about stock motor mount installations and such... Other than a little bit here and there.
I was surprised there's no how-tos on it.

Part of the reason I'm confused, is what exactly is the front of the motor?
Is it the side towards the coolant tank? Or the side with the throttle body?

What causes them to break?

I figured I had one broken... Since the motor does do quite a bit of movement... Well, a lot in fact. I don't know what's normal for our engines since I've never seen one under load before really.
and the shifting is getting pretty hard, so eh... :\

Oh, they want 573 to fix everything.


Oh, and I replaced my serpintine belt last summer after the one I had broke [the dealership I bought it from said they had put a brand new one on there as part of their deal with me purchasing the car from them...] even though I had only had the car for less than 4 months.
But whatever, it was a cheap fix... so Idc.
Just was a pain in the ass walking 4 miles to an auto shop in 95 degree weather in jeans across a partly country road when I was already hungry and thirsty. ;\

So, the belt I have on now is just a plain belt from Carquest I think it was. Has about 8-9k on it, should I be looking at replacing this anytime soon?
The belt looks fine... But when I was doing the motor rebuild, I know a lot of coolant and gasket material and crap got in it and stuff... So I don't want to end up breaking another belt and having to do the same thing. lol.
[Plus losing my power steering and hearing the car go beeeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep in the middle of passing somebody really scared me ****less]

Is going with a gatorback really worth it?

Anyway.
Sorry.
/ramble off.
thanks.
;d

[ryanbgb22]

well, I didnt read through that post, however, Im pretty sure NOBODY has ever had as bad luck with a GA as you have had.

[hass]

lol, I thought my GA treats me pretty well compared to other people ;S

But hey...
After all this motor work, transmission work [going to have them do a filter change, i don't feel like tinkering around and fudging that one up], had the brakes done, new tires...
I don't really see much else that can blow up in my face.
So I should be set for 30-40k miles at least before I need new rotors again.
I hope :P


Until I replace these mounts and such...
Then pull out of my driveway for the test drive and some douchebag speeding down my street runs me over :P


edit:
where the hell are these motor mounts?
I don't really want to pay to have someone fix it.
But I think I'm going to have to.

[PhantomLover007]

^^ Wrong. The LIM can go.... lol ;crap

[cardude007617]

^^ Wrong. The LIM can go.... lol ;crap

wait, thats NOT why he re-did the upper and lower parts of his engine?

[PhantomLover007]

IDK. I was just messing w/ him.

[surreal_awakeni]

You have a motor mount on the passenger side of the car, next to the power steering pump. You'll notice a metal bracket there that kind of "steps down" if you will, with a total of 4 bolts through it. The two outer-most bolts, closest to the fender, bolt that bracket to the mount. The mount fits between that bracket and the fender. It's probably about 4 to 6 inches long, and rubber. You should see it with no problem. As for the tranny mounts, there are 3. I know one is on the back side of the engine, down low, on the drivers side. Not sure about the other two.

What do you know about doing the axle seals? I need to do that myself, but I didn't see any info about it on alldata.

[hass]

Thanks =]

Yeah, I saw the motor mount... But it looked 100% perfect. So I figured there was another one.

I found the trans mounts, I looked up pictures and printed them then compared, they all looked perfect.

So I'm like what in the F. I must be a freaking moron.

So I get my dad, we go over to a friend of his from high school.
He owns his own repair shop.

We put it up on the lift, rev the engine on the lift... and none are broken.

So a girl that works at his repair shop also owns a GA GT.
They get the keys, bring hers in to the garage and rev that... It moves the same amount. Maybe a little bit more... But hardly.
Given, it is a '05 GA w/ the 3400.
So, newer motor mounts and such and I don't know what was actually redone on the newer version of GAs by GM.

So whatever.
I'm going back to Aamco and throwing a fit there.
I want to see what's broken.
I want them to show me.
Not, Ohhh yeah, if you know what a mount looks like it would be easy to find.

the axle seal is leaking, however.
But the motor mounts are not broken.

Oh, and I redid the upper part of my engine to fix a leaking LIM.
I drove it for about 3 days, and the same problems [overheating] were happening.
So I tore down the lower part to get heads resurfaced and what not, and the head gasket was leaking, etc... No compression on 2 cyls... So, blah.
Brings back bad memories
:P

edit;
I don't know anything more about replacing an axle seal than what the haynes manual says.
hehe ;D

[hass]

Updateeeee.

I went back to Aamco.
I was pretty pissed.
He told me yeah, they're broken and need to be replaced.

I told him what I did.

He looked up my info.. blah blah.
Then he's like yeah, they're bad... they don't have to be broken to be bad.
Theyre worn out, you need new ones.
Your engine moves, it's not supposed to move at all.


Im like well uhhh, we compared it to a newer grand am and mine shakes less than that one.
Plus they're rubber mounts on there, so isn't it supposed to shake some to reduce vibrations in the car?

Then he told me all they did to test the mount, then at the very end he told me that I told him that I wanted them replaced, so he said he would do it for me.

I was like what in the fawk.

He kept changing his story the more that I said I did to figure out what was wrong.

So I walked out, rly pissed.
ugh.

I take my car off the road for 4 days and use someone elses because of them.
not to mention feel like a moron for a couple days because I can't find broken motor mounts that don't exist.
and then make this thread whining about how stupid I am.
lol.


Moral, they tried to cheat me.
My motor/transmission mounts are fine.
Axle seal does need to get replaced however.
But it's hardly leaking at all.
Just a little damp on the side.
No dripping or anything like he said.

/thread.

[timka86]

^^^ that is why I do all my own work. at least what I can. Granted not every shop is like that. but you will get one once in a while.

[gectek]

if u check ur trans fluid and it is at a good level, then the leaking seal has nothing to do with it taking a while to engage in gear, my experience was with 2 shredded mounts, the front and rear trans mounts, they are both bolted to the trans, the from one right by the rad, which you can check with a flashlight or by braille make sure to look at it good, because i thought mine were ok, but when i took the trans out, they were shredded to pieces. the rear one is a little more tricky, but you can see it easy enough, check it the same way, i didnt think my engine shifted that much either, but it would throw my trans engaging by a second or 2, and it would get worse and worse with time...