Motor just hangs between the 2 frame rail,, then we have 2 "roll stop" mounts to keep engine from spinning on the 2 frame mounts, but engine is still allowed to rock... wanna see it ??

With car in park, open hood,, get you and a friend to push the chassis forward and backward,, see the engine rock.. that normal,, the roll stops is keeping the engine from spinning circles on the frame hanger mounts.. of course there may be a degree of bump when hammer dropped or slowing down, the trans downshift and effectively brakes the works, and that load put inot the driveline/engine, hence the engine roll..

 

Yes, it's the roller mounts the dealership fingered as worn. I've driven other transverse-engine fwd automatics and they do not exhibit this kind of slop, nor did the car when it was new.

My question is whether the vibration is because of the worn roll mount, or if the worn roll mount is because of the vibration.

 

I find the automatics seem to run the engine at a lower RPM than I would like when accelerating, that they don't downshift as early as I would like and as a result there is quite a bit of vibration and harshness until the engine speed gets up above 2000RPM or so where it smooths out.

My guess would be it is a side effect of that. On my 5 speed I try to keep it out of this region but there is enough torque down at 1300-1500RPM that I often find myself driving in that range. I keep a close eye on the motor mounts for this reason. 52,100km here and mine are still okay.

 

Well, just to re-focus this conversation: this car has never been buttery smooth, but I'm not talking about that here. Recently the vibration has been much worse, and the dealership has identified worn roll mounts as the culprit. My question is whether you think they have found the disease or the symptoms.