I have a 2004 4-cylinder Camry. Saturday I changed the passenger side motor mount which was broken and the front motor mount, which did not appear to be broken, but there was more play in it than in the replacement. I had to take the battery out and the air intake in order to have enough room to remove the front mount. To remove the front mount, I jacked up the engine with a 2 X 4 underneath the oil pan so as not to damage it. The passenger side wheel rose several inches off the ground. After everything was back together, the car ran rough at first but eventually got better. The only symptom that remains is a noise and slight vibration when the car is in drive. In neutral and all other gears there’s no noise or vibration. They noise seems to be slightly less when the car starts to roll, and after a few seconds in motion, I can’t hear it. Any idea as to what’s causing the noise? If there a third motor mount that I may need to replace?
How many miles and how much was done on the injectors and the ignition?
76,500 miles. No work has been done on the injectors or the ignition. The slight vibration with the car in drive started after the motor mounts were replaced. No problem prior to that. Plugs and air filter were replaced a week ago (I replace every year).
Are you saying you jacked one wheel off the ground by jacking up under the oil pan?
Run through the ignition and fuel systems first. Vibration is a multipoint issue it can be from many places not just the last thing you did. I am surprised that the mounts needed replacement and why you would do so if the car was not vibrating before. So why did you do the engine mounts if not for vibration? How did you notice you had a broken mount?
Are you saying you jacked one wheel off the ground by jacking up under the oil pan?
Answer is yes. The passenger side motor mount rubber was obviously cracked. It fell apart when I removed it. I noticed it last week while doing a tune-up. I had also noticed a slight intermittent steering wheel vibration at 70 mph. New brake discs lessened the vibration, but it did not completely go away. I had done the same job on a '94 Camry. When I went to Toyota to buy that passenger side motor mount, I was told that the front mount would also be toast. They were correct in that case. Once I had the lower motor mount out, I replaced it since I had a new one on hand.
"The only symptom that remains is a noise and slight vibration when the car is in drive. In neutral and all other gears there’s no noise or vibration. "
Confusing statement, Please Clarify.
There’s a noise that I would characterize as a very low hum when the car is in drive but not moving. Also a very slight vibration in the stering wheel. Once the car starts to roll, the vibration goes away and the hum lessens. At driving speeds, I can’t hear the hum. It only happens in drive, not in neutral, reverse, L1 or L2.
You probably need to replace the transmission mount also. When one mount goes bad, it puts more strain on the others. I would check the tranny mount.
How many motor and/or transmission mounts are thee on a 4-cylinder 2004 Camry? NAPA told me there were only the two, which I replaced. Is there one to the rear of the engine?
There are three support mounts; one at the front of the engine near the pulleys, one at the rear of the transmission near the left front wheel and one at the transmission bell housing near the radiator.
There are two torque control mounts, one near the right strut tower and one behind the engine near the power steering pump. You should have unbolted the torque control mounts before trying to remove the support mounts, I am guessing that is why the car lifted off the ground when you jacked the engine up. Inspect the torque mounts, the rubber insulators may be torn.
I’ll check again in the morning. The top torque control mount was off when I did this (original was broken and needed to be replaced). I didn’t see the one by the ps pump. The bottom of the engine shifts forward when the car is put in drive and the noise is present. I doesn’t always make the noise. Ha
Ok, I see a small cylindrical object bolted to the engine directly below the ps pump. Is that the other torque control mount? I’d have to access it through the wheel well to remove,
There’s another reason you should consider replacing the tranny mount: if you jacked the front wheels off the ground by using 2x4s under the oil pan, you put an amount of tensile load on the tranny mount that it’s not designed to take.
By the way, you may want to try to get the car up on a liift and look for damage to the oilpan and/or other parts under the car. When you lift the car by the engine like that, you need to be sure you’re not putting too much tensile load on things like the fuel line, the vacuum line to the booster, the exhaust system, etc. And if that oil pan is at all compromised, you’ll need to address that. If you push the pan up into the oil line pickup screen you could be in for serious oil starvation.
bzb882; I just had another look at the diagram, the torque mount under the engine near the P/S pump is only used on manual transmission models.
Thanks, Nevada, I found that out this morning. I stopped by my Toyota dealer to buy the second torque control mount and was told there was only the one (which I had replaced). I checked under the car thoroughly this past weekend, I don’t see any damage to anything, including the oil pan. The Toyota parts salesman told me that if the bottom of the engine kicks forward when the car is put in gear, its almost always the passenger side motor mount (which I haven’t replaced). He said its fluid-filled and they tend to fail. I’ll be checking it this weekend if weather permits. I didn’t see any fluid leaking when I replaced the torgue control mount and the front motor mount, so that’s got me puzzled. I’m guessing that maybe it was already bad and that replacing the torque control mount and the front motor mount put all the force on the passenger side mount?
Any CEL light on?
No check engine light,
Ok, now I’m completely stumped. Yesterday I replaced the R side engine mount. The problem (noise and vibration while stopped with the transmission in drive and the a/c running) seemed to disappear, although I did have vibration in the steering wheel around 70 mph. Then it returned. Today, I changed the transmission mount. So now, I’ve changed all three mounts and the torque control mount (the only thing that I think was actually broken). The higher I set the a/c to blow, the louder the noise and the more vibration I feel. Any ideas as to what could be going on here would be greatly appreciated!
Maybe the engine? A bad spark or injector?