This video was recorded and given to me from the car shop: Hyundai Accent 2009 engine mount issue - YouTube. I just put it on Youtube for my own reference. The shop recommended replacing the engine and transmission mounts.
Wanted to get input from the community here. How bad is the situation for the car? This is a must fix or just better to fix to avoid other problems coming up due to this?
And how could something like this happen? Did the original mounts just go bad or got damaged? The only thing that I can think of that could relate to this would be that the car got stolen and recovered with some damage a few years back (in 2017 I think) with a small dent on the engine hood, the car still worked fine, and other shops I took it to for maintenance didn’t report any engine issues. The insurance claim adjuster didn’t note any issues with engine either. For the damages back then, they were with the tires and wheels.
I recommend you get this done now rather than waiting. A few years ago my wife had a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica CUV. I noticed one day that the engine mounts were bad. I figured “engine’s not going to fall out, no rush to replace the mounts” which were very expensive on this model. The bad mounts allowed the engine to rock excessively every time my wife stepped on the gas. The rocking caused the radiator to crack for $500 and the A/C condenser to crack for another $500 . So i spent $1,000 that i didn’t need to because i was too cheap and too lazy to change a couple engine mounts.
Yes, the engine mount is bad, given the age of your vehicle I would replace the tranny mount too.
And Yes, the mounts do just go bad with age.
Yes, this needs to be taken care of now
I’d expect the engine/transmission mounts to still be ok on a gently driven 2009. I own two vehicles, 30 year old Corolla & 50 years old Ford truck, and original mounts still installed & good. So either your Accent wasn’t driven gently, or just bad luck, maybe faulty original mounts. Rapid accelerations are what stresses the engine/transmission mounts the most.
Thanks for the feedback. Two questions for follow up:
how should we test/check for this problem on old cars? I’m wondering if mechanics pay much attention to this in general. So that I can check other cars in my family for this issue in case we have it on more than just this car.
how often does this happen across all/many old cars? I’m assuming old is like 10+ years. Or is it as @George_San_Jose1 said, I’m just unlucky here, and it is generally more on the rare side?
I own two vehicles, 30 year old Corolla & 50 years old Ford truck, and original mounts still installed & good
I’m curious to wonder if that’s the norm, or if way old cars like those had better mounts (design/installation) than modern cars. Sometimes advancements don’t mean longer lasting.
I rev the engine in the driveway, in neutral, from 600 rpm to maybe 2000 rpm, quickly pressing on the throttle linkage as I watch the engine. Been doing this maybe once every 6 months since I’ve owned the vehicles. The engine moves, sort of rotates, when its rpms increase rapidly. I just watch how much it moves. When it moves too much, time to replace the affected mounts. If you don’t know how much movement is normal, do the experiment using a newer Accent.
Mechanics probably put the car on a lift & pry on the areas around the mounts to assess the amount of play in the mounts, probably their normal method. Mine is the lazy man’s method. I inspect all the mounts for any obvious problems as part of an oil change of course.
Yes, that method requires a helper, but shows the basic idea. The engine movement on my vehicles is much less than shown in the OP’s vdo. Me, I wouldn’t replace any mounts based only on that method. I’d inspect the mounts first. The mounts could be good, fasteners might be loose for example.
There wasn’t a specific concern. Either the shop has good mechanics that check for these things, or coincidentally they happened to notice it while working on the car. Or, this shop just wants my $ and checks various things in hopes of more work to bill me.
I didn’t have them do the work (yet). Wanted to gauge the severity as well as get quotes around before deciding where to take it for repair.
Regarding the shop, they indicated dirty engine oil and that the engine could be having sludge inside, something to that effect. They initially suggested I could get a camera inspection (for a fee) of the engine or get oil change with them where they also add some cleaner to the oil to help clean the engine, they seem to push for that. When I insisted on the camera inspection for peace of mind, they decided instead to take a look (for free) at the engine access openings (I think from where you change oil) and said engine looks ok, and still suggested I could do the oil change with the cleaner addition. So this gives me mixed feelings about the shop. Maybe they do good work but they seem to also upsell on things. The oil itself when I took a look seems like still ok but yea could be replaced but definitely not so black it needs to be replaced immediately.
So as a novice, I couldn’t tell whether the engine mount issue is an upsell or a real concern.
FYI, as a novice, that video doesn’t tell me how they tested the engine for it to behave like that.
I’d still like to DIY what I can, just not the harder stuff. I have an OBD2 reader, replaced the driver left side mirror myself because it got broken in an accident (to save $ than have shop do it), and replace engine and cabin air filters and windshield wipers myself.
It all depends on the vehicle, some vehicles are more prone to engine/transmission mount failure due to placement, design, material, fluid(s) leaking on them, how many on vehicle etc etc…
Mount wear also has a lot to do how you drive, anytime you accelerate forward or backwards the engine tries to twist, the harder you try to accelerate the more the engine/trans tries to twist, that twisting motion pulls on the rubber stressing it a little at a time… Add age and rubber tends to deteriorate… Also if you put X miles a month on your vehicle mainly on the interstate cruising a steady speed, that is much easier then doing the same mileage driving a month as a Pizza delivery driver…
As one example:
The 1st gen Dodge Caravans used to break the front lower engine (torque) mount as well as the other 2 would sag, this also caused a lot of axle replacements… I did so many axles on the caravans back then that I could have both axles on the floor in 10 minutes, that included racking and raising the vehicle… lol
You could round trip those transmissions in about 40 minutes on a lift… lol…
Then the engineers added a rear mount, and that slowed down the engine/trans mounts wear and tear a lot, and axles lived a lot longer as a result… and the front lower mount had a few revisions also…
They same way that they did it. Put the car in drive and reverse with the brakes on. The engine should rotate not more than half of what you see in the video. When it gets bad like this, when you step on the gas at a green light the car will start to move forward and then like 1/4 or 1/2 a second later it will lurch forward slightly as the engine hits the end of worn engine mount and stops rotating. Some mechanics do and some don’t. Yes you should check other cars for this issue before other expensive things like broken exhaust flex joints happen.
On FWD cars from the 90s usually 20 years / 180k miles. Highway or city make a lot of difference for the miles. Rear wheel drive vehicles are entirely different. The engine mounts do not take the full torque from the drive axles. The engine mounts can last much longer.