Hey I just wanted to confirm a couple things.

I just got done replacing the front diff mount, and the tranny mount/cross member. It shifts a lot better now, but I still have some clunking in the rear, and the a little transmission jiggle. I can also hear the transmission a lot more now. I switched over to more competitive mounts from mazdatrix, I was curious if that could be a reason why the tranny is louder.

Replacing the parts did help some with a vibration i was having, but it still remains(it starts kicking in at 50 mph now). Next I'm going to look at engine mounts. I looked my u joints, and they didn't seem bad, of course my experience with them is limited.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to take it to a friends place with a lift, and see if we can find anything else that could be causing the problems.


Any input guys?

 

clunking in the rear = busted rear diff mount, oooorrr u-joints need to be replaced

well, most of the time, anyway

 

the stiffer mounts will not absorb as much vibration, thus transferring it into the chassis, making the vibrations seem louder.

clunking in the rear - gonna agree with j0rd4n, check the rear diff mount or u-joints.

you can't really check u-joints just by looking at them. what happens is that they start to bind up with wear and tear. when mine went bad, it made a machine gun sound - as loud and as rapid as one, lol. when i took it out and played with the u-joints, it did not move smoothly, but "clicked" into different positions.

 

I'm hoping it's not the front diff mount, i just spent all night replacing it lol.
When I took the old diff mount off it didn't look all that trashed, just old and twisted a little bit.

I should clarify the vibration a little bit, along with it it sounds like a big truck with swampers going down the highway, you know how it produces a hum noise?

Also with the tranny cross member, for some odd reason I could only get 3 of the 4 bolts back in, the 4th bolt hole would not line up, which is why I'm going to take it to a friends place with a lift, see if we can get a better look as to why they aren't lining up.

And I don't really hear/feel a whole lot more vibration with the new mounts, just with the tranny I can hear it whine a lot more. Just not sure what that is a bout.

 

you know the diff has 3 mounts total, right? 1 front and 2 rear? we're saying it might be one of the rears (or both) that's the issue.

as for the tranny whine, do you hear it always or just in neutral? if it's just in neutral, could be your clutch release bearing. i'm starting to hear a whine when i don't have my car in gear

 

Yes, I know there are 3 mounts for the diff, the rears looked fine.

As for the tranny noise, sometimes it's in neutral, which i figured could be throwout bearing. But the noise I hear now is when I'm accelerating, it sounds like there is a super charger under my car. As the rpms increase the whine gets louder.

It was 5 am when I took it for a test drive, and I was extremely tired. I'll take another one here soon to see if I didn't miss anything as far as noises.