Rubbing/grinding noise found! How do I fix it?
 

I finally found the rubbing/grinding noise that's bugged me since I bought this car:

http://www.muller.net/sonny/tmp/rub1.jpg

As you can (or maybe can't) see, the right side of the shifter "box" has been rubbing against the body. The whole shifter assembly itself looks cocked to the right. This is consistent with me experiencing the rub only on right turns.

It looks like the powerplant frame and motor mounts basically "determine" the location of shifter. I've already replaced the powerplant frame, so I know it's good.

Is it safe to assume that I have a bad engine mount? I've looked at them up close and I really can't see much.

http://www.muller.net/sonny/tmp/rub2.jpg
http://www.muller.net/sonny/tmp/rub3.jpg

Sorry for the bads pics...really hard to control the camera under the car. They look ok, but they almost look as if they need to come out in order to be inspected.

Thanks,
Sonny

that is quite odd. has the car ever been hit?

on another note, cover all that extra space with some heat shielding material when you put it all back together. helps keep the heat out of the cabin. some dynamat will also help to quiet the noise instrusions.

As far as I know, the car has never been hit. I've only had it for about a month. Carfax was clean and a buddy of mine that works at a body shop looked it over and said that he couldn't find any evidence of prior accident damage.

I'll take the mounts out and check them. I hope I find something wrong because I'm not sure what else it could be. :scratch:

Sonny

do you have a torque brace on the car?

Nope, no torque brace.

Sonny

When I replaced my oil pan gasket, I started getting a rub in right turns afterwards. I was thinking it was something to do with exhaust, but this gives me an idea of something else to check.

You might try lossening up the subframe and motor mount bolts and pushing the whole thing over to the driver's side. There's a good bit of slop in there. Your mounts may be fine, it could just be the way they were most recently assembled. Doing this could change your alignment settings though.

The car has a Mazda reman in it that was installed about 10k miles ago. I have a hard time believing that someone would install an engine with bad mounts!

Good idea though, Alex. I'll check the mounts. If they're ok, I'll try realigning everything. With a bad mount, I expected to see the tranny sagging down in one direction. It's not sagging...it's just not centered.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. If you have any more ideas, lemme have 'em! :beerchug:

Sonny

It's not the motor mounts that determine the location of your shifter...it's the way your transmission is mounted. I just got done putting together my car and it looks like yours is torqued over to the right for some reason. The tranny's naturally want to turn over in that direction under load but mine definitely wasn't that far over when I took everything apart. When you lifted the car to look at the PPF did everything look fine under the tranny?

Ok, here's a better pic:
http://www.muller.net/sonny/tmp/rub4.jpg

Assuming that the mounts are ok, what do I need to loosen on the front subframe so that I can move things around a little bit?

I'll unhook the powerplant frame from the tranny.

The shop manual seems vague on this point (front subframe).

Thanks,
Sonny

you cannot tell shit from looking at them. get youself a big ass bar and give them a pry to see if they seperate

Just to add to the confusion... Motor mounts will typically not "sag" as you are expecting when they go bad. Most often, the rubber part separates from the metal tang that is bolted to the engine block. With the engine resting on the mounts, you will not see this separation. However, if you have someone grab the UIM from above and rock the engine hard, you should see if the rubber lifts accordingly, or if the tang and the rubber act independently, indicating separation.

That's funny...I just changed my motor mounts and the passenger side one was obviously shorter than the driver side. Meaning it looked like the rubber had collapsed. I tryed to seperate it from the metal, but it wouldn't come off...but it did move side to side as I put pressure from top. The driver side did not. I think it was the extreme heat from the turbos that messed it up.

OK this is the problem. The engine mounts and the PPF nuts/bolts need to be loosened. There is a page in the shop manual that gives measurements as to how your drivetrain should be lined up. Whoever replaced your engine did not line everything back up right and that is what is casuing your shifter to rub.

i've got solid motor mounts and my shifter has always set over like that. has ever since i bought the car when it had the original mounts. it's had a motor swap and the tranny has been changed 3 times. i don't think it's anything wrong

There are 6 bolts that hold the subframe on, three on each side. They bolt the subframe to the frame rails of the body. You should also loosen the two bolts that bolt the motor mounts to the subframe (one bolt per mount). Lossening these is what started my car's rubbing problem, so hopefully it can fix yours. Don't loosen the three bolts per mount that bolt the mount to the engine, through the oil pan.

If I remove one of the 3 bolts that holds the motor mount through the pan, will oil come out? I'm trying to figure out if I need to drain the oil to remove the mounts. I just changed the oil, but oh well...dino oil is cheap. :p:

Thanks,
Sonny

could this be a bad auto to man swap maybe??

I don't think it's a bad swap. It's an R1 and those didn't come in automatics.

Sonny

Thats weird, my car has the EXACT same problem. However, my motor is original. It seems like Rated R-1 is right. I bet mine wasnt lined up properly when the previous owner changed my clutch.

Mine isnt quite that bad though, if I make hard rright turns while accelerating my tranny rubs then,

I had the same problem...except hard left turns. Just recently changed my motor mounts with urethanes and it's perfect.

Where did you get your urethanes???

The mounts are good.

http://www.muller.net/sonny/rx7/mounts/mounts2.jpg
http://www.muller.net/sonny/rx7/mounts/mounts3.jpg
http://www.muller.net/sonny/rx7/mounts/mounts4.jpg

Looks like what I need to do is:

1) Loosen the PPF from the tranny
2) Loosen the motor mounts
3) (Possibly) loosen the front subframe
4) Line everything up and then tighten it all down.

I suspect that when this reman was installed awhile back, nothing was aligned. :scratch:

Sonny

Sonny: Nice work on the troubleshooting. Hope you get it all sorted out and let us know of your progress. :)

Sonny- make sure the motor mount holes oin the subframe are not elongated. If so the engine will cock slightly to the right.
John