Hi.

I bought this car in Aug '11 and took it into my local garage to have it checked out. He said it needed a new engine mounting but he couldnt get one in for a week but that fell when i was away. At the time i didn't notice any problem at all.

5 months later i have still not been in to get it done (my fault, silly me!). Over the recent months the following problem has been getting slowly worse...........at first in 5th gear when it was struggling a bit there would be a slight judder. Then it ended up being more often and in 4th gear too.

Now, generally at around 2000rpm, the car will judder quite a fair bit in 4th and 5th. Also in 3rd at about 3000rpm. The gear knob will noticably shake too, all the passengers can notice it and i can feel it through the acc pedal and the door as my leg rests on it.

I hope i havent planted the seed in your heads re: the engine mounting. Does this problem seem to fit that which i should have got fixed months ago or is it more likely that it is something else?

Check Flywheel. Common problem on these if it hasn't been replaced in 70-80k it may be on its way out.

Thanks, its going into the garage tomorrow to be looked at. Its done 90,000 miles

I am hoping its just the engine mounting i never got on with

Hi again,

Got the car back today and he said that the mount that was on its way out was now perished. It was the (if i remember right) rear gearbox mount (??). Apparently its safe to drive until the part comes in on Friday.

Hi again,

Got the car back today and he said that the mount that was on its way out was now perished. It was the (if i remember right) rear gearbox mount (??). Apparently its safe to drive until the part comes in on Friday.

The rear mount is just a stabiliser really, the mounts dont tend to fail catastrophically, the bushes just wear causing lots of play.

The rear mount is just a stabiliser really, the mounts dont tend to fail catastrophically, the bushes just wear causing lots of play.

Thanks for your reply. As i said, the mechanic says its ok to drive, but i was planning on driving up to Glen Coe from Stranraer tomorrow (350 miles or so return). Is it possible that i could cause damage to any other parts by driving with this issue?

You could put excessive wear on the CV joints and drive shafts but unlikely as they're all machined parts.

You can replace the mount yourself if confident though it's 2 bolts.