I just bought a 1998 SL2 last week and it seems awful loud inside. I did a full tune up and oil change on it this weekend, and it seems to be running a lot smoother now, but it still seems really loud and I am feeling some vibration inside the car. I inspected the exhaust and hangers andeverything looks really good. Most of it looks to be less than a year old. My husband and I both got under the car while it was running and couldn't seem to hear any big leaks.





We also checked the motor mounts as I've heard they can wear out after a while (the car has 120K on it). We watched the motor while giving it gas under load (trans. in drive and foot on brake), the motor doesn't seem to move much. To me, this indicates that the motor mounts are o.k., but the vibration I am feeling and sounds I am hearing seem pretty indicative of bad mounts. I hate to just start blindly throwing parts at it, so is there another way to tell if they are bad or where the sound is coming from?





Any suggestions would be much appreciated,


Bridgett

 

A better way to visibly check your motor mounts would be to have some one watch the engine while you start the car. Or you could manually rev the car with the throttle body and check it from there. I would think that if the car is in Drive, it would rev slower and thus have less movement; Neutral or Park sounds better to me.

 

I use the "two finger rule" on my upper motor mount. If I can get two fingers thickness,vertically, inside it, it's time to change it.


(don't even go there!)Edited by: MINICooperS