TDI engine vibration - uppper engine mounts

forty20d · Apr 7, 2015

I have been having engine vibrations on the TDI. I am certain it is not the flywheel or injection pump issue. I noticed that the i can rock the engine about an 1/8" to 1/4" by putting my hand on top of the valve cover and push/pulling in the horizontal direction of travel. So I took it to a reputable vw guy. He replaced the lower engine mount. I still can rock the engine and have vibrations. Could some one check to see if their MK4 TDi to see if they get the same play I have observed on my engine?

vtpsd · Apr 7, 2015

That sounds like normal movement to me. Do you have your exhaust touching the body or cross-members anywhere? I have found that the TDI will make a pretty bad racket if the exhaust contacts anything metal.

maxmoo · Apr 7, 2015

forty20d said:
I have been having engine vibrations on the TDI. I am certain it is not the flywheel or injection pump issue. I noticed that the i can rock the engine about an 1/8" to 1/4" by putting my hand on top of the valve cover and push/pulling in the horizontal direction of travel. So I took it to a reputable vw guy. He replaced the lower engine mount. I still can rock the engine and have vibrations. Could some one check to see if their MK4 TDi to see if they get the same play I have observed on my engine?

why are you certain?

Dimitri16V · Apr 7, 2015

Factory mounts are good for 200K miles . Don't replace with aftermarket ones , they are crappy and wear out fast

BootsNTrucks · Apr 8, 2015

Another quick test is park the car on a somewhat level surface and look if the engine is tilted towards the driver side (or tilted to the passenger side) they need to be replaced.

wonneber · Apr 8, 2015

I the 200K miles a rough number or factory recommended?
I was not aware there was a reason to change them unless they broke.
Rich W.

Dimitri16V said:
Factory mounts are good for 200K miles . Don't replace with aftermarket ones , they are crappy and wear out fast

RIP TDI · Apr 8, 2015

BootsNTrucks said:
Another quick test is park the car on a somewhat level surface and look if the engine is tilted towards the driver side (or tilted to the passenger side) they need to be replaced.

Or they don't...

forty20d · Apr 8, 2015

Will try to address several responses in one post.

1. I do not think it is the flywheel because the engine does not have the characteristic rattle that all the video of the dmf issue have. I also took the car to a vw tdi mechanic and he expressed the same comments.

2. I will have to examine the exhaust.

3. I am asking about engine movement because the movement i have observed indicates bad engine mounts in every type of vehicle I have ever owned or worked on. The symptoms are the engine twists when reviving in neutrel and i can manually move the engine. However, I have observed that VW engineers do things differently in many aspects on these cars and the movement I am seeing is normal. Therefore, i was hoping to get some one to measure finite numbers that I could compare to my observations on my car. Then I could definitely conclude that the engine mounts are good and move on the next possible cause of the vibrations.

4. The car has less than 200k. So do not expect the engine mount to be bad from normal wear and tear.

5. Will measure out of level on the side to side. Was not visually out of balance.

Sorry for the long write up. Thanks for your input.

Dimitri16V · Apr 8, 2015

Start with dogbone first . It there to prevent the engine from torquing
Check the other mounts for black residue

Curious Chris · Apr 9, 2015

I just did my mounts. The engine mount was a little soft, the transmission mount was fine, the dog bone was rock hard and that was transmitting vibration the the subframe with transmits to the whole body.

Now why the dog bone was rock hard I don't know. I could move my engine back and forth a little too, but now it is very quiet and no vibration.

272,000 miles

BobnOH · Apr 9, 2015

Yea, well, I can't believe reputable vw guy was under there and didn't look at all the mounts. From your descriptions, sounds like a busted mount

RIP TDI · Apr 9, 2015

According to the original post, dogbone was replaced.

forty20d · Apr 13, 2015

Checked the engine mounts

This weekend checked how level the engine was. The transmission side of engine was lower. The engine side mount did not have black residue. Was not able to tell of the transmission mount.

Does the slope on the engine mean that the transmission mount is bad?

Losha · Apr 13, 2015

You have a bad upper transmission mount, a very common wore out mount after 100k on all TDI's. Due to lot of torque and diesel vibration the transmission mounts upper and lower (dogbone mounts) wear out within 100k miles also has lot to do with type of driving car done, highway driving will reduce stress as compare to city traffic jams where constantly accelerating/braking.

The MK5 on BRM they seem to wear out faster then ALH, also we noticed that if car had bad DMF then 90% the transmission is worn out too, at times there is a cracked top housing from excessive vibrations and too much drive-train movement.

50harleyrider · Apr 14, 2015

Chris Bell said:
According to the original post, dogbone was replaced.

If it was replaced with polyurethane, that's definitely bad for vibration. I had an ECS tuning ultimate dogbone for about 1 minute in my A4. Plum horrible.

maxmoo · Apr 14, 2015

forty20d said:
I have been having engine vibrations on the TDI. I am certain it is not the flywheel or injection pump issue. I noticed that the i can rock the engine about an 1/8" to 1/4" by putting my hand on top of the valve cover and push/pulling in the horizontal direction of travel. So I took it to a reputable vw guy. He replaced the lower engine mount. I still can rock the engine and have vibrations. Could some one check to see if their MK4 TDi to see if they get the same play I have observed on my engine?

maxmoo said:
why are you certain?

What exactly do you mean by "engine vibrations"?
You seem to be be addressing two seperate issues....engine vibration and play are not necessarily the same issue!
1/8" to 1/4" movement of engine is minimal!
I have seen these engines with wore out mounts have 2-3 inches of movement and no vibration.

forty20d · Apr 14, 2015

Transmission mount

Took out the air cleaner box last night to look at the transmission mount. The mount was missing half the rubber between the steel. Will replace it and see what happens.

Is it recommended to replace the engine mount at the same time?

BobnOH · Apr 14, 2015

If the mounts in good shape, you should only need to replace the broken part. Bolts may need replaced, check.

Curious Chris · Apr 15, 2015

I have a transmission mount side extra. I changed all of mine and the transmission mount was fine. But since I was there I replaced. PM me if you want it and make me an offer.

dtrvler · Mar 5, 2019

Had vibration in my brm body.

Already had new cam, flywheel, injectors are very well balanced at .2 (+ or -) or less each. Vibration was present at idle and less at higher rpms. Car is 06 mk5 dsg.
Found this thread and was guided to the engine mounts. Both upper mounts were bad. Engine side was worse. Replaced both with oem. Vibration in body gone. Thank you guys.

TDI engine vibration - uppper engine mounts

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