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When I first started the upgrade craze about a year and a half ago, I didn't notice much extra vibration at all. That is, once I got rid of the combo of the red urethane bushings in BOTH end of the torque arm. That setup produced an amount of vibration inside that cabin that I would have not thought possible for a car that was simply sitting still in the garage.
I then switched to red poly in front combined with a stock rear, which was hugely better, but still retained a bit of the improvement. Later on, the shop traded me some black poly bushings for the red in my car (they had many littered around the shop), which reduced vibration further. Since then however, I've gone to the Abbott transmission mount, which I initially thought improved shifting quite a bit, though now I am not so sure. I also have solid rubber lower engine mounts - shops recommendation and SOP due to the very short lifespan and expense of the hydraulic type.
Anyhoo! Just a couple weeks ago my cousin got in my car for the first time and immediately remarked that it was rumbly or something to that effect, which it is. Granted, it will probably never be a Honda or Toyota (or their respective luxury lines) where you have to look at the tachometer to know if the engine is even running. But, I am getting to the point where I'd like it to be a LOT smoother than it is.
It's absolutely not noticeable on the highway, but then again, I'm not sure if the supposed improvement is noticeable, either. Even with my 'better' mounts, I still get quite a bit of drivetrain backlash if I don't feather the accelerator just so on acceleration or deceleration. Also, I still get a fair amount of shifter movement.
Problem is, if I go back to hydraulic mounts, I know those things will probably be chewed up every couple years at the very longest, with the extra torque my car puts out. Heck, even the rubber ones may only last four years or so. I will probably leave the torque arm alone, because in it's current configuration, at least I can change it myself in very short order.
I can't say that I have a definite point to make here. :) Perhaps that, at least on my car, there doesn't really seem to be any combination that is best, there are just different compomises to be made one way or the other.
Aaron Gilbert
1987 9000T 280k miles
posted by 207.202.177...
, Wed, 28 Aug 2002 23:25:42, Thu, 29 Aug 2002 10:12:30
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