Extra vibration. Gearstick seems to have moved.

[GunMentalGrey]

My 2009 STX manual has been making some clunky noises in the front end. I haven’t had time to get it to a mechanic yet but have had a look and it appears a ball joint might be gone.

Then, this afternoon, as I took off in a bit of a rush to pick a traffic gap the engine seemed to get quite a bad vibration. Additionally neutral seem to have moved forward, the gearstick doesn’t seem to move forward as much onto 1st, 3rd, 5th.

Doesn’t seem down on power and the drivetrain seems OK in a quick coast with clutch in.

I’ve had to rush out to kids sport. Anyone suggest where I should be looking when I get home? Could it be an engine or transmission mount? I’ve been teaching my son to drive so it’s been given a bit of a hard time in the last few weeks with fairly frequent stalls and rough gear changes which probably hasn’t helped.

Thanks in advance. At this point looks like I’ll be cracking our the pushbike for work tomorrow!

 

[GunMentalGrey]

Had some time to crawl around under. Nothing looked out of place. Decided to pop it up on ramps and have a look while it was running and it sounded fine when I started it. Drive it around the block and ... normal.

Sounded shocking this arvo, now its not. Oh well, drive to work tomorrow and see what happens. I hate intermittent problems.

 

[Phunk]

You've already nailed what I think it could be, rear transmission mount / bushing, definitely has all the tell-tale signs of a mount letting go.

Don't forget, they won't always look completely broken

Wear and tear, they don't last forever.

 

[GunMentalGrey]

Thanks. Will keep an eye on it.

I did wonder wether perhaps front diff binding or similar but it was steering fine. Also, I reversed into the drive when I got home and costed the last bit. Maybe that released the tension.

 

[GunMentalGrey]

Follow up: drove a few times today. No sign of extra vibration, gears shifting OK. However, there is a distinct clunk between power on and power off. Have booked in with a mechanic tomorrow assuming a ball joint is toast and will get him to see if anything else is weird.

 

[Old.Tony]

I'd also check the unis, particularly on the rear drive shaft (but don't forget the front). My first guess would have been gearbox/engine mounts particularly because of the restriction in lever travel. I'd pay very careful attention to this, because if the engine moves forward, so will your radiator fan and it's already really close to the radiator - you don't want the fan to start chewing out the back of the radiator, that could end up being costly!

 

[GunMentalGrey]

Mechanic replaced two lower ball joints, and some sway bar connectors or something. Front suspension had no clunks this morning and has also stop squeaking.

Engine mount runners were apparently quite soft, but intact. Evidence of them being at their limits with rubbing on metal at some point.

So far so good. (Except bank balance suffered a bit. Should get plenty more kms out of it though.

 

[Phunk]

Good stuff, it's not an easy job, but also not that hard to DIY if you want to give it a shot next time.

I did the front suspension arms and bushes on an Audi not long ago.. trust me, if I could get through that you should be able to do the Navara with a pebble and a pair of bunnings clearance bin pliers.

 

[GunMentalGrey]

I’m not averse to having a crack at stuff like that, but this time was short of time and didn’t want to find out the hard way there was something major wrong while driving along. Earliest I’d be able to spend a day mucking around with it would have been a couple of weeks from now.

If you can plan for when to do maintenance makes it easier rather than reacting.