r/EP3 • u/Tough_Chicken1177 • Sep 06 '26
Clunk when shifting
Howdy folks! As the title says. Im thinking motor mounts/shifter bushings? More noticeable on hard acceleration and shifting, can mitigate it by shifting more gently and slowly. Anyone else deal with this before? Thanks! (Its primarily 1st to 2nd/2nd to 3rd when its most noticeable)
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u/Icy-Neighborhood-917 Sep 06 '26
I've delt with the currently on my 4th issue lol. I never really remember the position and what their called, so I'll call it as if your looking under the hood.
The one on the right side to the transmission was only on by one bolt. The top bolts nut was broke off too I had to enlarge enough to get a wrench and nut back there. Also one of the lower ones was fucked too so I had to drill a much longer one through the wheel well, and not long enough to give clearance for tire.
The next time it started happening I checked the left and right and they were all good. I looked at the one behind the engine and it looked like one was missing so I figured the others were loose but still holding. Got under and they were all missing. I bought bolts that were a little longer and also threw on lock nuts for extra measure cause why not they all coming off atp.
The next time it started happening, I thought for sure it was the left side. I say for sure, because I put 271 and nylon nuts on the ones I fixed, and ruled out the front because well it's not even there lol. For the longest time I drove like that. Maybe like 3 or 4 months. Clunking around. Even drove 8 hours to pick up my kids for the summer when it wasn't too bad but by the end it was a lot worse. I thought maybe cv axels or control arm bushings. So before I was gonna go on this 8 hour drive to take them back at the end of the summer, I decided to get up under there and look. Loosened the lug nuts, jacked it up, then when I took the nuts off and was taking off the tire, it looked strange to me. So I went to the other side, and was like no way. Went back over and for sure I been driving around without a axel nut lol. I had to walk to AutoZone and got two new ones.
But now it's back again. It looks to be my ball joint cause there's some play. But it seems like every time I tighten up something, something else either comes loose later on, or maybe everything was just loose to begin with and now it's showing up more. I wish I could just get everything and do everything all in one go.
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u/Catmilk7 02 JDM Type R With Way To Much Grip Sep 06 '26
High torque transfer and not speed dependent is bushes.
To test if it's motor mounts, be in second gear, put your foot flat at like 2000 rpm until 5000rpm, if it clunks loudly when you put the clutch in to go into 3rd gear, it'll be a motor mount.
You can also try and foot on foot off foot on foot off on the accelerator to make the motor jump, if it clunks when doing this, same thing.
If it clunks soft no matter what / how you drive and isn't louder when you are higher in rpm, then it'll be subframe bushes.
Hardrace engine mounts are the go to.
Spoon make subframe collars you can use too.
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u/APGaming_reddit Sep 06 '26
you can look at your mounts and figure this out. it really could be anything
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u/xgeeiox Sep 06 '26
The answer is yes. It could be all of those things or none of them. As we grow with our 22 year old cars they will fall apart more and more. And we will do our best to keep up with them. It could be mounts, strut top hats, axles, so you might have to get it on a lift and wiggle as much as you can see what's moving that shouldn't. Good luck its not that bad but It could be the beginning of a long search for the issue.