I noticed this morning that my 2003 Honda Odyssey had a hard time going from park to reverse. The shifter wasn’t hard to shift, but when I shifted, the whole car went “ka-CHUNK” like it had just gone over a big pothole (standing still, of course). I didn’t have the same problem going from reverse to drive, though. I drove my daughter the mile and a half to school, and after I took her inside and started it up again, I did not have the same problem - it went from park to reverse just fine.
Is this just a cold-weather start up issue? I hadn’t noticed it before because it’s my wife’s car - I’m just borrowing it for today. Is this something I should be worried about? Is there anything I can do for it? It’s got 54,000 miles on it and with the scheduled maintenance, the transmission fluid should be changed at 60,000. Should I just do that now? It is almost 8 years old and my dad did use it to tow boats occasionally before he gave it to me.
Could you tell if it went ka-CHUNK immediately after you moved out of Park, or did it only do it when it had engaged into reverse?
I’m thinking it could be a motor mount issue. I would guess that the reason why it did it at first was because it was parked in such a way that the weight of the car was on the parking pawl and so it was holding the engine/transaxle in a funny position and as soon as you moved out of park the whole thing shifted back to where it likes to be. But if you didn’t park in such a way that the weight of the vehicle was on the pawl, it wouldn’t do it (maybe it was more of a hill or maybe you use the parking brake and your wife doesn’t?).
The sort of unscientific test you can do is to have someone rev the engine in drive with their foot very firmly on the brake while you watch the engine (preferably from somewhere that you won’t get run over if it gets away from them). The engine should rotate a little under load, but not excessively. Perhaps try looking at another front wheel drive car with suspected-good motor mounts first to get an idea of what a normal one looks like. Like I said though, this isn’t really a totally definitive test, but if it is moving a lot that should narrow it down.
No. You’re looking for engine/transmission movement when it’s torqued under load. There’s no load on the powerplant in neutral.
It’s actually quite a good test. As mentioned, brake the vehicle firmly, put it in gear, and rev it up a bit (it doesn’t take much). Do it in both drive and reverse – the powerplant torques one way in drive, the other in reverse. Normal movement is maybe a couple inches. I expect you’ll find it pitches noticeably more in one direction than the other, which would indicate a weak or broken mount on one side (generally the side that rises up a lot).
I think it might have just been parked in a funny position. I’ve driven it a few more times today and had no problems. I might do the motor mount check anyway, just to be sure. Thanks for your advice, guys!
