Hello all,

I have a very bad problem with my 2004 Monte Carlo: The 2 engine supports (that’s what I called them for now) that hold the whole engine/transmission/and all other front accessories together to the main frame of the car have been broken or came off loose. As a result the engine and everything else has dropped thus causing the steering wheel from working because the steering joints have been separated (No big problem here, just a matter of putting them together)

Everything else in the car looks fine. The car turns on normally and the transmission shift as usual. I’m glad it didn’t go far enough to the point where it damaged other parts. We towed the vehicle back home and now the orange stands are the only support that the engine has on that side. Otherwise, it would drop again and hit the ground.

This happened yesterday afternoon on a street in California and I almost crashed into a tree because I could not steer at all. I was going 25 mph after a sharp turn when the incident occurred and then I hear the huge noise under the car. Fortunately it didn’t go as far as hurting anyone. Scary Experience though!

I would like to know what these parts are called. I will go around town today and ask around where I can find them, but I would appreciate it if someone can take a picture of theirs and maybe post it here. They should look the same as far as design goes I believe. There aren’t many Monte Carlos around here L

The car was crashed about two years ago and fully repaired, but seems like they didn’t worry much about this and I’m very upset because this could have happened on the freeway and that would have caused too many problems.

Please if you have any information that will lead me in the right path of finding these parts, then I would gladly appreciate it.

Has anybody experienced anything like this before? Any thoughts will help. Thanks again.

* Pictured is what was found after the incident, and some of the actual pictures of how it looks right now.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...o/DSC_0041.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q27/furcioelbravedo/DSC_0040-1.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q27/furcioelbravedo/DSC_0039-1.jpg

 

So your engine cradle dropped? What the hell!? Did you hit something? I don't understand how this just happend...Glad your ok man.

 

So your engine cradle dropped? What the hell!? Did you hit something? I don't understand how this just happend...Glad your ok man.

Yes it did. It hit the ground and as a result the steering wheel came off the front and wasn't able to steer at all. I didn't hit something. When the mechanic fixed the car, after a front accident, the car made this squeeky noise when I steered. I now now that it was because there was probably only one of those brackets/joints installed on the passenger side, which held the whole things together well for a while. Yesterday, it broke or came off loose and everything dropped.

What can I call those things? brackets? joints? mounts??

 

I would call them engine cradle mounts...but honestly, I don't know the technical term for them.

 

I am leaving around town right now to see if I can find them. Will keep updating this thread. Thanks.

 

Looks like you have all the parts for 1 side. Looks like the bolts were left loose/insufficient torque (could also be the cause of the squeak) when repaired, the middle washer may not be from your car or may have been used because the body shop lost the orig. large washer. From what I can see in your pics, the right side (passenger) looks like the small washer may have been there, judging by the dirty and clean areas on the rubber mount as compared to the left side. Make sure the top half of the mount is on the top of the frame. The bolt torque spec is 122 ft/lb for the rear bolts, 118 for the front, use some loctite on the threads

 

thanks for the info. You actually guessed all of it right. I managed to fix the car the very next day. i went to the junk yard, and, although i couldn't find any other newer montecarlos i got lucky enough to find a 96 model which had the bolts and the missing washer. They fit perfectly. It seems like all the other car models: lumina, impala, and malibu use the same setup so I could have used them too. I used your torque specifications and the handling was improved a lot. No more squeezy noises or anything like that. In a way I'm happy it happened because nothing really bad happened. Now it's fixed.

 

glad it worked out, that must have been frightening. I don't know what happened to the pic I posted, the one I put up was a drawing of the engine cradle and positioning and parts of the mounts, oh well as long as you were able to fix it

Aaron