Working on my friend's 2003 CR-V with a 190k miles, All Wheel Drive, automatic transmission, never been in an accident. I'm getting a pretty aggressive vibration from the motor anytime it's on, whether parked/neutral/or drive, and worse when the RPMs increase. Symptoms are similar to bad motor and tranny mounts: hard vibration throughout the whole car when the engine is running.

- I have replaced all 4 mounts TWICE within the last year; parts used were aftermarket, but different brands each time. The first time I changed them it ran fine for about 9 months, then it started vibrating again. I just changed all 4 again, and still vibrating.
- Changed the Harmonic Balancer (crankshaft pulley) yesterday.
- Changed the spark plugs.
- Idle RPM is reasonable, holding at around 1,000 RPM.
- Replaced the Knock Sensor.

I've run out of ideas. She's taken it to 2 mechanics for another opinion and they both said the motor mounts are bad. I think they aren't looking thoroughly enough. I'm out of ideas, gents and ladies. What else could it be?

 

Is it rocking back and fourth like a misfire? I would inspect the flexplate bolts make sure they are all present and tight as well as torque converter bolts.
Is the check eng light on and also how is the engine power?

There are 2 things in the service manual about vibrations; specifically caused by transmission to engine mating and the tourque converter.

 

That was a lot of help. Thanks, Davey. It mentioned adjusting the motor mounts. I'm going to try to make sure everything is aligned well. I hope it isn't anything that requires separating the transmission. That would be a lot of work.

 

Are you using Alldata or another service for your info? I usually hack into my old works' Alldata for stuff but if there's something else out there that'd be cool.

What do you think "adjusting the motor mounts" means? I've seen people use washers/spacers to adjust the physical location of the engine - but never for vibration. I wonder what could be done?
I replaced the radiator on my '02 just recently which involved pulling the AT oil cooler lines and losing some fluid. That was enough to get a vibration until I filled it back. Although I've always had some slight vibration especially with the AC on. I believe the way to check it was in Neutral, engine at operating temp.

There should be an inspection cover for the torque converter bolts so that shouldn't be too hard to reach.

You don't think it could be an accessory pulley do you? Have you ran it without the belt to check?

 

I'm not sure what they mean by adjust the mounts, however the transmission mount bracket has holes that are slotted for side to side adjustment. The front mount also bolted up to a slotted hole.

I thought about the pulley system, so this weekend, I'm going to remove the belt and run the engine like that. they aren't making any noise, but that doesn't mean they aren't bad.

 

I disconnected the belt and the right motor mount and turned on the motor. No vibrations. Reconnected the right motor mount, vibrations started up again. Then removed the motor mount and installed the belt, no vibrations. So it looks like there is something wrong on the right side with the mount even though I've replaced it twice.

Maybe it's the brackets that the mount connects to that are causing an alignment issue.. when I replaced that mount, I didn't replace the bracket.

 

How is the belt tensioner? Is it chattering ?

 

Something is chattering. It's either the tensioner or the power steering pump, which I found out is leaking onto the tensioner. I ordered both parts plus a belt. I'm going to replace it all. Also, I replaced the right mount yet again with a new one and it stopped vibrating. What a pain.

The ps pump is leaking along the housing itself, so I'm just going to replace instead of rebuild it.

 

If the tensioner and or belt is faulty, the tensioner will chatter; I have seen this many times. The noise becomes omnidirectional so unless you are looking for it, it may hard to discern where its origin is at first.
If the belt is caused the tensioner to chatter, replacing the belt can remedy the situation. Start by replacing the belt and verifying the tensioner has tension and is not seized. The Honda OEM tensioner is a Bando brand by the way. If the belt dosen't solve this, the tensioner is faulty. The power steering pump won't cause this issue, however it may leak enough to contaminate the belt.
I would bet money the noise is emanating from the tensioner bucking up and down rapidly. To test the theory, use a screwdriver or other suitable device and force down the tensioner arm with the engine running (carefully). As force is applied, the chatter will be dampened.

I replaced a tensioner twice and the second time replaced the belt, and problem solved.

 

I'm just going to replace it all since I have to take it all apart to replace the leaking pump. I looked under the car and it's filthy covered in PS fluid. I'm probably going to pressure wash that whole side of the motor from underneath. Since the belt will be off and since it's also dirty behind the crank pulley, I'm going to remove the pulley and replace the crank seal too. The car has 190k miles; might as well change all the simple stuff that I come across.

I'll update if any issues arise.

 

FINALLY FIXED.

Power washed the engine bay, replaced PS pump, flushed the PS system with new fluid, put on a new belt pulley and new belt, replaced the crank pulley seal, and "adjusted" the right motor mount.

The belt tensioner tool at Auto Zone wouldn't fit due to the pulley's depth, so I ordered a 13" long ratcheting box wrench in 14mm from Amazon to release the belt tension; still had to use a pipe on the wrench. The pulley bolt started to round out during installation so I bought a similar bolt, but they only had it in 15mm, which made my box wrench useless. So, I ended up removing the right motor mount to make room for a socket and swivel extension; I wish I'd used this method to begin with. Worked like a charm.

After I installed the motor mount, I got slight vibrations again. I corrected this by disconnecting the mount bracket, raising the engine more with the jack, and tightening the bracket to specs making sure it sat evenly on the surfaces. Vibrations gone.