I've come to the conclusion that its the aftermarket mounts themselves. They are just crap. I've read all over the place where the OEM Dodge mounts are the ones to use as the aftermarket ones are to rigid. I took the trans mount out and thought the inner rubber bushing was assembled wrong. I went to Autozone to look at a new one and it was identical to the new one I had. I had ordered all of my mounts from an Ebay store originally. Autzone used the same manufacture as the one I received from Ebay. So I re-installed my same mount and took it for a test drive. I now have a more noticeable vibration during idle while in neutral and I still have the same vibration while turning right. It seems like the vibration has gotten worse at idle. I think the right mount, that mounts motor to the inner fender, is just really rigid. The only reason I changed the mounts to begin with was the fact that the upper torque strut has some serious cracking and was about to break. There was some initial idle vibration but not the extent that it is now with new mounts.

 

If you go back to OEM engine mounts, would be interesting to hear about any differences you notice.

 

I thought about it. Doing a quick search, the front mount is about $60. I am thinking of swapping it but I am not looking forward to that whole process. It's such a pain to swap it. I cant believe how much the OEM upper and lower torque struts are, about $90 each. I am debating on selling the car but I hate not knowing what the problem exactly is to fix the vibration.

 

Well again lets think about this some more. You said the vibration when turning right didn't come about until you replaced the engine mounts with non oem parts, so, again begin there & think about how the work went & if you can't think of anything that happened that could have caused the vibration, that'll sorta leave you looking at the mount design, or how they were put together, or how they do, or don't fit.

You posted a photo of the one on the passenger side that you thought didn't look right & was maybe rubbing the frame, so seems that one belongs on your suspect list?

 

The mount in the photo was the transmission mount on the driver side of the car. I think I am going to get an OEM front mount and start there. That mount seems to be the leading cause of all vibrations from the research I have done. Since its the biggest pain to change, I mine as well start there. Hopefully I can get to it here in the next couple weeks.

 

That sounds like a reasonable plan, let us know how it goes.

 

I installed a OEM Right Side motor mount last week. It made a huge difference in the idle vibration over the aftermarket mount. The right turn vibration is still there but its is not as bad. This leads me to believe that the transmission mount needs an OEM mount as well. I am going to order one and swap out the aftermarket one. There was a huge difference in the way the rubber bushing felt on the OEM mount versus the aftermarket mount on the right mount. The aftermarket ones are CRAP. I hope the transmission mount solves the problem. Ill will let you know how it goes.

 

Ok, interesting observation, finding & good feedback. Will be interesting to hear if the OEM tranny mount seals the deal. I think our 2000 is about to need new ones, the way the engine is moving/rolling aft with torque, when put into gear.

 

To sum up why: the aftermarket mounts are not fluid filled like the OEM units.

 

******************DO NOT BUY AFTERMARKET MOTOR MOUNTS*****************

I purchased and installed the new OEM transmission mount and the car idles and turns without any vibration. There was a huge difference in the way the rubber was pressed/installed into the metal bracket. The aftermarket mounts are complete crap. I should have known better than to cheap out on aftermarket mounts. In the first picture the OEM mount is on top and the Aftermarket one is on the bottom. You can see how the mounting hole is even clocked differently. The second picture shows how the new mount sits in the car versus the aftermarket one that I previously posted. I hope this helps others out in the future. My torque mounts (Top and bottom) are aftermarket though.