'08 LTZ 4cyl.

Open the hood, look down in front of the engine and there is this black, cylindrical shaped thing. It's about 3" in diameter and about 4" long. It looks to be two round metal pieces with rubber sandwiched between them and the whole thing is mounted in a bracket. The bracket is bolted directly to the frame cross member. There are no connections of any kind to it and the metal/rubber cylinder assembly moves somewhat within the mounting bracket. Other than that it appears to just be there doing nothing.

I would say it's some kind of harmonic or shock absorber. I've never seen anything like this on any other vehicle. Anyone got any ideas about what this thing is? :confused:

Take a pic.

If its what I think your talking about it s a motor mount or maybe transmission mount I would have to go look at my car but its dark out and cold.

If its what I think your talking about it s a motor mount or maybe transmission mount I would have to go look at my car but its dark out and cold.

That's what I was gonna say until he said it wasn't attached to anything LOL.

My old '99 GTP had them, but you knew they were motor mounts....

Hmmm missed that part need pics your description doesn't really help.

Is this what you are looking at?
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/BillD64/MalibuMotorMount.jpg

That is the front transmission mount. It is connected to the transmission by the mount on the right side of the picture which then is connected to the black one you mentioned through the black bar that goes between the two. As the one on the right moves up and down with motor torque the black one resists the motion and keeps it from becoming excessive. All front wheel drive cars with transverse engines have something similar to support the motor/transmission and to restrain their rocking motion as engine torque is varied.

Bill

Thanks, Bill. That's exactly what I am looking at. It didn't look to me like it was attached to anything so I'll have to look at it a little closer. Just haven't seen any motor or transmission mounts that looked so detached from what they were mounting as this one is. Kind of a strange set up compared to most I've seen. :rolleyes:

After looking closer at the 'round thing', it doesn't appear that it is attached in any way to the transmission mount on the right of Bill's picture. It is bolted directly to the front crossmember and the trans mount is mounted to the same crossmember but they are not directly connected in any other way. The 'round thing' looks to be a vibration damper or harmonic damper that would absorb vibrations or harmonics in the front crossmember. The transmission is mounted in a rubber mount by itself.

This is what GM calls a "mass dampener". Tuned to a specific frequency to cancel out a vibration induced by the engine. 4 cylinders have another one mounted to the engine cradle.

Learn something new everyday......