Weird engine movement question!

[dentonmac]

First post to this forum, so apologizes if I break etiquette.

Background.
- 2014 CX-9
- 25,xxx miles
- Serviced at Dealership.
- owned many Mazdas before (6 to be exact)
- Runs great (actually, wife runs the flippin wheels off it, but guess that is not pertinent)

My question.
It was making a weird little sound under the hood, with my wife in the drivers seat, I looked under the hood.

The sound was nothing (the plastic shroud around the battery was vibrating against something at start up), but when she shifted to reverse the whole engine shifted up and toward me about an inch (maybe more). I asked her to shift to drive...it shifted again. Then to Park, where It seemed to rotate back to the middle of the arc between where it was in Reverse and Drive.

Don't know if it makes a difference, but it was at startup. I have not verified at normal operating temp.

Is that normal? I am a little shocked. I am nowhere near an expert, but I do know my way around under the hood pretty well.

I have done searches, but i don't think I am searching the correct terminology.

Again, it is running great and has been serviced at the dealership where purchased new.

Thanks in advance.

 

[rowlands57]

Drivetrain torque causes the shift and it's normal for the engine to shift a bit depending on whether you're in drive or reverse. The motor mounts are not rigid and allow this to occur. If they were rigid the vibration from the running motor through the vehicle would be unbearable. If a mount is broken the shift would be more pronounced and likely accompanied with a noise of some sort.

 

[dentonmac]

Thank you rowlands.

That is what I was suspecting. But your point of if the mount is broken it would be accompanied with noise, put me at rest...because it is not.

Much appreciated.

 

[hornsfan10609]

Do you own any other vehicles? Do the same test with them, you will get the same results.

 

[veyl_oiuja]

Mine does that too and it annoys me. So what I do after driving and car is park before turning off the vehicle, I put it on neutral then put the ebrake and then shift to park. So when I start the vehicle it does not jerk or makes it hard to move the shifter out from park.

 

[table5511]

Put your car in park with the hood open, then rock it forward and back. You may be surprised how much the engine moves around!