Hi all, I've got some questions (and possibly a bit of a solution?) for an issue when accelerating from a stop in my 2002 JDM Honda Fit. My research led me to something I hadn't seen mentioned before...

Background: I was driving around on a washboard-y gravel road for a while, and after I was through that, I noticed that I would get a loud grinding/buzzing sound when accelerating from a stop. This would sometimes/often be accompanied by a loud knock or two. I could avoid these noises by accelerating very slowly til about 20km/h and after that things seemed normal.

After some research pointed me in the direction of the engine / transmission mounts, I decided to have a look at the one that gets mentioned most often and seems easy enough to inspect. The transmission mount located near/underneath the battery. Looking at it, the mount definitely has seen better days.... but the thing that intrigued me was I found a rubber piece/flap in between the mount bushing and the bracket. Sorry, I don't have a photo, but the best I can describe it is that it looked like one of those hotel "do not disturb" signs that hangs on doorknobs. I think it has "AACVT" molded into it. Anyway, it was kind of just loose and not appearing to be doing anything. So, I rotated it down to take up a space between the bracket and mount bushing. It was about the same thicknessas the gap so I assumed this is where it belonged. Low and behold, those horribly loud and worrisome noises were eliminated! My theory is the gravel road shook that rubber flap loose and it rotated up and out of the way. Seems very much like an afterthought part...

Another related thing I noticed. Is that rarely when at a stop light and the engine decides to save fuel and put itself into "neutral", when releasing the brake, the car is sometimes a bit slow to "wake up" and put itself back into gear. Rarely its even so bad that it seems like it can't even find the gear and nothing engages for a while. Before "fixing" that rubber flap at the mount, I'd get the loud knocking /jolting, but now if that happens, there's no noise, but it has happened that the car seems to struggle to find the gear on it's own. (ie, release brake, car revs up slightly on it's own like its trying to go into gear, but its still in neutral, then after a second or two it may find the gear... it's hard to describe)

Should I be worried I've done some residual damage to the engine/transmission while driving around with these noises? (I tried to avoid them as much as possible)

Should I go ahead and replace that one transmission mount anyway even though most of my woes are gone? (I think there might still be some slight vibrations that may otherwise go unnoticed if people weren't looking for it)

Are there other engine/ transmission mounts that are easy enough to inspect? and may have a similar part? If so, where should I be looking?

Thanks for all your help! and I hope this might be of use to someone

 

...nothing?