Worn out motor mounts in 164?

["Peter Westafer" <pwestafer@domain.elided>]

Digesti: Has anyone experienced the symptoms of worn out motor mounts in
a 164?   My '93 164L automatic produces an occasional (more
than occasional now) vibration or grinding sound related to the rotation
of the front wheels.  Seems to be related to weight transfer - either
upon braking, just before the car comes to a complete stop, upon hard
acceleration, or when climbing a ridiculously steep driveway like mine. 
I have visually inspected brakes, calipers and the drive components
(axles, CV joints, etc).  The brakes are fine, and there's no unusual
play in the drivetrain, and no feeling of roughness when the wheels are
rotated off the ground.  The CV joint boots are intact.  There's some
evidence of the axles on both sides rubbing on the plastic inner fender
shield, but it's not very severe - only the dirt is worn off; the black
paint is intact.  The noise sounds - and feels - more serious than this
visible wear would indicate.  Maybe even a light touch of the axles is
setting up a vibration in the plastic panels that sounds worse than it is
- or maybe (ouch) there's an internal problem with the CV joints or
transaxle.   The problem began about six months ago with light vibration
on final braking, similar to the grinding you get when the pads are
worn - I checked pads and calipers then and found no problem - but has
become much worse within the last week, now vibrating upon acceleration
as well as braking.   Is it possible that the engine/transaxle assembly
has "settled" on its mounts, exacerbating the axle/fender shield
interference?  I had a catastrophic motor mount failure on another front
wheel drive car and it did produce serious vibrations.  In other cars
I've had, the primary manifestation of motor mount deterioriation was the
increasing tranmission of engine vibrations into the structure of the
vehicle.  The Alfa still seems silky smooth in that department. Thanks
for your opinions! Pete WestaferBerkeley Lake, GA93 164L --- Peter
Westafer--- pwestafer@domain.elided  

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