I was just playing around with some stuff tring to solve the legendary "vibrating at lights" desease these 2nd gens have.

I had the hand brake up, shift in D and the bonnet open just watching that lovely lil 4 cylinder shaking it self stupid.

Now i notcied the engine was shaking the radiator and the radiator was vibrating against its brackets passing the force into the chassis.
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/hyper24/radiator.jpg

You cant see so well in the pic but the bracket hole is much to big for the radiator prongs sticking out.

I grabbed the radiator to hold it steady with my hand and it seemed to calm alot of the shaking down.

Now my question is, are these brackets suppose to be like that? or can i jam some foam in there around the prongs to help it stop vibrating.

All i can say is know one has ever fully fixed this problem or explained the exact answer, not even mitsubishi know.

i know that, but what im asking is, is there a reason why the prongs from the radiator can move freely inside the holes of the bracket or can i tighten this up?

those brackets have rubber mounts to allow the radiator to move a little bit.....as the rubber wears over time the radiator will start to move inside them more and more......

I HIGHLY doubt that its your radiator vibrating your chassis though......my radiator mounts are f*cked too and dont get any rattle......

hmmmmmm i get a weird sound from about 1-2k rpm, but i don't think it is this although mine are definately worn...

From what I can tell on my car, it looks like the rubber has deteriorated and shrunken. It may have originally been kinda tight but as the rubber has deteriorated it has shrunken. I wouldn't have thought that making the radiator sit tight would stop the chronic shaking. I would have thought that most of the vibrations would be transmitted to the chassy through the engine mounts. I've found that putting the car in N at the lights stops most of the vibrations.

Yes, I'd be checking the engine mounts out too....

While the rubber will deteriorate (especially with heat - it's an engine bay!) I would think it is the engine vibrations that are causing the radiator (which is loose) to vibrate.

3rd gens are notorious for engine mounts - we spotted another borken one on Dee's machine at the Blue Mountains cruise yesterday!

See the QLD guys for Urethane-reconditioned ones. Slightly more transmitted NVH, but compared to what you already have it would be a massive improvement, plus handling etc imroves too. I think it was around $100 bucks on an exchange basis.

I have seen many Gen2 4cyl autos that will vibrate at idle in gear makng the trim rattle and steering wheel shudder. I have seen others that don't, it's not relative to kms travelled either.
I have found that if you raise the idle by 50 -100 Rpm with one foot on the brake then the vibration in the cab will almost go away. The "auto idle vibration" will usually be alot worse if the car is idling under 750rpm in drive.

just my 2.2c, but i think in a GEN2 this vibration is transmitted through the gearbox mount in the RH chassis rail, I haven't seen an auto that vibrates at idle when this mount is broken.

that also makes good sense....

Maybe the QLD boys could press urethane into the gearbox mounts as well....