I finally got my car to the body shop to have a new radiator support installed. I supplied the shop with an OEM radiator support, Denso radiator, and OEM hoses and hardware.

After driving it around for a couple weeks, the car has been driving so much better! It hasn't jerked once, hasn't stalled, the CEL hasn't come on, and no flashing O/D off light, either

Before the new tie bar was installed, I could never get the TPS adjusted right, and it wouldn't go more than 2 days without a hard/rough shift, stall, CEL, or OD light blinking. So, if your radiator support is rusty and crumbling, don't even bother with the TPS until you get it replaced!

 

How much did the shop charge for labor?

 

$600

 

Good deal.

What do you think caused the driveabilty issues? Too much movement was messing with the electric motor mounts?

 

Yup, definitely something related to the motor mounts

 

Good to hear!

 

Back in 2010 I was shopping around for this repair....a body shop said sounds like $700 (he looked into it then called back). When I went in person (and I was worried about OEM vs. aftermarket), he goes oh, not what I thought, you're looking at closer to $1600. Then he said I wouldn't pay that, not worth it on a 12 y.o. car.

I ended up having a forum member do the work around (cut out all the bad part, insert angle iron sleeve), was like $150. I'm not sure it ever had any effect on how the car drove, maybe the motor mounts were stressed when the support was broken. But it lasted all these years.