Nissan Repair: High Revving, accelerator pedal, old boat

Question
Good morning and welcome back.  I have an 04 Maxima with 126K highway miles. Normally, when the car was idle the engine was super quite.  Recently you can hear the engine idling hard.  When driving there are no knocking, pining, shaking or rattling noises just a hard revving sound.  In addition, the automatic gear shift seems to be taking a bit longer than normal to change.  Sometimes it sounds as if the gears are stuck but them as the RPM reaches some where between 3 and 4 the gears would change and fall back to between 2 and 3. I love my car and I am at a lost.  I thought I needed a tune up, however, the dealers told me I didn't need a tune it.  They cannot seem to find the issue and tells me that it’s a crack in my engine mount.  Okay that could explain the old boat sound but they could not tell me anything about the gearing delay.  Please I need your expert advice.

Answer
Hi Jackie -

The engine mount could be the cause of the loud noise. If it is worn to the point where the rubber is gone, then you will hear all kinds of noises. Usually there are 3 engine mounts and 1 transmission mount. Please check them all. A good field test is to start the car, depress the brake firmly, place it in gear and slowly press the accelerator pedal. If you see the engine rising more than an inch, then the motor mounts are broken. Do this both in reverse and drive.

As for the shifting, I would check the transmission oil level first, or even change it, then see what happens.

Hope this helps -
aloha
calvin