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Just thought I'd share as I start the process of replacing the engine mounts in my '04 CS.
The engine vibrations have been getting progressively worse. It's shaking the entire cabin and anything that isn't bolted down tight is rattling to the tune of the engine. Once at speed, there's no issue, but the shudder coming to a stop and the vibrations at idle are annoying!
So here we go. Hope to have everything done by tomorrow. It took about 90 mins just to jack up the car, take the wheels off, remove trays, fender liners, air boxes, MAFs, and engine covers. If you've never taken the fender liners out, there's a boat load of gunk in the far corner of the fender nearest the door.
Engine support bar in place:
Passenger side:
Driver side:
I'm following Ciscorp's DIY instructions to do the work. I'll be adding more photos to the thread as I proceed to help give the visual of what's entailed with this project.
Mission success! After grunting through this motor mount replacement, the first turn of the key was all worth it. No more resonance in the cabin, no more rattling glove box, no more shudder!
This repair is straightforward, but will take some time, a lot of strength to break free those 21mm and 18mm bolts. I had to make an improvised cheater bar to get the subframe bolts to move. The top of the motor mounts have a pretty difficult to reach nut to remove as well. Universal joints are your friend here.
With the engine held by the support bar, I was able to use my floor jack to control the lowering of the subframe. It's not gonna go anywhere since the rear most mounts were still attached to the car. Remember, keep those connected, but just loosen them as in Ciscorp's instructions. Makes it a lot easier when you bolt everything back together.
Those fender liners are a pain to put back in too!
All in all about 5 hours. If you have air tools, it will undoubtedly make quick work of the big bolts. Glad to be done with this one!
Starting off this morning on the forward subframe bolt. This and the other one on the left need to be removed completely
Getting at the nut on the top of the right side motor mount.
Hard to see, but there's about 1/2 inch difference in height. Once the car was all bolted up, the support bar chain was loose, motor rose about 1/2 inch.
New mount in place. I made sure I didn't mix up the two!
Not a lot of tools , a lot brute force to move stubborn bolts definitely needed.
Clean this out if you ever take the fender liner out. I'm gonna spray up through that lower drain hole just keep it clear.
The improvement is significant. It feels like a new car. No vibrations at idle, no more shudder coming to stop. It drives like it should.
Had the wife drive it as we did some afternoon errands post DIY. She was quite surprised at how smooth and quiet it was at stop lights. Less difference at highway speeds.
Very happy after all that work.
Next up will be a set of Conti DWS 06 tires next month.
Hey Everyone, Just thought I'd share as I start the process of replacing the engine mounts in my '04 CS. The engine vibrations have been getting progressively worse. It's shaking the entire cabin and anything that isn't bolted down tight is rattling to the tune of the engine. Once at speed, there's no issue, but the shudder coming to a stop and the vibrations at idle are annoying! So here we go. Hope to have everything done by tomorrow. It took about 90 mins just to jack up the car, take the wheels off, remove trays, fender liners, air boxes, MAFs, and engine covers. If you've never taken the fender liners out, there's a boat load of gunk in the far corner of the fender nearest the door. Engine support bar in place: Passenger side: Driver side: I'm following Ciscorp's DIY instructions to do the work. I'll be adding more photos to the thread as I proceed to help give the visual of what's entailed with this project. More to come...
did you need a shop crane for the support bar? can you post a link for that?
Tom, our CS has 171K miles on it. The date stamp on the old mounts was 2003. They appear original to the car. It seems there are a number of people who are experiencing the shudder and vibrations from much lower mileage.
The transmission mount is super easy compared to the engine mounts, but you do need to taper the leading edge of the new mount and spend a lot of time with a hydraulic press to get it in. My transmission mount was pretty collapsed, but changing it didn't make a very noticeable difference, unlike the motor mounts, which made an enormous difference.
Gtk - thx for chiming in. I need to do control arms still. Seems like doing both at once would make a nice difference. This car was way tighter when I got it 4 years back.
01-15-2016, 05:14 PM
Replacing the Mounts
