Edward

So I'm jacking up the car prepping for an oil change, get the jackstands under the front, then raise the rear via the engine block, just as I have done countless times for years. I position the rear jackstands and WHOA!!! ...a puddle of mucky oil appears under the right muffler!!! Looking gross and grayish, and really thin viscosity, I'm thinking something catastrophic has occured in my engine and it is now burping it's guts out, but I just can't find the source of this puddle, until I stick my hand underneath the rear-most motormount on the right-hand side. Voila!! Gunk, and a pool of it just in front of the a/c compressor, then dripping down to make that offending stain on my garage floor. I'm guessing that the weight of the car on the mount as I jacked the engine up must have been too much for my aged mounts. Funny, too, that the mounts decided to gush its guts out. I had a hydraulic motormount fail on my wife's Honda, but it didn't leak it's fluid. Which brings me (finally) to my questions:

- Is this mount an easy DIY replacement?
- How much do these things cost?
- Is it ok to replace just one?
- Has anyone ever had a failure like this?

Thanks!

Edward

Rick Lee

Never knew the stock mounts held oil. I have a pair of stock mounts with about 40k miles on them, if they're worth $50 to you. I went with solid mounts.

Monique

IMO... time to change to RS mounts.

Bought a spare set for parts bin last year and cost was $400 (IIRC) for both mounts and the trans mount.

You'll need to disconnect the drive shafts, undo the engine bolts on the underside, lower the engine/trans a bit, then R & R the mounts and rebuild.

Me thinks no more than 4 hours... BTW, while you are there, install the newer type of underside engine bolts. The old ones are easy to crossthread; the new ones are longer so they work better. (P dealer)(I contributed this FU to Toga when we reinstalled his engine) BTDT.

Good luck

drmrfi

I replaced my stock mounts with RS ones about a month ago.
When undoing the right hand side from underneath, a small cupful of oil leaked out of the mount, all over my hand...


Mika

JasonAndreas

Yes and when you install them the large M12 locking nut should be dry-torqued to 85 Nm (63 ft-lbs.) and the two upper M8 bolts should be dry-torqued to 23 Nm (17 ft-lbs.). If your only doing the engine mounts and not the transmission mounts than you only need to jack the engine up enough to take pressure off the mounts so that you can undo the 3 nuts. I didn't have to disconnect the driveshafts or lower the engine back down (I think I may have used a flathead screwdriver to help pry the mount off the engine suspension but it pulled right out)


I just mentioned this exact problem last thursday but you are the first person I know to actually have it happen to them.

kkim

IIRC, if you are going to purchase new motor mounts, the stock fluid ones run just about the same as the RS mounts. If I were in your position, I would go for the RS mounts at this point. It is one of the better mods I have done to my car to get a bit more feel from the car while driving. It also helps with shifting feel, if you can believe it.

Use the DIY on Robin's site as a guide... no need to disconnect driveshafts if you're only doing the motor mounts and not the tranny mount.

Monique

Knowing nothing about the fluid filled mounts, I would suggest the trans mount should be done as well. Only a bit more work and me thinks you'll like the way the trans shifts after.

Flying Finn

Pretty commen for them to fail.

I installed RS pieces. Very easy DIY (see Robin's site for instructions).

RS mounts are much better, my shifting improved after I replaced stock mounts with RS mounts.

RS mounts are harder, last longer and well, they're from RS so what more do you need to know?!

Edward

Hey all,

Thanks for all the feedback! And thanks for the specfics, Jason ...appreciate it!

I will consider RS mounts since I recall lots of folks in the past, as well, commenting on improved shift feel. But as a pure daily driver (now ), I'm concerned about increased NVH. Any comments on this last point? ...meanwhile, I'll hunt the archives

Edward

hn

I am not sure if it's the motor mounts related but it's a bit difficult for me to get consistent engine response when taking off from a stop. I am thinking of getting new stock motor mounts too. Anyone knows how much these things cost?

kkim

Have you tried cleaning your ISV lately? That might help w/ the takeoff consistency.

RS mounts run about $350 for the mounts and hardware, unless it's gone up again.

hn

The reason I haven't done that because I thought it was for rough idle. But thanks for the suggestion, I'll do it this weekend to see if it helps.

I am thinking of the original (non RS) mounts. The price difference and the noise/vibration reported on the RS mounts kind of keeping me stay with stock mounts.

Flying Finn

Don't worry about the increased NVH, I haven't noticed a thing.

But then again I have monoballs/camber plates & pretty much straight pipes, not to mention I don't even know what you mean by NVH...