New Engine Mounts Installed!
05-10-2020, 09:28 PM
#1
New Engine Mounts Installed!
Hello everyone! I have been having issues with my car for a few months that my friends and I started to semi-jokingly call the "death wobbles" and after a bit of research, I discovered that the issue was worn engine mounts, to resolve this I set out to replace them. Thankfully, I was able to work on the car myself at new garage space. I know that this topic has been done before, but I thought I might be able to offer some insights into what I did and to learn what I can do better. I hope you enjoy! My 996 is my first car, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Having read other people's experiences, I ended up spraying penetrating oil around a half-hour before working on the car
I placed a piece of plywood on top of my jack, under the oil pan of the engine, then I jacked the engine up. However, I noticed that the whole body of the car lifted up, not just the engine. but I tried to get this to a point where I could minimize stress on the engine. I ended up noticing that the engine was lifting itself up far more than the minimal movement of the body, I chalked this up to the body not having to support the weight of the engine due to the jack. from there I went about taking the airbox and the MAF out by taking off the single bolt that held it in place, as for the MAF, I was struggling with disconnecting it. I was afraid of damaging the socket, so I ended up just taking the whole MAF out via the Torx security screws. (I cleaned my MAF before reassembly to make sure it didn't get dirty)
Afterward, I removed the emissions pump out from the car, and unplugging the socket from it.
From there I made a mistake and took off the two top bolts for the mount before taking off the bottom which caused the mount to spin around. Since I had trouble lining them up again, I got as close as possible, stuck on bolt into the hole then carefully turned the mount and the partially screwed in bolt caught the mount perfectly. I then took another crack at taking the engine mount's bottom bolt out, and there was still a lot of tension. I ended up lifting the engine a bit more so there was no load on the mount (I now realize that that probably didn't do much and it likely came out with the brute force). I heard what I thought was the lower nut come loose, only to find out the nut was so badly seized, the whole lower bolt came out of the mount!
I let the mount sit in penetrating oil for about a half-hour and my buddy held it in a vice grip while I took an impact socket to it. This miraculously worked, and the nut came out fine, but I made sure to let it sit in oil and cleaned it with a wire brush before reinstalling it. While putting in the top bolts to the mount I read they should be torqued to 17ft-lbs, and while doing that I ended up shearing the bolt. I suspect that this was due to me using an extension on my torque wrench but I have heard conflicting information about this. I ended up going to 15ft-lbs instead, so they were close, but wouldn't shear. The installation of the bottom bolt was simple and torqued to 63ft-lbs. This worked well and I had to lower the engine in order to move my plywood for the other side, and there was no movement of the mount! On the other side, I properly removed the bolt, which was also quite stiff but came off cleanly. Once again I used the penetrating oil wire brush combo to clean the threads. from there I reinstalled the top bolts the hand tightness, and the bottom bolt to 63ft-lbs.
Unfortunately, due to a completely unrelated issue, my starter motor died, as when I was able to turn the car on, but I turned it on after around 20 seconds to go take care of something. When I came back, the car's starter did its usual routine but halfway through it made a noise and gave up. I thought it might have been due to a low battery but even after jumping the car, I had no such luck. I think the starter just went out, but I will do some investigation. Additionally, I already ordered new top bolts, as I am not going to drive the car without the new top bolt installed.
Aside from that kerfuffle, I wanted to know what do you guys think I could do better with this job. I made the bonehead mistake of not having any good pictures of the job to share with you, so I can understand if it's hard to provide advice. Thanks in advance!
Having read other people's experiences, I ended up spraying penetrating oil around a half-hour before working on the car
I placed a piece of plywood on top of my jack, under the oil pan of the engine, then I jacked the engine up. However, I noticed that the whole body of the car lifted up, not just the engine. but I tried to get this to a point where I could minimize stress on the engine. I ended up noticing that the engine was lifting itself up far more than the minimal movement of the body, I chalked this up to the body not having to support the weight of the engine due to the jack. from there I went about taking the airbox and the MAF out by taking off the single bolt that held it in place, as for the MAF, I was struggling with disconnecting it. I was afraid of damaging the socket, so I ended up just taking the whole MAF out via the Torx security screws. (I cleaned my MAF before reassembly to make sure it didn't get dirty)
Afterward, I removed the emissions pump out from the car, and unplugging the socket from it.
From there I made a mistake and took off the two top bolts for the mount before taking off the bottom which caused the mount to spin around. Since I had trouble lining them up again, I got as close as possible, stuck on bolt into the hole then carefully turned the mount and the partially screwed in bolt caught the mount perfectly. I then took another crack at taking the engine mount's bottom bolt out, and there was still a lot of tension. I ended up lifting the engine a bit more so there was no load on the mount (I now realize that that probably didn't do much and it likely came out with the brute force). I heard what I thought was the lower nut come loose, only to find out the nut was so badly seized, the whole lower bolt came out of the mount!
I let the mount sit in penetrating oil for about a half-hour and my buddy held it in a vice grip while I took an impact socket to it. This miraculously worked, and the nut came out fine, but I made sure to let it sit in oil and cleaned it with a wire brush before reinstalling it. While putting in the top bolts to the mount I read they should be torqued to 17ft-lbs, and while doing that I ended up shearing the bolt. I suspect that this was due to me using an extension on my torque wrench but I have heard conflicting information about this. I ended up going to 15ft-lbs instead, so they were close, but wouldn't shear. The installation of the bottom bolt was simple and torqued to 63ft-lbs. This worked well and I had to lower the engine in order to move my plywood for the other side, and there was no movement of the mount! On the other side, I properly removed the bolt, which was also quite stiff but came off cleanly. Once again I used the penetrating oil wire brush combo to clean the threads. from there I reinstalled the top bolts the hand tightness, and the bottom bolt to 63ft-lbs. Unfortunately, due to a completely unrelated issue, my starter motor died, as when I was able to turn the car on, but I turned it on after around 20 seconds to go take care of something. When I came back, the car's starter did its usual routine but halfway through it made a noise and gave up. I thought it might have been due to a low battery but even after jumping the car, I had no such luck. I think the starter just went out, but I will do some investigation. Additionally, I already ordered new top bolts, as I am not going to drive the car without the new top bolt installed.
Aside from that kerfuffle, I wanted to know what do you guys think I could do better with this job. I made the bonehead mistake of not having any good pictures of the job to share with you, so I can understand if it's hard to provide advice. Thanks in advance!
