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Some of you may recall a few weeks ago I was trying to track down the cause of some driveline noise. I thought it could be bearings, diff or forign objects, but it turns out the exhaust side engine mount is split, causing the engine to twist more then it should and the extractors to push against the body under high torque, like 1st gear full throttle.

Has anyone any wisdom to empart on me prior to getting into this job? I understand the other side is the hard one to get at, is it worth doing that if it's ok?

Cheers
Brad

Corksport has the stronger Mazdaspeed engine mounts, and the price is right, too. These are the ones I've got, and while its occasionally a bit throbbier at idlethan before, overall it's miles better than with the old mounts, which like yours was also split on one side.

Link:
http://corksport.com/store/category/4v9 ... ngine.html

while it's said that the MS ones are stiffer than stock, I get the sneaking suspicion that they are actually softer than the perished old ones, so overal the car will be smoother.

Brad wrote:Has anyone any wisdom to empart on me prior to getting into this job? I understand the other side is the hard one to get at, is it worth doing that if it's ok?

Sounds like an excellent dodgy day event cold be organised for this one.

When JBT and myself pulled my motor a few weeks ago it didn't seem like to big a job to just change the engine mounts. Probably unhook the radiator and exhaust undo the mounts and lift the motor up about 50mm.

Andrew.

The exhaust-side engine mount is the easiest to replace. You'll want a hoist (if you feel like removing the bonnet) or an engine crane. All you do is support the engine with the crane and then undo the 14mm nut on the mount's underside. Then you remove the three 14mm bolts holding the mount to the block and lift it straight out.

Then just stick the new one in and reverse what you just did. Make sure you put the cup-shaped bit with the hole at the bottom - I believe that's to let dirt fall out if it somehow gets in there.

The other side is a little more tricky but providing that you just do one side at a time you shouldn't come across issues. But on that side there are more things to get in the way, such as the intake manifold and starter motor. You can probably get at the driver's side mount better from underneath the car.

I've made an inquiry with Cork motorsports on a group buy for these. Any takers? I know Tony and Neil are interested.

What's the deal with import tax? Isn't 3 the limit before we need to pay tax?

Brad

Brad,
Keep the total under $1000 (800 to be sure) and you should escape duty etc thanks to the Free Trade Agreement with the states......

Cheers,
T

Ok, engine mounts are ready to go in this weekend. While I'm at it I'll be doing an oil change and changing all the pads to Bendix Ultimate from the mis-match of HP+(f) and Bendix Metal King(r) aswell as install rear brake pads clips I've been missing.

Sabre, you were saying there are three 14mm bolts holding the mount to the block. You'll see on the pic below that the ones I got only have 1 bolt either side. Is this right?



Assuming I unbolt the headers (probably at the cat rather then the head), will any of the cooling system require disassembly to lift the engine up enough to get to the mounts from underneath? I'm thinking while I'm at it to replace the coolant, it's about 20 months and 25,000kms old.

That mount looks fine - that's just the centre to which a single 14mm nut is attached to one stud of. The bracket itself which that mount goes into has the 3 bolts.

The cooling system can more than likely be left alone. But it sounds like you need to change it anyway.

Keep an eye as you hoist the engine up - make sure that nothing gets ijammed into the firewall - you may want to remove the CAS (mark its position first) and the coils.

edit: a group buy would have been nice but the mounts are low on my priority list at the moment.

sabretooth wrote:That mount looks fine - that's just the centre to which a single 14mm nut is attached to one stud of. The bracket itself which that mount goes into has the 3 bolts.

The cooling system can more than likely be left alone. But it sounds like you need to change it anyway.

Keep an eye as you hoist the engine up - make sure that nothing gets ijammed into the firewall - you may want to remove the CAS (mark its position first) and the coils.

Excuse my ignorance....CAS?

Cam angle sensor - to the right of the coil packs.

sabretooth wrote:Cam angle sensor - to the right of the coil packs.

Ta, fiddled with that for the 14deg bump.

The engine mount replacements went pretty smoothly on the weekend with the help of Neil. The exhaust side came out in two bits as the rubber was cleanly broken the whole way through and the other side had a split in it. Getting the engine clear was the easy part, I undid the two nuts from the bottom of the mount, put the jack under the engine it to take the weight off and undid the 3-4 bolt holding the mounts to the block. The hardest part was aligning the holes on the drivers side, without the help of anyone else it proved quite fiddly.

Unfortunatly it has not cured the original problem of the exhaust hitting the body, though it has reduced the problem somewhat. I'm going to have to book it in at the exhaust shop to get some modifications made to the manifold and/or body.

That sounds good. Well, except for the \"didn't fix the problem\" bit.

What did you end up paying overall?

$100 delivered for both mounts...plus rear brake pad plates and springs thrown in for free