Engine Mount Woes

joeygkb · Jul 13, 2013

Hey all--

Got a quick question for you guys regarding engine mounts and coilovers. I replaced the factory engine mounts with OEM ones back when I first got my car about 10 months ago. (btw, 99 2.3L 5-speed LX) They were great back in the day and then they started feeling loose.

I brought my car to the dealer for it's big service a couple months ago, and then they felt fine again. The service advisor told me that the mounts were fine and didn't even need to be torqued up (even though they had to touch them for that feeling to go 100% away--the car even started and shut off smoother). Now that feeling has come back. I've had coilovers on the car since March/April. The mounts look fine, no cracks, no signs of dryness or wear.

So my question is do you guys think coilovers (FF2s) could cause the mounts to start to come loose like that. My theory behind that is because the engine mounts and suspension is where the play would be when you pull off and shift in a manual car. My thinking is that the front end would lift a little or lower depending on upshift or downshift; with coilovers the front end moves so much less, so the torque of the motor is 100% on the mounts, right? The only way I'd imagine it being on the axles or the hubs/wheels/tires is if the tires aren't good and they'd just loose traction, or if the cv joints in the axles were going bad and there was any kind of play.

This has me thinking of engine mounts and a transmission mount--something upgraded with polyurethane.

Do you guys think that could be the cause of my mounts becoming loose over time? And what kind of upgraded mounts have you guys used? I see a lot of you guys fill them... I feel like I'd rather just buy a kit, however, I can't find an upgraded transmission mount online.

Thanks for your thoughts

Russianred · Jul 14, 2013

Can you describe the symptoms in detail when you say about the motor mounts: "they started feeling loose". How does that feel? I don't think I've felt that. Is it a clunking? Vibration? What are the symptoms?? :eusa_doh:

Best bet for aftermarket mounts is Innovative Mounts.

RedRyder · Jul 14, 2013

I don't think suspension has any affect on motor/tranny mounts, since they are bolted to the subframe. If it did, many other things on the car would become loose as well.

I've never seen or heard of aftermarket trans mounts upgrades for these cars. But yeah for motor mounts people either fill OEM's or go aftermarket.

I went with Innovative mounts, here is the front and side mounts. They offer a few degrees of stiffness.

joeygkb · Jul 14, 2013

Thanks for those pictures Chris--I was looking for about an hour yesterday for a picture of those installed and not just a picture of them out of the box lol. Now knowing that there aren't any poly-transmission mounts for our cars, what do you think of me just filling the transmission mount? Since I paid a good amount of money for the OEM mounts in there now (less than a year old), I was thinking of just picking up a cheap aftermarket set (all except the pendulum driver's side one) and filling them with that liquid polyurethane that you can get from Home Depot. The guys over at Honda say that the quality of metal between Honda Genuine and aftermarket mounts are the same--it's just the bushing that has a significant difference. My thinking is that the rubber in there doesn't mean deadly squat if I'm filling them. Correct me if I'm wrong of course!!

I'd use the IE ones that you have, Chris, but I've read some bad things about vibrations with those as far as panels inside the car loosening up from that. How's your experiences with them?

RussianRed, what I'm experiencing is exactly how I described: loose. For clarity sake, letting go of the gas or hitting the gas you distinctly feel the mounts grab the car, but it feels like there is play. If I let go of the gas at a low speed--let's say doing about 15-20 MPH in 2nd gear--that feeling is accompanied by a noise that sounds like metal knocking around on metal. All the mounts look fine so... clueless here. Thoughts?

BlkCurrantKord · Jul 15, 2013

Just get the 85a steel mounts. They won't rattle your brains out

RedRyder · Jul 15, 2013

joeygkb said:
Now knowing that there aren't any poly-transmission mounts for our cars, what do you think of me just filling the transmission mount? Since I paid a good amount of money for the OEM mounts in there now (less than a year old), I was thinking of just picking up a cheap aftermarket set (all except the pendulum driver's side one) and filling them with that liquid polyurethane that you can get from Home Depot. The guys over at Honda say that the quality of metal between Honda Genuine and aftermarket mounts are the same--it's just the bushing that has a significant difference. My thinking is that the rubber in there doesn't mean deadly squat if I'm filling them. Correct me if I'm wrong of course!!

People fill working mounts and mounts in which the bushing is destroyed, and I've never heard that there's a difference between them. If it's filled, it's filled and that would pretty much negate the bushing for the most part.

As for the trans mounts, they're much smaller and a different configuration than the motor mounts. Not sure if filling them would work but you could try it. I'd think about whether doing that and leaving the OEM mounts alone would create an imbalance or not though.

joeygkb said:
I'd use the IE ones that you have, Chris, but I've read some bad things about vibrations with those as far as panels inside the car loosening up from that. How's your experiences with them?

For a DD I personally wouldn't go any higher than 60A. At first I hated them and regretted not going with OEM, but turns out they have a break in period so after a few weeks they were much quieter and there was less vibration. Now the car vibrates and you can feel it everywhere, but it's so slight that it doesn't bother me. Only when you're idling and the A/C is on, does it become annoying. Idling without A/C and driving it's like they're not there.

As for dash noises I have a couple, but they come and go and they're not that noticeable. And I can't say that they definitely came from having poly mounts, I mean these are 15+ year old cars afterall.

joeygkb · Jul 15, 2013

Thanks for letting me know about those noises and vibrations, Chris. I won't be going with mounts that strong because I want to avoid that. My old V6 coupe had dash and console vibrations out the *** and it was the most annoying thing in the world. Trying to steer clear of that with this sedan because it's as quiet as driving as BMW in the cabin.

I think I could fill the transmission mount since it looks as if it handles the weight and torque the same way the torque mount handles it in the front (same through bolt design) except it handles it in a different direction than the front bolt--which leads me to believe that the transmission mount is too important not to fill. I'm definitely going to go with picking up a cheap set of mounts for the engine and transmission and filling them with polyurethane. I'll install them a couple days after that. Or have a shop do it...depending on how I feel at the time lol.