Changing Engine Mount yourself – manuals and video tutorials

Engine mounts prevent vibrations caused by engine operation from transmitting to car body and units. Moreover, they ensure the engine is attached securely. Therefore, if the mounts are damaged, all vibrations, bumps and impacts are transmitted to the car body. This affects driving comfort and reduces the working lifespan of many important car units.

This depends on the type of malfunction. As a rule, motor mounts wear out gradually. Their insignificant wear will manifest itself in increased vibrations transmitted to the body, steering wheel, and gear lever. If you notice these symptoms, it doesn’t mean you have to replace the components right away. But be warned that they’ll need replacement soon. If, on the other hand, the rubber element is completely fractured and detached from the metal part or fasteners are broken, the mounts should be replaced immediately. Driving the car, in this case, may result in damage to other important units and assemblies, like CV-joints for instance.

The complexity of this procedure depends on vehicle design, engine bay layout, and mounting location of the part to be replaced. For instance, upper mounts are located in a quite accessible area, so their replacement usually causes no troubles. To replace the lower mounts, you will have to support (jack up) the engine. Video tutorials from AUTODOC CLUB will help you to tackle the replacement yourself.

Over time, rubber elements of the parts harden, lose their elasticity, and crack. Exposure to oil, coolant, and other technical fluid speeds this process up. That is why leaks in the engine compartment may significantly reduce the service life of engine mounts. Moreover, the parts may break prematurely because of installation mistakes. Other factors detrimental to these components include aggressive driving style, driving on rough roads, and suspension malfunctions because of which the mounts have to work under increased loads.

Engine mounts of good quality last for about 100.000 kilometres. The number of parts to install depends on engine design and mounting location of the gearbox. Usually, 3–5 mounts are used. Some of them are common for the engine and the gearbox. In the vehicle manual, you can find detailed information about the number of components installed on your vehicle version.

When the components wear out, they absorb vibrations that occur during engine operation less efficiently. Therefore, you can feel these vibrations on the car body, steering wheel, and gear lever. In some cases, if the engine mount located on the transmission side is worn out, the car may slip out of gear and you will hear knocking from the gearbox at acceleration. You might also feel bumps or jerks when starting the engine, and knocks and clicks – at acceleration and braking. On cars with a manual transmission, shifting gears might become harder.

In some cases, like when the engine detaches from the mount completely, the torque is transmitted to the wheels less efficiently because of its dislocation. The driver perceives this as power loss and decreased vehicle dynamics in general.

Bad mounts can cause “Check Engine” light to come up on some cars. However, most often this light is caused by malfunction of inner engine elements, problems with fuel-and-air mixture formation and ignition, rather than the condition of the mounts. Checking them is only one of the necessary steps in this case.

Also, car owners often wonder if bad engine mounts can cause rough idle. These components serve for absorbing vibrations and do not affect engine operation. Therefore, if nothing is wrong with the engine itself, it should work well in all operation modes. On the other hand, drivers might perceive vibrations transferred to the car body as unstable engine idling.