Do I Need Motor Mounts?

[billr99]

This question has been asked a couple of times out there, but there has never been any empirical proof that the main motor mounts need changed.

During my recent adventures with pulling my steering rack, I figured I would also do the main motor mounts while I was in there with the subframe dropped and the motor lifted. After 340K kms I figured changing them couldn't hurt anything anyway. Over the previous 10K kms I had already replaced the upper and passenger side mounts for the second time and my tranny mount has a poly bushing for the small bush and shows no real wear. As a side question, a few times I have seen stated that these main motor mounts are hydraulic. If my motor is typical and there is no reason to suspect otherwise; the mounts are solid rubber, both the originals and the replacements. Once I removed them I compared the originals (Volvo-labeled) with the replacements (Hutchinson-labeled) for overall height. The rear mount had collapsed the most being 1/2in shorter than a new mount, the front was a bit closer to 3/8in shorter than new.

So after replacement the whole front end has a tighter feel to it and my exhaust no longer has a bit of a rattle to it over rough roads. This may be more wishful thinking but it also feels like the shifts are a bit tighter as well. In any case, another one of those things that you really don't notice the effects of wear and age until you actually replace them. But with the effort involved I would not recommend replacing them if you have no other reason to drop the subframe and/or lift the motor. With this done, the rear mount is actually fairly easy to change. The front is a bit more of a pain as it requires pulling the intercooler-to-intake tube otherwise you can't pull the detached front mount out of the engine bay. It looks like it ought to drop out the bottom. Well, it doesn't; it has to come out the top.

Any road, as the early years of these cars start getting more serious mileage on them, things like motor mounts, hard lines for brakes and steering rack, all those things that we normally don't think about, let alone worry about, need to be replaced. As I found in my recent research some of these things have very little information on them out there. Hopefully, what I have written here will be helpful to someone (or should I say..some poor slob like me who is trying to keep this thing together until somebody builds a car as equally useful).

Cheers,

Bill

[howardc64]

I have 2 motor mounts sitting in my garage looking at me for 2 years now 01 V70XC 120k miles.

VIDA directions for these don't seem too bad. Both mounts Requires lifting the engine up a little. For the rear, VIDA says no need to drop the subframe or pull the rack off of it. But VIDA directions sometime skip significant difficulties. Do you think the rear can be removed/installed without lowering subframe and touch the rack?

For the front, I'm a pro at removing/installing that intercooler to ETM air pipe now after removing my ETM numerous times for DIY repair Remove isn't bad and can be done without removing the fan, its tough for first timers because everything has to be done blindly by feel. Removing the pipe require fishing under the intake manifold to loosing the clamp at ETM (starter is down there so probably safer to disconnect the battery) Reinstalling for first timers is a pain due to blind operation, dangling loose clamp and uncertainty on where to apply pressure. I lower the clamp down the the U part of the pipe to get it out of the way of the fittings. This allows my fingers to get a good feel to line up lip of the pipe evenly around the ETM intake port. I apply a little oil around the pipe and ETM intake fittings and find a good angle to hold and pull the pipe upwards to install. The key is oiled fittings + lining up the lip over the ETM intake port evenly. If not, the pipe will never go in, or the lip becomes damaged, or the lip gets folded in like the first time I did it

I'll send in the VIDA directions soon.

[billr99]

I have 2 motor mounts sitting in my garage looking at me for 2 years now 01 V70XC 120k miles.

VIDA directions for these don't seem to bad. Both mounts Requires lifting the engine up a little. For the rear, VIDA says no need to drop the subframe or pull the rack off of it. But VIDA directions sometime skip significant difficulties. Do you think the rear can be removed/installed without lowering subframe and touch the rack?

For the front, I'm a pro at removing/installing that intercooler to ETM air pipe now after removing my ETM numerous times for DIY repair Remove isn't bad and can be done without removing the fan, its tough for first timers because everything has to be done blindly by feel. Removing the pipe require fishing under the intake manifold to loosing the clamp at ETM (starter is down there so probably safer to disconnect the battery) Reinstalling for first timers is a pain due to blind operation, dangling loose clamp and uncertainty on where to apply pressure. I lower the clamp down the the U part of the pipe to get it out of the way of the fittings. This allows me to get a good feel to line up lip of the pipe evenly around the ETM intake port. I apply a little oil around the pipe and ETM intake fittings and find a good angle to hold and pull the pipe upwards to install. The key is oiled fittings + lining up the lip over the ETM intake port evenly. If not, the pipe will never go in, or the lip becomes damaged, or the lip gets folded in like the first time I did it

I'll send in the VIDA directions soon.

Yes, VIDA was very promising on the mounts when I read through it but there is no way to do the rear without dropping the subframe. At least I can't see it. Didn't hurt to have the rack out of the way either but you probably could work the mount around the rack and the lines as long as the rear of the subframe was down. As far as the front, yes it would be fairly easy with the tube out of the way. Me being me, I wanted to try it first without doing that. Well, I've got some pretty good scrapes on both my forearms as a result. Tube has to be out of the way, period. In this case, VIDA was accurate. The PITA part of it was having to undo the turbo-to-intercooler line to be able to get to the clamp at the intake valve body. Not that big of a deal really just the old "take all this other stuff off just to do one little thing" procedures. I always take a break and look at the engine compartment of the old Land Rover when I have to do this stuff. A bit of a mental re-boot.

Cheers,

Bill

[Astro14]

I just did the rear on the XC - PITA to get to...but no need to drop anything...a bit of engine lift required...and some serious flexibility in getting a wrench on each of the nuts...I think a crow's foot was involved...

[vtl]

Did front mount on V70... For the rear one it was impossible to sneak under w/o rising the car. The ramps I have does not rise the car high enough.

Yes, w/ new mounts engine is somewhat 2-3 cm higher.

[billr99]

I think a crow's foot was involved...

That may have been my trouble as I didn't have a crow's foot (there's joke there somewhere!). In fact, there were a few occasions in doing the whole job where a set of crow's feet would have been handy.

As far as getting the car high enough, I had the front of car up on my tallest jack stands with those sitting on two 6 in high 2 ft square oak slabs with the rear on ramps. Not great and definitely not as easy as having the car on a lift, but it was high enough to work without my nose being pressed into the lower side of the crossmember.

Cheers,

Bill