My 96 SE 97K is running on the stock engine mounts. I've inspected them numerous times and none of them exhibit any cracking or tearing, however my engine really seems to "rock" in the bay a lot. Seeing that my car has been to the track numerous times (hard shifts, hard launches), is it possible for the rubber to loose some of it's strength even though the mold isn't cracked, broken, etc? Does the durometer of rubber decrease over time? I know that in the summer the mounts do get significantly looser with the heat.

*Please don't suggest high-performance mounts because there's no way I'd consider them. I don't want the vibration and my car doesn't experience wheel hop*


Dave

 

Chek the one in the rear thats under the shifter. Theres a good chance this ones torn. I along with several others have torn this one.

And yeah I would think motor mounts wear out. After all they're just rubber being subjected to tremendous movement and force. Everything thats rubber wears out (tires, seals, belts, wiper blades, shoes, rubber rollers....)

 

I agree, I would think that your mounts will become lose over time. Rubber has a life expentency. Combine that with the environment there in, extream heat and forces, I'd say they will surely soften up over time.

EDIT: I'd love to know how the electronic liquid filled mounts in my 99 work?

 

With Tom and Eric. Rubber gets tired, and doesn't work as well. Seems to make sense to me.

I did Eric's homemade poly mounts, and noticed quite an improvement. I'm not sure if it was because my mounts were worn, or its just that much better solid, but I'm thrilled with them.

 

I bought some polyurethane filled mounts which worked pretty good for a while, but the front one wore out pretty quickly (haven't checked the rear). I took out the front mount and removed the polyurethane and filled it with some West System epoxy and glass bead filler (used for repairing fiberglass boat hulls). It's much, much more rigid (almost a solid mount) and some NVH is there at idle, but I love the way it reduced clutch chatter and wheel hop.

 

I'd like to get the I30 liquid filled mounts when it's time to swap them out.

 

i had these changed under warranty on my 97 SE at around 74000 miles. I had taken it in complaining about sluggish tranmission shifting when going from Drive to Neutral or Reverse. Made a big difference

 

Kids that run hydraulics or airbags and constantly make their car do all kinds of side to side motions or hops tend to wear out the engine mounts the most. Not to mention knocking their wheel alignment off. Running on bad suspension for an extended period of time does the same thing.