Since nobody has posted this yet, thought I'd put a simple one up and save folks some time. This job is pretty simple, and shouldn't take more than about an hour. Having said that...lets get started.
Tools:
T27 Torx
15mm Socket
Jack Stands
Floor Jack.
First, you'll want to jack the car up and put it on stands. For those of you who haven't owned a FWD car before, take care where you jack. Anywhere that carries suspension load to the frame should be fine:
Once you are setup and on jackstands, take a look towards the back of the cover. That opening back there is our target:
Now break out your torx bit, it's time to remove the cover. Before we get started here, keep in mind that not all of these torx bolts are the same. So keep tabs on where you remove them from. For reference, the "long" bolts hold in the plastic air dam, and are on the sides of the main cover. The short bolts go along the front and rear of the main cover.
To access the front bolts on the main cover, you will first need to remove the plastic air dam, which is held in place with 3 torx. Once it's removed, set it aside and remove the rest of the torx bits, 3 up front, 3 in the rear, and 1 on each side. The ones on the side are the "long" bolts.
Once you get the cover off, get out your 15mm socket, here are the two bolts you need to remove:
I removed the silver bolt first, then the black one. Once the bolts are out, you have to get that mount out of there. There are a couple of ways to do this, and here is where I hope to save folks some time. At first, I started to remove the other half of the mount, before I noticed the engine had enough movement in it that I could probably twist it out of the way. And happily, you can.
I didn't take pictures of this (sorry) but what you'll want to do now is move your floor jack around to the front of the car, and carefully jack up on the front of the transmission to tilt the top of the engine towards the firewall. Once you take it as far as it'll go, you'll have enough room to wiggle the stock engine mount out.
I replaced the stock mount with the E-Focus RMM, and if you look at it closely you'll notice it has "top" written on the bushing. As such, this side of the bushing should face up. For other mounts, follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer.
Once you have it slipped in, slowly let the engine/trans back down and replace the bolts. I didn't have the torque specs, so I used German (goodntight). If anyone has the specs for these two bolts, please post up.
There are no tricks to getting it back together, just be careful not to over tighten the torx bolts or you'll strip them...easily. They are threaded into plastic.
And that's it. Simple. With the E-Focus mount there is absolutely no noticeable difference in NVH from stock, and I'd swear the shifter feels a little better now too. This mount does not completely eliminate the clunk, but it reduces it substantially. Previously, on a hard 2-3 shift the engine would slam over so hard I could feel it. Now, it's a very muffled thump at best. HUGE improvement. For folks like me who bought this as a fun DD, this is a perfect mount. If you are going to be doing a lot of racing, a stiffer mount is probably in order.
Tools:
T27 Torx
15mm Socket
Jack Stands
Floor Jack.
First, you'll want to jack the car up and put it on stands. For those of you who haven't owned a FWD car before, take care where you jack. Anywhere that carries suspension load to the frame should be fine:
Once you are setup and on jackstands, take a look towards the back of the cover. That opening back there is our target:
Now break out your torx bit, it's time to remove the cover. Before we get started here, keep in mind that not all of these torx bolts are the same. So keep tabs on where you remove them from. For reference, the "long" bolts hold in the plastic air dam, and are on the sides of the main cover. The short bolts go along the front and rear of the main cover.
To access the front bolts on the main cover, you will first need to remove the plastic air dam, which is held in place with 3 torx. Once it's removed, set it aside and remove the rest of the torx bits, 3 up front, 3 in the rear, and 1 on each side. The ones on the side are the "long" bolts.
Once you get the cover off, get out your 15mm socket, here are the two bolts you need to remove:
I removed the silver bolt first, then the black one. Once the bolts are out, you have to get that mount out of there. There are a couple of ways to do this, and here is where I hope to save folks some time. At first, I started to remove the other half of the mount, before I noticed the engine had enough movement in it that I could probably twist it out of the way. And happily, you can.
I didn't take pictures of this (sorry) but what you'll want to do now is move your floor jack around to the front of the car, and carefully jack up on the front of the transmission to tilt the top of the engine towards the firewall. Once you take it as far as it'll go, you'll have enough room to wiggle the stock engine mount out.
I replaced the stock mount with the E-Focus RMM, and if you look at it closely you'll notice it has "top" written on the bushing. As such, this side of the bushing should face up. For other mounts, follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer.
Once you have it slipped in, slowly let the engine/trans back down and replace the bolts. I didn't have the torque specs, so I used German (goodntight). If anyone has the specs for these two bolts, please post up.
There are no tricks to getting it back together, just be careful not to over tighten the torx bolts or you'll strip them...easily. They are threaded into plastic.
And that's it. Simple. With the E-Focus mount there is absolutely no noticeable difference in NVH from stock, and I'd swear the shifter feels a little better now too. This mount does not completely eliminate the clunk, but it reduces it substantially. Previously, on a hard 2-3 shift the engine would slam over so hard I could feel it. Now, it's a very muffled thump at best. HUGE improvement. For folks like me who bought this as a fun DD, this is a perfect mount. If you are going to be doing a lot of racing, a stiffer mount is probably in order.
