Here is the story:

I've been having vibrations or actually the whole front of the car would shake at a certain accelerations. I had my summer tires on, I thought they were all bent and thats the cause. I put my winter tires on and it had the same problem. So I had the dealer check it today.

He tells me that my after market headers are too close to one of the motor mount and since its not shielded (the headers) it caused it to melt/loosen up. Since the engine is a little loose when I accelerate basically the whole engine shakes the front of the car and thats what i'm feeling.

He tells me its $300 installed to change the motor mount but no warranty since he thinks it will happen again. Can I get this fixed some where else ?

Can the headers realy cause this ? I had low profile tires and my car got stiffer springs (comptechs) and there are alot of rough roads where I drive, I was thinking maybe the motor mount just got too used up ??


Any ideas / thoughts ?


The OBX got about 20k worth of miles.

 

Hmmm...

I don't know the answer, but I'm damn curious if headers can cause something like this.

 

well the stock motor mounts can go on their own because I don't have headers and my front motor mount broke. If it's completely melted well then that's different

 

That is such a crock .The stock iron manifolds get just as hot and are not any better shielded than the headers .Motor mount breakage on these cars is not exactly a news flash .They break regardless of heat or whatever else .

Jens

 

Yeah Jens agreed..... Samer A.K.A.assman, that dealer is trying to blow smoke up your ass, so you shell out 300 bones

 

Yup... Total BS... Motor mounts are a wear item and will wear out. The dealer is just making excuses to keep them from covering it under warranty

 

Don't they have some sort of burden of proof to decide whether it is an aftermarket part that caused a problem? Otherwise they could screw us over for everything!

 

I don't get the mentality of these dealers that look for ways to deny warranty coverage. Don't they get paid for their work either way?

 

Yes, BUT not as much as when it's a nonwarranty repair where the customer is paying "Retail Flat Rate Prices." The Mechanics and the Dealership get paid an "adjusted 'wholesale' flat rate"
for Warranty work, so they don't make as much!


Also, my front motor mount went out last year before I installed the SC. I had CT headers at the time! There was nothing mentioned about it!

They are trying to rip you off! Unless there are signs of over exposure to heat (which I doubt), then I would call the District Service Manager for your Dealership and set up a meeting. Or, go to another Dealership to see if they will do it without any problems. Legally, it is Acura's "burden of proof"
to show that the headers CAUSED the failure to be able to deny fixing it under warranty!

 

Thanks for the info Jens, and the rest.

I think i'm just gonna have them fix it for me, and try to tell'm its not the headers that caused it. Either way the car is out of warranty anyways i have 52k on it. Does $300 installed sounds too much ?

 

Hi Jens,
I suspect my front mount is starting to let go AGAIN (see above post).

Is there a certain procedure for checking them according to the Factory Service manual??? I know there is a vacumn line going into them, and they are oil filled. So, do they get firmer as the RPM's/vacumn increases?

 

How much of a difference is it?

 

OH, now you tell us it's out of warranty!

I'd think the mountitself should be NO MORE than $120.

Maybe Jens can tell us how much it is!

 

I'm not sure exactly - Jens would know!

...my guess is $15 - $20 LESS per Flat Rate hour!

 

 

Warranty pretty much sucks as far as what it pays hence the motivation to sell work as opposed to throwing everything to the gods of warranty .I honestly feel many labor pay schedules made up by manufacturers are made in fantasy land where cars do not have any form of corrosion and all failures are simply a matter of black and white .I live in the real world and cars mostly fail in shades of gray.Rust is reality as are broken fasteners and things that no matter what you do cannot be done as"illustrated " in the service manual .Such is life behind the garage door .

The dealer in question about the motor mount is in my opinion (whatever that is worth LOL) incorrect in their assesment of the reason why the mount failed .However their assesment does seem reasonable if you take into account that they may not have much experience with custom car parts .The factory manifolds are in fact shielded so it does not seem an unreasonable conclusion to say that the headers contributed to the failure of the mount .It all depends on who is looking at the car that day .We see tons of modded cars so we have a pretty good basis on which we can say "ok that problem is really caused by this mod but this other problem is just generic Acura broken stuff" .I am not trying to defend the dealers conclusion mind you I am just trying to get everybody to understand that much of life including cars is a matter of experience and perception .The car is out of warranty so it is a moot point but nonetheless all of you can hopefully see why the dealer may have said what it said .

I'd have to look up a motor mount r and r in the book but I think 300 is reasonable .That rear mount is a hump to change .The front one and side ones are relatively easy ,Also remember the dealer is an independent so they can charge what they feel is fair .

Dealers I believe charge the factory the same labor rate as customers pay over the counter (we do) .We can only charge the factory xx dollars per hour if we also charge the same xx dollars per hour to the regular customer .The factory will pay the labor rate but ofcourse how much time they allot to effect a repair is where the difference lies .This is where the huge disparity arises in between what warranty pays versus what customers pay ,However typically most dealers will follow the normal procedure of using a "Motor" manual as a guide to establish pricing schedules for specific repairs .

I am sure some of you are now thinking "why am i paying more than the factory?" .The dealer just like all of you exists to make money .I doubt any of you get up to go to work to make a loss .We are in it for the money so are you boys and girls and NO i will not fix your car for the money the factory pays .if you saw what we get paid for much of the stuff you would not do it either .

Jens

 

Thanks for the insight Jens. If the techs themselves make less doing warranty work, that is part of the problem. I honestly believe warranty work hits you and your customer much harder than the dealers bottom line. I also believe trying to deny warranty work hits the dealers bottom line in the long run, much harder than doing the work under warranty. As you say, there are those gray areas. Those cases are the ones that will make, or break, your long lasting customer relationships. It is quite obvious the way PAA handles these gray areas, and if you ever do loose a customer, it will not be because of the service department.

Now back to Samer007's motor mount. Isn't the warranty 48K? If so, a bad motor mount at 52k miles, sounds like a gray area to me.

 

samer,

i think they should warranty the work, the motor mounts have been known to go early on our cars.

who told u it wont be covered?? karl or tim??

 

The warranty is 4 years or 50 k miles whichever you expire first .They could if they were inclined "goodwill" it but this depends to some extent on the customer .Good repeat customers who spend some money at the dealer will likely get the nod for the "goodwill" .Onetimers or chronic warranty whores are not as likely to get the nod .He could ask and see if it get's him anywhere after all it never hurts to ask .

Jens

 

 

52K is mighty close to the 50K warranty limit. Besides, I would think that the motor mount should last longer than that.

When I had my Accords from new, we were always told that even if something is out of warranty to talk with them and they would see what they could do. Try a different dealer and see what they say.

 

300 is way to much for the mounts and labor.the part only costed about 90 bucks. I just had mind replace last week for about 40 bucks in labor. I had all the mounts replaces. Just buy the parts from Tim( ) Its alot cheaper, then take it to a lil shop.If you know a lil about mechanic work. you can do it yourself. Its very easy.

 

I had 45,000 miles on my 2001 CL Type Scar and needed a new mount, the original just wore out

 

I was just guessing at the labor/parts cost .I did not get a chance to look up either for a formal qoute .52000 is close to the warranty limit of 50000 however it is over not under the limit so the car has expired it's warranty ,no gray area there except for the inclination of the dealer to perform "goodwill" for this customer .Frankly if theyw anted to win the guy over they would help him out but again this depends on the realtionship they had prior to this repair .


Jens

 

i got a new motor mount put on. it was like 108 bucks at the local acura dealership and labor was 50? something like that. but i didn't get it put on at acura, i went to colvin auto here in austin

 

Was that a rear or front mount? I imagine labor would be quite a bit more for the rear.

 

any new news samer double 0 seven

 

front, behind the radiator