Took my car in for a routine service and the stealership notified me that my front engine mount is broken.

I was kind of astonished by this because I never drive my vehicle, and only my wife does, in addition to be honest she isn't a very confident driver.

So after informing the dealership they told me that it isn't physically broken. The rubber on the engine mount is worn out therefore the entire engine mount needs to be replaced.

Kind of having difficulty on digesting that, and wanted to see if I could get a much better expert opinion on such a situation. Is this typical or common? Real or Rip?

My car is an 08 with about 65k on the motor, original owner.

 

This is a pretty routine thing, you will find a lot of posts about engine mounts going out. It is a little surprising at your mileage but its difficult to tell being everyone drives their cars differently. I have 80k on mine and I think mine are shot, but I drive a little rough.

 

Correct, I have tried to see such posts, but when I search engine mounts it shows a lot of posts about the people who fix up cars and post a thread upon it. Like 3g acura tl engine mounts, is what I searched and maybe it is incorrect.

The issue that comes to mind is if the replacement is needed without physical breaking of the engine mount. Never heard of this particular situation.

Second, if the engine mount isn't broken, but worn what would happen or how would that affect the engine. I do not want to give the stealership my money on something I am ignorant about.

I never paid for anything more than an oil change, so I think they are out to get me. I'm not certain how they came to notice this now, after all the times I have taken my car in for routine service.

My car goes in for an oil change about 4 times a year, with or without mileage since I get a discount from the dealership which I purchased the vehicle from.

Last time they notified me my cat had been dented and screwed up which needed to be replaced, and when I went to look myself at the issue. There was a very minor dent and dead center upon the cat. The actually physical damage came upon the heat shield above the exhaust. I declined the service and had already become skeptical at this point as it did not seem realistic. They wanted to charge me sick for something that did not need replacement.

 

I have an 08 and just hit 82k on it. I was switching out the 3rd and 4th gear pressure switches the other day and noticed one of the transmission mounts were shot. My engine mounts seem to be fine for now, but depending on the climate of your area and a few other factors, they very well could be shot already.

 

I understand your concern but even if the engine mount isn't completely broken doesn't mean it shouldn't be replaced. Maybe the dealership didn't explain properly to you what the issue was.
It's important to know the engine mount has a rubber boot around it and the degradation or lack thereof of this boot does not constitute an indicator of the state of the mount.
How much are they charging your for the job? It is not a terrible complicated job but it does take some time.

 

They are a common thing to go with age. When one mount goes, it puts more stress on the other mounts and often you need to replace more than one. The Front, Side, and upper transmission mounts are the most common to go bad.

I replaced those three before the summer. The front and side were completely separated/decapitated at the rubber. I didn't know how bad they actually were until I removed them.

If you don't believe them, check it yourself. Have someone get in the driver seat, put the car in drive and have them rev the engine while holding down the brakes. Watch the engine and if there's excessive movement you need to replace some mounts.

 

It's a 7 year old car with 7 year old parts. I typically say if it doesnt break during the finance period, it will break right after its paid off.

 

Just bought my 08... 79k miles. Motor mount closest to power steering pump broke... as in when I took it out it fell apart. Side engine mount closest to radiator broke... as in when I took it out it fell apart. Upper trans mount (AT) broke... as in ready to fall apart when I removed it. Only the back side mount closest to firewall was still together... and it showed signs of cracking around the top of the mount. It was OEM and looked like it had been replaced once before.


I just replaced my brake pads today. The compliance bushings on the lower control arms are shot... just like everyone else's here in this 3G forum. Have you looked at your compliance bushings? Do you do your own wrenching?

 

Rubber ages and dries out with time very poorly. Tires aren't meant to last more than 5 years.

The mounts in the TL are hollow and fluid filled! They are connected via vacuum lines to the engine so that when there is a rush of acceleration, the mounts naturally stiffen to counter the extra load. Over time, the rubber cracks and they can't stiffen. This causes more stress on the mounts and in turn makes them fail faster.

The tell-tale sign of a bad motor mount is a vibration when you are at a stoplight, esp with the A/C running. Switching to Neutral usually helps or stops the vibration.

I had my front passenger mount replaced at 40K, and the front one replaced at 80K on my 2004 TL. The rear is the factory one and now needs replacement at 190K.

The rear mount dampens the most vibrations but they all work together to reduce and isolate engine vibrations.

It's not something that you need to get done right away, but the longer you wait once it actually fails (it hasn't failed yet, just aged & worn) you'll have more to pay for such as the other mounts.

Get an independent mechanic to do the work, or Honda Dealership, within the next 20-30K miles.

 

I just replaced all three motor mounts, you can't really "see" the damage because all of them have rubber heat shields. You may be able to pull up on these shields and inspect them visually, but likely not since the damage is usually on top and the weight of the car sits on not only the mount, but the heat shields as well.

The rear wasn't as bad as folks claim, if you're mechanically inclined. Thanks for explaining the vacuum system with the mounts csmeance.

You can buy oem mounts (front, side, and rear) for around $300 in parts and about 3 hours of your time. Just have an extension setup as long as your arm for the rear Impact wrench easily removed all the bolts, just torque them back on though.

Doing the three transmission mounts (x3) later today. These are considerably easier.

 

Please explain

I think i need to replace my lower ones.
The upper one i already replaced.

About the front and rear mounts, all you need is a 1/2" universal joint socket (u joint), 1/2" long breaker bar, and 1/2" long extension.

 

For doing the upper trans mount, do I need to jack up the engine at all like the motor mounts? What needs to be done? I know there's a top mounting bolt and it seems like that's it. I already purchased the replacement trans mount

 

i supported the transmission with my floor jack.
i didn't jack the transmission up by any means - you had to jack up your engine to remove the engine mount from under the engine. you don't have to do so for the upper transmission mount.
you can jack it up until it just supports the transmission.
to be quite honest with you, i didn't need to support the transmission at all. i was working on my car for a long time, replacing the trans filter, and cleaning the solenoids and i realized my jack lost air so it wasnt supporting the transmission at all. everything still bolted back together right without supporting it

remove air filter box
remove battery
remove battery tray
remove long bolt holding transmission to mount.
remove 3 bolts holding mount to frame.

 

thanks! that's what i figured.
so did you replace #17, or #7 in the link:
Acura Parts @ AcuraOEMparts.com - Genuine Acura OEM Parts from Delray Acura

i just bought item 17 because i didn't see any damage to 7, but i did see some of the rubber of 17 breaking.

 

I'd suggest removing the top one in order to clear the bottoms ones to remove. You'll want to raise the transmission a healthy amount to free them.

The rear bottom on mine was completely separated, will try and post photos when I can get to it.

For the extensions, to each their own; at one point I was crawled up on the intake plenum. I'd suggest removing front / rear motor mount bolts at the frame with an impact wrench, made short work of them. I wouldn't suggest that for the transmission mounts.

While I was at the transmission mounts, found a good opportunity to repaint my battery tray.

S-Type and half moon wrenches are a great investment , made short work of top transmission mount. The front transmission mount is easily accessible from left front tire area, you'll need a universal, but can straighten your breaker bar and quickly remove them after loosing them. Remember to raise with a jack under the transmission, doing so will help access the rear transmission mount bolts. The four nuts that attach the mounts to the sub-frame are cake.

Hint on upper transmission mount, work your way from the front to rear of car when getting the three bolts off, you can lift (twist) the mount up when on last bolt to make removal easier.

Good luck!

 

Below was my parts list for 2006 AT TL (less side engine mount, did it a month ago):

Description --> Part # --> Amount --> Price Each

LOWER CNTRL ARM FRONT BUSHING 51394-SEP-A01 x2 $59.16

REAR MOUNT 50810-SDB-A21 x1 $96.40

HEAT SHIELD 50839-SDB-A01 x1 $9.16

HEAT DEFLECTOR 50819-SDB-A01 x1 $14.64

RUBBER, RR. TRANSMISSION MOUNTING (LOWER) (AT) 50860-SEP-A03 x1 $18.33

PLATE, TRANSMISSION MOUNT STOPPER (UPPER) 50875-SDA-A11 x1 $3.97

RUBBER, TRANSMISSION MOUNTING (UPPER) 50870-SEP-A01 x1 $40.46

RUBBER, FR. TRANSMISSION MOUNTING (LOWER) (AT) 50850-SEP-A03 x1 $25.22

RUBBER ASSY., FR. 50830-SEP-A21 x1 $157.72


The heat shields are judgement calls, mine looked fine, but figured the plastic had hardened a bit and justified the expense to refresh to new. The upper transmission mount plate contains no rubber, it's a judgement call as well. Prices were using AcuraOEMParts; they had an active coupon for shipping, looks invalid now

Print image below for torque:

 

Sorry to hijack the thread, but how did the pressure switch replacement go? Were you just doing a routine replacement of the switches or trying to fix a problem? Asking because I'm getting a little shutter at the top of 3rd gear, and was hoping swapping out the switches would help.

Thanks

 

I've had my mounts replaced under the extended warranty like 6 times. All of them. They just wear out and are made so cheaply imo for them to wear out that often. You'll feel it in your steering wheel and also when engaging in reverse.

 

I've purchased motor mount replacements on ebaY for about half the cost of OEM's. They have a 5 year warranty versus the OEM's 1 year warranty, and in some cases, they come with a lifetime warranty! No issues, they work just fine.
.
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Link? Did you install them yourself? How long /how many miles since installed?

 

I didn't even bother searching or going an alternate route because I had the extended warranty and since it wasn't coming out of my pocket I didn't care. But if the money came out of my pocket I probably would've looked at your options.

 

I had Paul, our mechanic in NJ do the job. About 10K and 1 year on them so far. I still have to do the rear mount next week. Bought the side mount from rockauto for $21. The front on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fits-04-08-Acura-TL-Honda-Accord-3-0-3-2-3-5L-Front-Motor-Mount-for-Manual-A4569-/271444795275?fits=Model%3AAccord&hash=item3f335edf8b&vxp=mtr.
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