zeta

iTrader: (1)

After installing your rear mount, what would you do differently, if you had to do it again, to make the process easier/more efficient??

I purchased the front and rear engine mounts two months ago to beat the 20% Honda price increase and need to install them. The front looks pretty straight forward, and I found plenty of information on Azine to formulate an approach. However, information on the rear engine mount install for the six speed is very limited.

Lets populate this thread with tips and discussion on the removal and replacement of the PITA rear mount.

I know I have to remove the S/C unit to get at the front mount and support the engine/transmission with a jack/2x4 during the install.

I will remove the strut bar to help get at the rear, because I can already see that room to maneuver from the top is going to be a challenge.

What say you,
Thanks!

2Fast4you

iTrader: (1)

I have replaced the front mount and the rear mount the front is pretty easy just make sure you unbolt the side mounts to allow the engine to be moved up with the jack. the rear isnt that bad just takes alot of laying on top of the engine and reaching down there to get everything out. Some people say to take the rear out by the fuse box but i had better luck getting it out on the right side of the engine bay instead.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Id take it someplace and have them do it.

jl03CLS

i've done the front side and rear on the 3rd gen tl. not sure if its the same as the CL but its pretty much the same as what 2fast4you said. i cant remember if the CL's mounts have the tube attached to the bottom of it or not. I think that would be the only thing i would change since when I yanked out the front mount I ripped out the tube. I will most likely be doing my front side and rear soon since the last time i took it to the dealer they said my front and side were shot. Im stayin tuned to see if there are any other helpful posts on this.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the response. Yeah, there was alot of 'laying on the top of the engine' when I tightened the bolts on the rear header install, so that will be familiar territory. No problem though. Definitely going to unbolt the side mount to allow for engine movement. I understand that the jack is needed to support the engine weight as one attempts to remove/replace; however, how much engine movement, up more so than down, is really needed to facilitate removal?? Are we talking an inch or two or just enough to take the load off of the rear long bolt in order to get it to slide out.

Thanks.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

hehe, no fun in doing that.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

I guess Ill be somewhat informative in this.

The front mount is easy. The tranny mounts are easy. The passenger side mount is easy. The rear mount was a bitch. Maybe it was the heat, who knows, but putting the rear mount in was painful.

I suggest you unbolt the side and tranny mounts from the car. Leave the front bolted in. Remove the rear engine dampener along with the bracket. Make sure you have the engine supported.

A swivel socket thing is your best friend. Unbolt the four bolts holding the mount to the rear crossmember. Remove the mount bolt as well. I swiveled the mount around (upside-down), slid it out of the mount bracket, and maneuvered it out from the drivers side as 2F4Y said. Install in reverse order.

The thing that was a pain in the ass for me was once I got the rear mount bolt through (not tightened), the four bolts on the cross member would not line up at all. It took alot of coaxing and time to get it to line up. Once it did though, I was incredibly satisfied with the outcome.

I suggest that you poly-fill your mounts before you install them. If you do it right, you wont have to worry about blown mounts again.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

I don't see a vacuum port on the rear mount for the CLS-6; however, the part itself is pretty massive. It will be interesting to puzzle the new one back into place.

I hear you. It's funny, because when it comes to this repair aspect of the car, the manual offers absolutely no guidence. It's like a forgotten chapter or something.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Good stuff! That's the kind of detail only a DIY'er can provide to fill in the data the manual lacks and to make this an informative thread.

Thanks again.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

I actually did the install before I bought the shop manual. Its pretty straight-forward. But you do need to be a bit of a contortionist.

2Fast4you

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't recommend poly filling the rear mount because you will get lots of vibration in the cabin. Ive tried and learned

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the replies, gonna be doing this sometime next week hopefully. I took my 40+ year old Drednaut hydraulic jack in for a rebuild to cure the slow creep it had while under pressure.

Will report back when the nightmare is over.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

The traction is worth it in my mind.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Removal of the front bracket and mount (at the radiator) was straight forward once the S/C unit was out of the way. However, I had trouble getting the vertical engine movement required to reattach the front mount bracket even with the side mount and transmission mount/beam assembly bolts removed. With the new mount loosely fastened in place to the front beam and the engine supported, I raised the engine further, what seemed like a shit load, and still could not get the lower front mount bracket angle close enough to the block to allow for the threading of those lower bracket bolts.

So, I loosened the two 17mm front beam bolts about half an inch or so. When I re-raised the engine, the front beam lowered just enough (with the new mount) to move the lower front bracket angle closer to the block; thus, allowing for the threading of the two lower bracket bolts. Once that was done the rest of the install was no problem.

The rear mount was a challenge. The largest hurdle was getting enough access to remove the lower mount bolts at the rear beam. Swivel sockets and large socket extensions came in handy at this point. Once the mount bolt was removed, the unit itself was flipped up and maneuvered out by way of the drivers side area of the engine compartment. The new mount was placed in its position and the mount bolt was threaded. At that point, I could see, as civicdrivr stated, the mount base was not lining up with the bolt holes on the rear beam. I lowered the engine slightly so that the mount base was just off the surface of the rear beam. At this point, I used a large pry bar and braced the lower end at the damper mount on the rear beam resting it against the right fork on the rear bracket. With a little pressure on the pry bar, I leveraged the engine over to thread the lower left (toward the block) mount bolt. This is the only bolt that has a straight shot looking down over the rear valve cover. The mount was now secured in its ballpark position until I could get the lower right bolt threaded. Once those two bolts were secure the two bolts toward the firewall threaded with no problems.

I did not even shop the cost around to dealers or local shops because I don't like anyone working/driving my car, so I knew that this was a job I would have to do when the time arrived.

The rear mount had small cracks and the front mount was in decent shape for 115K miles.

Sorry for the verbose post, just trying to paint an accurate picture of my experience.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Cool beans.

I have the pleasure of replacing my rear mount this weekend

Nersh7

Speaking of mounts anyone heard any updates on the excellerate mounts?
I'm to lazy to go searching

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

We're stuck in manufacturing limbo right now with them.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

civicdrivr, what was your method in 'coaxing' the mount base holes into alignment?

Oh, and if it's any consolation, the temp. here in FL was about 92 degrees with humidity at, owe, 90+ percent when I did my repair as well.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Its not that much better here. 90s and crazy humidity. Thunderstorms daily. I might as well be in Fl.

I used a big screw driver and basically pushed until the thing lined up.

gurot1

Bringing back a thread from the past! I just changed my rear mount yesterday on my 6 speed. I used excelerate's mount. A couple of tips. The excelerate mount base is not as thick as the OEM. One of the mount bolt threads in the subframe must have had a lot of corrosion or something in it because we could tightent the bolt up quite a few turns, but then it wouldn't go any further without a lot of help..and I don't like doing that (shouldn't need a breaker bar to tighten bolt! Took bolt back out and noticed that it was going in as deep as it would have using OEM mount. So we just put a spacer between bolt and mount and used that.

I removed the nut that holds that bracket right behind the mount on the firewall (there is a wire connected to it, I think it has something to do with HVAC). That made it easier to remove the mount. Actually I broke the bolt when trying to loosen it (I should have PBlastered it first), thus we had to jimmy something up to put the bracket back in place...took longer than putting the mount bolts back in!

zeta

iTrader: (1)

^Let us know how the rear excelerate mount performs with any increased/excessive in-cabin vibrations et al.

Since the OEM mount 50810-S3M-A01 is now around $543.08, the excelerate mount looks to be the alternative to consider.

gurot1

A note on the installation, I didn't remove the engine bracket (removing it would have made it easier to move mount out of engine bay, instead I removed the bolt (broke lol) holding that bracket from previous post.

The engine barely moves now. The front end of car feels much flatter.

On to vibrations...yes there are more, but at this point I don't know how much is due for mount as I didn't get a chance for replace transmision mounts (they in my garage) and I noticed a hole in the flexpipe that I had just had replaced a year or so ago. I had been noticing increasing noise and vibration in cabin prior to rear motor mount install (I had changed front and side mounts last year with 75 durometer xlr8 mounts). When ac on I definitely feel it. Not intolerable but is a nuisance when in neutral. I've only put on about 90 km on new mount and I don't know what torgue of bolt is as both my torque wrenches required more sweeping area to work. Weird because my ratchets had enough sweep to work.

gurot1

So after 1200 km on the new mounts (I haven't torqued to spec as not enough sweep for my torque wrench), vibrations are better, however, they are still very noticeable when in neutral with AC on. Somedays I do wish I had OEM, especially hot days when stuck in stop in go. When cruising not much in terms of noticeable vibrations. My kids noticed the vibrations, but said they are tolerable in their car seats!
Engine does not move much, that's for sure and the car feels more planted upon acceleration...still haven't replaced tranny mounts.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

gurot1, when you replaced your OEM rear mount with the excelerate one, did you reuse the OEM FLANGE BOLT, (12X25), #47 on the link below?

Acura Parts @ AcuraOEMparts.com - Genuine Acura OEM Parts from Delray Acura

gurot1

Yes I reused it. I reused all the stock bolts. The only issue was one of them which I must have either crossthreaded the thread/bolt while removing or reinstalling the bolt.

zeta

iTrader: (1)

I was just wondering because I purchased just the rear XLR8 mount and was questioning if that particular flange bolt fit through the metal sleeve, with no problem, that runs through the bush on the XLR8 mount.

As you stated above in post #20, I also noticed that the thickness of the metal on the XLR8 rear mount, where it attaches to the rear crossmember, is thinner then the OEM mount.

You only had to use a spacer on the bolt that gave you difficulty and none of the others correct? The other three tightened down adequately?

Thanks in advance.

gurot1

Yes, they all went in fine, except for that one. I am pretty sure i cross threaded it because I think I did try one of the other bolts in that hole and I had problems with it as well in that same hole, thus most likely crossthreaded...or massively corroded in the lower threads where the bolt didn't need to go with the original mount because the feet of the OEM mount are thicker.

A few of the bolts on the strut bar gave me grief!

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the response.

Just an FYI. If the vibrations get old with the original XLR8 bushings you may be able to change them out with poly bushes from the link below:

https://www.heeltoeauto.com/engine/f...ing.xlr8..html

It states that these poly bushes fit the XLR8 Performance Mounts. Not sure, though, if they are the same size for the mounts made for the CLS.

Maybe the XLR8 rep can clear this up if he visits this thread.

gurot1

Thanks for the info. When I had ordered my mounts, I had been having a discussion via email and via acurazine with XLR8. I had been intending on ordering the 60/62 (i forget the specific durometer), but forgot to specify that I didn't want the 75 on my order and got the 75. Hopefully I have overtorqued the main bolt on the mount and it can be loosened! The new mounts only suck when you are not driving/moving, great when you are moving!

phillyfresh

Excellent info here- I can't seem to find the 2 engine dampers for my 03 CL-S 6 speed. Even acura doesnt list them as available. Are there alternatives? I noticed XLR8 has one, but it looks nothing like the stock pieces and appears to go on top of the engine and on to the strut bar?

zeta

iTrader: (1)

Since those CL-S6 engine dampers have been 'discontinued' any alternative could involve utilizing something like the NRG adjustable torque damper below:

NRG ADJUSTABLE ALUMINUM ENGINE TORQUE DAMPER FOR INTEGRA /CIVIC (Titanium) | eBay

From the looks of it, one would have to remove the heim connector so that the damper shaft would fasten through the top hole of the engine damper bracket.

Engine Mounts (MT) for 2003 Acura CL | Acura OEM Parts

On either side of the lower fastener, bolt spacers may need to be employed to center the thin remaining heim connector at the lower front beam mounting point.

Others who have used these nrg dampers for this purpose, back in the day, were sure to use something like red loctite on the fasteners because they had a tendency to work loose over time.