08-03-2021, 04:23 PM | #1 |
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Motor mounts are toast at 60k miles
Noticed a small oil leak on the driver side. Engine and transmission were completely dry. Narrowed it down to the driver side engine mount, made sense since the fluid was clear and thin confirming it was the hydraulic fluid from the filled mount. While I was under it, found signs of fluid leaking from the right mount also.
My question is, is it normal for them to wear out this early? Car is easy driven, no accidents and the only mod is BMS 1. |
08-03-2021, 04:50 PM | #2 | |
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I'm around 70k. Haven't noticed anything but haven't really looked. Where did you first find the fluid! Were you looking for a leak for some reason?
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08-03-2021, 04:54 PM | #3 |
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08-03-2021, 11:13 PM | #4 | |
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04-18-2023, 01:58 AM | #5 | |
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Engine mount bracket seems to be very difficult to remove because of the one bolt in the center. also the exhaust pipe hits the engine bay backside so there's only so much lift you can get on the engine before you realize that you need another 1" or so to pull out the mount and there's nowhere to get it from so back to nothing. It sucks. |
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04-18-2023, 11:54 AM | #7 | |
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04-18-2023, 12:31 PM | #8 |
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that’s really odd for such low mileage. seems possible given it’s rubber though.
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04-27-2023, 01:44 AM | #9 |
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05-09-2023, 09:43 PM | #10 | |
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what do you mean remove star bolts on subframe? I mean i can look again but i'm pretty damn sure the motor mount housing is welded to the subframe. it's like a round cup housing that motor mount is recessed/seated into. there's no way you can remove it without having enough clearance. maybe you're thinking different car/engine combo. this thing is a welded assembly so the only way to remove the motor mount is to go up. to do that you have to have plenty of clearance. one other suggestion i got was to remove the exhaust to turbo interface to disconnect the exhaust pipe so the engine can be then lifted another 1-2 inches to be able to pull out the mount. i'm not even sure that removing the engine mount bracket would do much either. it's the exhaust pipe that's hitting, limiting the engine movement upwards to create enough clearance for the mount to be removed. |
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05-10-2023, 10:15 AM | #11 | |
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My procedure is the following: There is 1 top nut (hex size is either 19mm or 21mm, I don't remember well) on top of the motor mount, this nut clamps your motor's bracket to the motor mount at the top. There are two E-torx bolts that clamps the subframe to the motor mount from the bottom side. (Size is likely E12, E14, or E16, I don't recall anymore) EDIT*: You must remove downpipe completely since you'll be moving the engine up for clearance. Once your motor gets cherry-picked up, the downpipe will limit the degree of freedom, and you won't have enough room to clear for the mounts to be removed from the subframe housing. If you so choose not to do it this way, then go look up how to get it done by lowering the subframe. (Re-commented this paragraph after consideration of ENZOCali's comment) My steps: 1. Break loose the top hex nut. Can remove the nut completely. 2. Use a cherry pick to hook the motor into suspension. At this initial point, you won't need to really bring the motor up, just make sure you're able to suspend the motor. I'll advise you not to try to lift the motor out of the motor mount's integrated threaded bolt because due to the angle of our motor bracket, you won't likely have the correct clearance. You can get this to free up, but you'll be juking the motor out this way. So hold off. 3. Go from under the car, look at your subframe for those two E-torx bolts for each motor mount. Break those loose and completely remove them. 4. At this point, your motor mount will be loose and ready for removal, but you'll need to play a combination of cherry picking and watching out for sideways movements as you jack that motor up and out. I'm always able to access the mounts and yank them out before the transmission touch the cabin. 5. For new mounts to go in, a common mistake that I run into is I try to secure the mount to the subframe first. If you do it this way, you'll spend hours trying to get the brackets to line up with the top screw of the mount. My best way (100% successful all the time) is to throw both mounts into the subframe box first, then lower the motor just enough so you can maneuver the motor mount upward for the bolt to catch the bracket, spin a few rounds of the top hex nut on and let it dangle, while you're doing this, your mount should be halfway dangling in the subframe's box. You want a loose dangling mount so that as you then lower your motor further into the bay and get to "almost" seating position (even if you have 1/2" spacing is okay). 6. Due to a still-loose motor mount inside the subframe box, you should find it very easy to aim the E-torx bolts from the subframe and insert them into the motor mount. The E-torx bolts are quite long so you should be able to catch the threaded hole. Hand-tighten these E-torx bolts as much as you can, then go back to the cherry pick jack and start lowering the motor into its final seating position. Since you've gotten the top hex nut and the bottom E-torx nuts in, these will smoothly guide the motor back into the subframe box. 7. Tighten everything up to torque spec. You may need to buy a 30" long impact extension to finalize your torque on the top hex nut. It'll make torque wrenching much easier to do. Note: Steps 5 and 6 involves habitually moving about the car, jacking the motor and and down to align the mount into the subframe box and leave it in a suspending standstill. This is likely the most dangerous and crucial part of your work, so be cognitive of your own work and sequence, try not to get hurt. The above is as thorough as I can be with this procedure. Hope you all can find this useful.
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2015 MINI COOPER - Mahle Pistons, Max Rods, BMS intake, CTS charge pipe, Wagner Intercooler, ByteTronik Tune, VRSF DP 2017 540i - MHD2+, VRSF DP, TU Pump Last edited by yupetc; 05-11-2023 at 11:33 AM.. |
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05-10-2023, 11:28 AM | #13 | |
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I really do like the idea about pre-fitting the mounts and letting them ride down with the bracket rather than trying to nail both holes at the same time. I did run into that issue when I attempted the job last time and had to abord due to clearance and essentially tried doing the same thing with just loose mounts. Now I feel stupid for not just throwing that nut up top to just lock them in place temporarily and let them hang as the engine is lowered. my downpipe and everything else is stock. exhaust system is a fat sucker and takes up a lot of space. I don't have the cherry picker either, nor too much space in my garage to store bulky tools but I did have pretty good control last time with a regular jack. This time around i think i'll get some bottle jacks to create more space in general vs. a regular jack. But cherry picker would be a great choice for this operation. having anything else under the car is definitely a space crowding problem but i was so darn close last time. i was like 1" short of taking them out. man, what a pain. Just a slightly different design on the motor mount housing and it would've been a complete joke to swap them out. These types of things just piss me off about BMW design but it is what it is. Thanks for the thoughts. I'll print this out and add it to my prep paperwork stash for the next run at it. Again, I appreciate you taking time to write it all up in detail. 100% legit response, so thanks! |
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05-10-2023, 11:36 AM | #14 | |
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If you can't get a cherry picker, get this tool instead: https://www.harborfreight.com/1000-l...hoCytwQAvD_BwE Just be weary that our engine bay is on a slightly longer base than this hoist can reach, but with a little bit of finaggling and angle setting, you can still get it to coast and move your motor and and down by turning the hoist's swing nut. A bit slower, but can get the job done.
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05-10-2023, 12:25 PM | #15 | |
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what cherry picker do you use anyway. do you have a link by any chance? |
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05-10-2023, 01:05 PM | #16 |
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I got the 1-ton Cherry Picker from Harbor Freight, too. Price has gone up. But for me doing garage work regularly and deal with quite a handful of motor builds, this cherry picker has been one of the best investments in my tool endeavor. Here's the one I got: https://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-...ane-61858.html
As far as HFT's quality is concerned, you're right, they are inconsistent and I shy away from theirs as much as possible. But on simple mechanical items, I'd buy them again and again because they've been improving a lot lately. But I still wouldn't trust their power tools nor anything heavy in electronics.
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05-10-2023, 10:44 PM | #17 | |
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I love my cherry picker, creeper, and transmission jacks from HFT tho. Rarely used and work great when they are. Their color coded sockets are a bit of genius tho. |
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05-11-2023, 09:20 AM | #18 | |
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2015 MINI COOPER - Mahle Pistons, Max Rods, BMS intake, CTS charge pipe, Wagner Intercooler, ByteTronik Tune, VRSF DP 2017 540i - MHD2+, VRSF DP, TU Pump |
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05-11-2023, 10:57 AM | #19 | |
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just a quick note on #4 above. I think you were talking about doing this work on 535 maybe. I forgot to mention that the mounts cannot be taken out (no clearance) without the exhaust pipe hitting the cabin floor/engine bay wall. maybe on 535 it's possible but in x5 F15, i tried and verified this already. it's impossible no matter how much clearance you have to pick up the engine, it will be limited by exhaust downpipe. so the downpipe has to be disconnected before enough clearance can be gained by lifting engine. just a sidebar note. I think you were talking about 535. This is specific to X5. |
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05-11-2023, 11:27 AM | #20 | |
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BTW, I have gone ahead and edited the procedure I wrote to include a pre-requisite that you must remove downpipe for the job.
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2015 MINI COOPER - Mahle Pistons, Max Rods, BMS intake, CTS charge pipe, Wagner Intercooler, ByteTronik Tune, VRSF DP 2017 540i - MHD2+, VRSF DP, TU Pump Last edited by yupetc; 05-11-2023 at 11:34 AM.. |
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05-11-2023, 11:53 AM | #21 | |
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i just confirmed in ISTA that someone was nice and helpful enough to share and sure thing the manual has the downpipe disconnected from turbo. so there goes that. has to be done and it makes sense. i have to swap out the tension struts on my 535 today but i'll try to get to this engine mount job on my x5 hopefully next week. by the way, one thing perhaps worth noting is that it might not be needed to really do way too much work with bracket removal and what not. i removed the passenger side sway bar that runs over airbox/oxsensor lines area to allow engine to have more room to move up. From there just another 2 inches or so is sufficient for the engine lift to get the clearance for the mounts to be removed. unfortunately i did all that work for nothing first time around jsut to realize that pipe's going to be the limiting factor. this time around, if i disconnect the exhaust i should be able to move the engine up a hair further and get the needed clearance. another option is to just remove the engine-to-mount brackets. manual shows 4 etorx bolts but it's honestly a bit puzzling to me because i see 5 of them. the 5th one being dead smack in the center of the bracket, which is impossible to remove without lifting the engine way up. there's just no space for the wrench. but i'll follow their instructions so we'll see what removing 4 bolts on that bracket will do. maybe removing 4 will allow the bracket to rotate about the 5th bolt without having to remove it. the whole thing is just a funky puzzle but whatever, i'll work through it. Thanks again for quick replies and insights. It's appreciated. |
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05-11-2023, 01:30 PM | #22 | |
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