Hey guys,
So in my process of getting my '98 Boxster back up to snuff, the first project I had to tackle was the engine mount.
The engine was making a very unhappy knocking noise on acceleration, or clutch and throttle transitions, and it felt like the clutch was very imprecise. Sometimes the clutch seemed perfectly fine, other times it seemed very short and grabby.
So I decided to test the possible theory of the engine mount being the culprit by popping off the engine cover behind the seats, and watching the engine motions as the car was driven up the street, around the corner, and back home.
Well, after watching the engine try to climb out of the engine bay, I decided that the front mount had most likely gone to Maui many years before, and it was time for a replacement.
I ordered it from auto parts warehouse late on Sunday night, and it arrived Tuesday night. The address on the box shows that is was drop shipped from someplace local to me, hence the lightning fast delivery time. I love pleasant surprises like that!
So Wednesday night, after getting home from work just before 6pm, put the car up on ramps in my garage, and got to work on replacing it.
Its a pretty straight forward process, all things considered.
No real surprises, or gotchas in the process, but once you have the old mount and yoke out, and you separate the two, and the center portion of the mount just falls out, it gives you that feeling that you make the right choice in replacing this worn out decrepit part.
Once the car was all back together, and my test drive confirmed that all is now right in the universe, that feeling of deep satisfaction overcomes you in the knowledge that you just saved yourself a boatload of money. Well, maybe it was a inflatable canoe's worth, instead.
Took me roughly 3 hours and 40 minutes to complete, while crawling around the cold garage floor. Old mount appeared to be the original solid style with the 3 mounting points. Strange that the new mounts have 4 mounting points, the upper right going unused on my car.
Next two projects are replacement of all 4 rotors and pads. New Zimmerman rotors are sitting in my garage right now, but the pads and brake lines haven't arrived as of yet (boo to **************************************** not being a fast shipper), and the rear struts should arrive on Monday night.
Once that is complete, I'm going to spend some quality time with it up in the mountain roads that I have here in the Denver Colorado area. I'm already familiar with them as I'm an avid motorcyclist, but am very much looking forward to driving them during the couple months before they are clean enough to enjoy on the bikes (3 Hondas and 3 Ducati's grace my garage, all of which I also perform all the services on myself).
If anyone's interested, I can upload a picture of the very dead engine mount.
Some people, like myself, love examining dead mechanical components.
Sooner or later, curiosity will get the better of me, and on a rainy afternoon, I will pop off the valve cover on one of the cylinder heads, just to take a look.
BC.