murdocsgarage

Let me start by saying, I am not a mechanic, I am a cheap guy that likes to save money. Use this as a guide, some of the stuff you will see on your own when you do it. I never swapped mounts before on the S2000, so this was my first time and was a learning experience. I tried to document it via pictures as best I could since I could not find a DIY for both sides.

If you don't want to tackle this yourself and want to pay someone, I recommend Tony at Mid Valley Auto. I took my car there prior to this and he's just a stand up guy. I took it there to have the retainers replaced and he insisted on inspecting it before doing so. Few hours later he called me and said my retainers are good and don't bother (160+K mile AP1!). So I had him do a valve adjustment, valve cover gasket, and spark plugs. He also told me what was wrong with the car and gave me my options along with prices. I didn't even know my motor mounts were tore til he told me. What I really appreciated was that he didn't grief me about not having him replace the motor mounts. Just cool about it.

In this guide, I used Megan Racing Mounts that I got from LeadfootAuto.com but they are local so that was a plus. This should work with OEM mounts too since they are nearly identical. If you were going aftermarket (i.e. innovative), it'll still work, you just have to obviosly remove the brackets from the engine and replace with innovate ones. It'll be straight forward.

Things you need, or rather things I needed:
- 14mm socket
- 17mm socket
- ratchet (I used a 3/8, it was manageable than a 1/2. I was able to loosen all the bolts with this by hand. They weren't on there super tight)
- short extension (mine was 3-4 inches)
- engine mounts
- jack stands
- floor jack

Not needed, but made the job a heck of a lot easier:
- 3/8 air ratchet
- air gun
- compressor



PASSENGER SIDE MOUNT:

This thing was a pain in the ass, I followed the other write up (which was a good write up), but it just didn't work out for me. I couldn't get the mount in there without loosening the bracket. So here we go...


Get your mounts



Admire my filthy engine bay and neglected car



Jack up the car and place jack stands (PS. Seibon CF fenders suck)



Here is the location of the passenger mount



Removing the top nut (14mm)



Prop the engine (I used a plastic tray as a cushion)



Remove these 2 17mm nuts



Nuts removed



Jack up the motor a few inches and remove the mount. Make sure not to spill all over the place like I did



New Megan Racing mount with the mount bracket attached



Here the mount is in. And you can kind of see that the bracket is rotated to the left. I loosened the 4 14mm bolts that held that bracket to the block and removed 3 of them leaving the top left bolt. I could not get the mount in for the life of me with this bracket fixed on the block. It's easiest to work at these from the bottom.



Here you can see the difference as I rotated the bracket to it's rightful place and bolted it back to the block.



Next I lowered the motor slowly til the mount was properly positioned with the bracket, lowered the engine, and hand tightened the nut (sorry no pics)

On the bottom I threaded on one of the nuts slightly




DRIVER SIDE

I removed the 2 17mm nuts



I then removed the 4 14mm bolts that held the bracket to the block. The short extension is helpful here for one of the bolts.



No pics here either, but I jacked up the engine and then wiggled the mount with the bracket until I was able to get it out. It took a little finagling to get it out, but it wasn't hard at all.

Here is the mount and bracket out



Here is the bracket removed from the mount (I used the air gun with a 17mm to zap it off). Here I wan't to show that the mount bracket has a circular bump in it that compliments a circular hole on the engine bracket. So you can see there's only one way it goes on. This is the same with the passenger side.



After this I basically stopped taking pictures. I was in the zone. But the installation is self explanitory if you were able to get it out. I reinstalled the replacement mount and stuffed it back into the car. However, when I got it in there, I lowered the engine slowly til the bracket and the mounting spots on the block lined up and fastened the 4 bolts. I used the air ratchet to do this, way faster and easier.



Now I'm going to note some stuff since you have some what of a visual now, I loosened all the 14mm bolts that attached to the block by hand. After that I used the air ratchet to loosen them all the way. There isn't much room down there and the air ratchet just made it so much easier. When reattaching the brackets, I first fastened the bolts by hand and when I knew they were properly threaded, I used the air ratchet to tighten them down. As far as torque specs on the nuts and bolts, I don't know. One of the reasons I loosened them by hand, is when I put them back on, I tighten them with about the same amount of force it took to take them off (if that makes sense). If you want a torque spec, I think the other DIY said 40 foot pounds.



My overall impression of the task. It took me about 2.5 hours to do this maybe? It wasn't that hard. Honestly I spent a lot of time trying to get the passenger mount in without removing the bracket like the other DIY stated. My opinion, loosen the bracket. It makes the removal and install of the mount so much easier. Was not worth the extra headache. The driver side was a breeze, that probably took 30 minutes to remove the mount and replace. Don't bother trying it from up top, not worth any effort. I tried and it wasn't happening. I think both sides can be done in like an hour and a half.


Hope this wasn't a confusing ramble and it helps somebody.


I still have the transmission mounts to do, but I had dinner plans so I'll be doing that tomorrow. I might add onto this with those, but if after you do this and you look at the trans mounts, you can definitely figure it out. Looks like it'll be breezy.


DON'T FORGET TO TIGHTEN ALL THE NUTS AND BOLTS!!!

4x 17mm nuts from the bottom (2 for each mount)
2x 17mm nuts from the top of the mount (1 for each mount)
8x 14mm bolts that go to the block (4 for each bracket that attaches to the block)

Slowcrash_101

Tranny mounts are exactly 232% easier than the motor mounts.

PixelJunkie94

Great write up, I'm sure this will be added to our plethora of DIY's on the site. Thanks!

Chris Brewer

Greg W

One tip on the tranny mounts...when you lift up and support the rear of the tranny, make sure you go straight up, not slightly off to one side. When installing some Innovative mounts last year, I used my floor jack (from the passenger side) to lift it, but the jack pulled the tranny ever-so-slightly to the right when it lifted. This caused misalignment between the mount's tranny and body bolt holes. Pulled my hair out until adjusted how I oriented the floor jack. Suggest a scissors or bottle jack instead. Other than that, an easy straight-forward job.

Yaupon

Excellent write-up and pictures. Well done. Thanks.

sleep

I just wanted to let you guys know that instead of removing the 17mm top nut for the passenger side engine mount, just remove the entire bracket (Four 14mm bolts) that attaches it to the engine.

Car Analogy

Torque spec for the nuts, 2 bottom, one top, for each side, is indeed 40 ft/lbs.

However the 4 bracket bolts on each side, those are only 28 ft/lbs, as they are much smaller.

Also note, those 4 bracket bolts are different lengths, passenger side vs driver side. If you do one side at a time, no chance to screw this up. But if you have both sides off at same time, driver side are the shorter ones (driver vs pass refering to LHD cars).

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