I have a 2006 S with a failed upper motor mount. What I am curious about is if any vendor carries these or have developed something that is better than the stock? With all the complaints about these, you think that someone might come up with a better solution.

 

As far as I know, nobody has figured anything out.. I'm researching refilling it with silicon though.. It would dampen vibrations and not leak....

 

Can you convert to the early style mount? I don't know if it was just a bracket change or something more.

 

1nf3rn0,

I think that is a brilliant idea. Since I am changing this out myself, I will keep my old one to see what I can come up with as well.

nabeshin,

I do think that it could be converted to the old style as the mount points are there, I just don't know if it is really worth it. They switched to the new style as they are just better at dampening the vibrations but they just don't last due to poor build quality. I just wondered if someone like Alta had put thought into a better solution for the 04+

 

Well, I've read a bunch of posts about failing mounts, even on very low-mileage cars, but I don't recall seeing any posts about *replacement* mounts failing. It's possible that the replacement units that the dealers are putting in have addressed whatever problem was causing the original mounts to fail.

 

Not true.. I know someone who went through 3 replacements...

 

Yeah, I know a guy that has done two so far. I just think that there has to be a better solution than what they are using.

 

Oh well, it was just a thought. I admit that since I haven't had a problem with the ones in our cars, I haven't been watching the engine mount threads very closely.

 

Trust, I hope this is the case. I have ordered my replacement today and should have it tomorrow. I'll probably do it this weekend.

 

I saw this post to late. We keep several motor mounts in stock at all times.

 

im on my 3rd on my 45k 06 mcs. all replaced under warrenty. FYI that black stuff is a bizniz to get off... It's still on my frame rail.

 

The early mount never had the kinds of failures the new-style mount has. The old mount carried the engine weight only, as there was a separate strut and damper to control engine fore/aft motion. The new mount combined both the weight carrying and damping functions into one mount, and it seems very failure prone. The oil that leaks damages the paint. Some upper negine brackets have broken as well, since the new mount has the powertrain weight and the reaction forces all being borne against a single mounting stud that splits apart the upper bracket.

All of the mountings are in place on the frame for the old-school mounts, you would need the mount, the strut, the damper, the upper brackets and miscellaneous hardware to convert. These can be gotten off a junked MINI (perish the thought) pretty cheap as long as the damage that put it in the junkyard did not mess up the mounts.