Hey fellow motorheads...

New to the mini game and just picked up an R53 that needs a tad bit of work. What I hear under load is the tell tale signs of a bad drive axle with knocking on cornering under load. But... I also see a shot front motor mount and a weak lower motor mount. Did the "torque the engine" with e-brake on and the motor moves a fair bit. Right off the bat I know I need upper & lower mounts and am leaning towards a VM(?) street mount for the upper and have not decided on a lower yet.

So the question is... if both those mounts are bad would the axle get torqued enough to make the knock under load? Tight turns left and right with no load and its quiet. Additionally, under heavier load there is a noticeable vibration.

After seeing it be quiet w/o load I decided to try and stiffen up the upper mount as much as possible to test the thought out. What I did was take a piece of hose, chopped it, stuffed it in the gap on both sides of the upper mounting point, then took a piece of vinyl hose, added a chunk of wire to fill the gap and make it more ridged. Then wrapped that around the gap that typically moves in that upper mount. It did tighten it up and the frequency of the knock dropped as did the vibration.

Thoughts?

Getting ready to swap that passenger side axle and then the thought occurred to me to ask the community if anyones seen this.

 

If you know the mounts are shot, I’d replace them before ordering new axels.

If the knock persists I would replace both axels instead of one. You can usually get a better value when buying the pair.

Is it safe to assume you have a stock suspension setup?

It would also help to know what year your R53 is since the 02-04 and 05-06 years have very different top engine mounts. The 05-06 are notorious for failing since they are oil filled instead of rubber.

 

Thanks for the response... yeah I agree with what you said... and decided to stop & do the mounts first. It is a fluid filled upper mount and the MY is a 2005.

It is lowered on springs and I think thats it. How much its dropped and with who's springs, no idea. I have 16" wheels on there and am not a fan of them. Planning a wheel swap back up to 17's once all the bugs (however many pop up in the near future) are sorted out. Car is supporting my aging Ram (440K on the clock) when its down and will be targeting up to about 200~210 whp. It has a Dinan CAI (could not find any info on it so ???) and a 15% pulley from the PO, I still need to investigate what mods are needed to get to the target hp #.

I will also need to understand if the 205 tire will fit under the fenders with the current drop.

ONe of the first mods will be to wrap the fuel rail... cannot understand why that is not insulated with the CAC discharge right into it.. unless I am missing something. Past experience keeping the fuel from getting heat soaked is a no brainer. anyways... back to busting a knuckle..

 

Did you look at the front strut mounts for any cracks? Another potential source of knocks. Bad axles are usually evident with leaking CV boots. Also, bad upper mount (2005-2006) will show clear signs of hydraulic fluid leak. It’s dark brown, can’t miss it.

 

Did not look at the upper strut mount, have not had the time yet to dive into it that far. the motor mount is definitely bad. I am aware of the mushrooming issue with the upper mount sheet metal, is that what your referring to?

 

Look at this video, right at the 2:50 mark and check for cracks on the upper mounts as a possible source of your noise:

 

Thanks! Great way to illustrate the mushrooming problem and the broken mount! No broken mount but the towers are mushroomed. This was a Cali car for the first half of its life so I expected it. Going to start with both engine mounts and go from there. With the bandaid fix the frequency of the knock has dropped. Also, thought I mentioned this but the knock is only on left hand turns under load from the right side.

 

Could be stabilizer bushings, end links, lots of things.

 

New mount installed, no additional vibration from this mount (to my surprise). Knock continues, vibe under load continues... If it sounds like an axle.. if it feels like an axle... its probably an axle.

Any issues with these that have popped up? Would be doing both sides...

https://www.sneed4speed.com/r53-mini...assenger-side/

 

i ended up getting the gkn brand from fcp euro. Lifetime warranty. Check it out

no issues with the fit

maybe others with more experience can weigh in

 

Glad you solved it. “Lifetime” warranty is always nice.

Since you asked, I put DTA axles on mine thanks to ModMINI recommendation. Seems like a quality set and I have no complaints, especially for under 200 for the pair. I only have a 500 miles on them over the past 4 months though.

DTA part: DT1250125021

 

​​​​​​Good to know
Thanks for the info. OEM units are super pricey. You should do a follow-up after you log some serious miles on them.

 

Working on the axle issue now, down to the last 2 lower carrier bolts and out it comes. There is a significant amount of play in the outer joint, I suspect that is where the knock was coming from. Hoping to get it a replacement axle in hand and back in by the end of the day.

edit: btw, to my surprise, all of it came apart so easy up to the upper carrier bolt, that one was a tad tricky and will be "fun" putting back in.

 

new axle in hand, a few differences between them though, gonna take pics for reference and test fit the axle before moving the carrier housing over. i did not get it early enough to get this done today so it will be first thing tomorrow.

i have never seen an axle with this much slop

 

followup... axle swap done, vibration and knock gone. drives like a 15 yr old car should... well one that is taken cared for anyways...