Bad engine mounts, but who cares?

Just got a '96 toyota Camry from my father in law, 150K miles. Great shape otherwise, but it shakes like ten epileptics when idling in drive. Mechanic recommends replacing motor mounts, about $700 to replace two of the three.

My father in law recommends just ignoring the shaking, or putting it in N at stoplights. How long can I get away with this? Will the engine really get into trouble soon if I ignore the bad mounts, or can I go on indefinitely like this?

Reply to
way.toss5
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well, if all the mounts break, your engine could end up on the ground instead of in the car. Or something like that. 700 bucks!!!!! That's rediculous. Take a look and see if you can't do it yourself. Engine mounts shouldn't be more than 20 or 30 bucks each. Although, I have never owned a 96 Camry, so what do I know. Come to think of it, I have never had any front wheel drive vehicle, but on a rear wheel drive car, it's pretty easy. Just jack up the engine on something safe (not the oil pan!) and swap it out. That's assuming there is nothing important that would be bent or harmed in any way by lifting the engine enough to get to the engine mount. Check it out....

loren

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Reply to
lolo

You can go to

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, search for {(engine OR motor) mount camry}, and a lot of good hits come up. Notably I just saw one from a guy who called himself a total layperson. He did this job himself. That says something to me about how much labor to expect. Many of the posts mention the cost for the repair, too.

I think whether to change the mounts depends on how long you want to keep the car, and what sort of trade-in value you expect on it when you do finally give it up. ISTM that, even if the vibration itself does not worsen, you are taking a gamble that much more serious damage will occur to other components connecting to the engine and not used to the fatigue stress that the vibration will cause.

The following site has a good discussion of motor mounts and how old ones that let the engine move more than new ones can cause problems in a variety of systems, from radiator hoses to transmissions to the throttle to the CV joints. Skip down to the "Motor Mounts" section.

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You can google for something like {"motor mounts" alignment} and turn up more discussions of some of these points. From googling, seems the parts price of this repair is around $100 per mount. So parts alone will run you around $200.

Another $500 for labor does seem a little high to me, too.

I would shop around and see if this could be done for closer to $400 to $500 total.

Ask at alt.autos.toyota.camry and alt.autos.toyota, too.

If I planned to keep this Camry more than six months, I'd have the mounts changed out, or do it myself.

wrote

Reply to
Elle

There are usually safety locks built into the motor mount insulators on most FWD cars, so that when the insulator cracks the motor will still not allow the engine to fall out. However, when all the mounts are bad, there may be enough shifting around of the engine to cause wear and tear on other components attached to the engine and transmission. It really would be wise to have it fixed. I would certainly shop around for a better price on getting the mounts replaced though. It might still be a considerable expense, because I have see some mounts that do cost several hundred dollars and require a lot of labor to replace. What were those engineers thinking of?

Good luck,

Reply to
Kevin

They were going to design it so it was cheap and easy, but a mechanic came to the engineer in the night and whispered in their ear to make it REALLY difficult and expensive to replace the engine mounts. It wasn't the engineer's fault...

Kev> >

Reply to
lolo

They were designing to a cost goal and a NVH goal. Maintainability was NOT a design objective.

Motor mounts will not fail under warranty and the more labor it takes means more $$$ for the shops.

Reply to
Tiger Pilot

Do they make solid rubber motor mounts that can substitute for hydraulic ones?

Do aftermarket motor mounts differ a lot in quality compared to OEM?

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

V6 or 4 cyl? If I knew that I could advise you as to the legitimacy of $700 and which mounts are probably needed as we service these car on a near daily basis.

This applies to ALL posters who have questions -- PLEASE help us help you by providing FULL INFORMATION as to what the vehicle is.

Don

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Reply to
Don

Not usually.

Usually.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin

Along the lines of this thread.... I forget the make and model, but last semester one of my students brought in a car that needed a motor mount replaced ( we never got around to it). I don't recall the exact price, but it was several hundred dollars. The really unusual thing about this motor mount is that it was computer controlled (there was even a DTC set that indicated a motor mount problem). It had a solenoid on it that controlled some sort of hydraulic valve. I had meant to do some research on it at the time, but I was too busy and later when I thought about it again the car was gone. I wish I knew the year make and model so I could find out more about how it worked and why it was computer controlled.

Reply to
Kevin

According to what I'm reading, some V6 hondas use active motor mounts..

"Running a six-cylinder engine on only three cylinders represented a challenge to Honda engineers. VCM required several advanced technologies to mask the vibration inherent in three cylinder engines with their more widely-spaced power pulses. To deal with this, the "drive-by-wire" electronic throttle computer assures that power neither increases or decreases during the switchover. Also, an Active Noise Control system cancels out excessive engine noise using a microphone to detect the noise, and then generating a signal 180 degrees out of phase to cancel out the noise. These canceling sound waves are emitted from the front and rear speakers during three-cylinder operation, idling, and at-start running. The ANC system is not needed when running on all six cylinders. Finally, two active control engine mounts, one in front of the engine and another behind, are controlled by the engine computer, which uses solenoids to damp fluid movement in the mounts. During three-cylinder operation, the computer monitors changes in crankshaft rotation rpms and sends this information to the mounts, which then compress or extend an actuator to dampen the engine vibration."

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Reply to
smile4camera

Thanks. That is a great article and is pretty much what I was looking for. I figured it would probably have to do with controlling engine vibrations, but I wasn't aware of the reasons and the technology behind it. There is just too much stuff out there to keep abreast of it all.

Reply to
Kevin

My shop has replaced motor mounts on Camry over and over again. I was fixing to log into the shop computer and pull out some of the jobs we have done and give you part numbers and prices of the mounts that normally fail because I think $700 is too much. However, I receive no compensation for this except the satisfaction of helping some with a car problem. If it means so little to you that you can't be bothered to tell us what engine is in the car then there is no satisfaction in it for me. I would be glad to research it and give you a report but I see no reason to do it TWICE!

WHAT ENGINE DOES THE CAR HAVE? THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FOUR CYLINDER AND A V6!! CAMRY'S CAME WITH BOTH OPTIONS! THEY USE DIFFERENT MOUNTS!!

Don

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Reply to
Don

"Kevin" wrote in news:jC4zg.67260$9c6.19575@dukeread11:

Gotta be a Honda Accord by that description!

Reply to
TeGGeR®

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