Motor Mounts, cheap vs. expensive

[RussB]

I like your thinking, j-dawg. The front & rear are difficult to replace, the side not so bad, and the lower torque rod a piece of cake

[abscate]

Russ...I see volvo at 120 and lemforder at $70 for the front motor mount...and a bunch of stuff under 50.

My sense here is lemforder parts work well while the cheapies seem to be hit and miss.

I think I would go lemforder for the motor mounts.

Corrected name of mount.

[erikv11]

I'm tellin ya, I've had to do several front mounts the last few years, they basically went out on all of the Volvos I look after: go with Lemforder. The only other one I have tried is Meyle, and it failed after two years.

The mount under the crank pulley is called the front mount, it is on the front of the engine.

[northernlights]

I replaced all of mine (front, rear, side, trans link, top and firewall) with OEM (Hutchinson, etc.) parts over a period of about 2-3 weeks. It wasn't cheap as you have observed, and the rear especially was a huge pain in the ass. But, I hate doing jobs more than once, so I'll spend money on good parts with the hope of not having to redo the job any time soon. Most came from Pelican Parts as they have good selection and prices for OEM.

I think the hydraulic mounts aren't replaced often enough because

• 1) They usually visually look OK and
  2) They are much more annoying to get to than the rest.

As a consequence I believe they will sag quite a bit over time and overstress the other, more easy to replace mounts, especially the top, and maybe the side. So, everyone keeps replacing the easy ones and never the hard ones.

As I worked through my mounts, I did the rear last, and front second to last. After I did the front, I had to grind out the slot in the top bracket. The motor now sat high enough that it didn't line up right to the point where the bolt would not go through the slot without forcing things. To me that means the original mounts had sagged a bunch. That probably means they put a twisting load on the rest of the mounts even when the car isn't running, and maybe that's why they wear out fast.

After I replaced the rear, the bolt went closer to the front, but even then the longer slot probably keeps some strain off of the top mount. Whatever the case, both of the hydraulic mounts looked fine visually, and had probably been in the car since it was new, but definitely sat different than the new ones.

This picture shows how far the bolt moved in it's time with old worn out mounts to new mounts. I believe I snapped this picture after all mounts were replaced. Note the big ugly slot extension needed for the new front mount. The front-most position was where it started with the old mounts.

[instarx]

You won't find an increase in motor vibration if you replace all the mounts at the same time. Stories of additional virbration from the IPD mounts invariably turn out to be another mount(s) also due for replacement.

I've seen no evidence supporting this statement. Where do you get your data that it invariably happens?

[Vlvspd]

I welded up all of mine. Solid mounts FTW. I left a 1/4" rubber pad and about 1/16" of give between the frame. Don't want a cracked block. I'm running iPd poly mounts up top along with the billet trans torque mount.