Did your post go into how to tell if the mounts were bad? I don't remember that. If it did I'll look it up and reread it. I do remember that you said it was a real PITA and your post had a lot of details.sleddriver wrote:Well, you already know my thoughts on this. It's been well documented. You'll definitely notice AND your daily, lengthy driving-experience will greatly improve. This job will also be much easier given your NA status. First step is to see how much effort is involved in busting loose both top two mounting nuts. I use half ATF/half acetone when necessary.
Kudos to being "too particular"! She's lucky you pay attention to details. My aunt's husband was the opposite, which resulted in shoddy work, half-fixed ________ (FITB), and hen-pecking to do it right. $2100 is too much to accept shoddy work.
I would guess that a nearly 20 year old mount is shot even if it looks OK. However, I was shocked at the relatively decent condition they seem to be in. They didn't look too difficult to get loose in my car. I've got a non turbo and there is actually a decent amount of room. The one issue that I could envision is that since I have to jack the engine by cribbing and lifting the oil pan, the jack will take up the space (or most of it) I need to lie in to get access to the aft bottom bolt. I suppose I can get in there but once you block the whole central area with a jack your options get limited pretty quick. I also determined that I would need a set of wobble sockets. I have some universal joint sockets but no wobble sockets - I'll have to order them or see if sears has them.
My wife got rear ended by a woman in a Nissan Leaf. That particular car has a recall on the brakes which the woman said she hasn't gotten around to getting accomplished (irresponsible). That car folded up like an accordion. I'm pretty sure that she got a brand new car or an entirely new front end since it was a lease and the repair would have been very expensive. Our 3 month old car was damaged enough to show up as wrecked on the Carfax report and it required a week in the body shop. I am very thankful that nobody got hurt which was a blessing but getting the car fixed has been a real annoyance.
This was a very minor accident (for our car) and even the minor damage cost $2100 to repair. Since the police report said the other driver was 100% at fault you would think her insurance company would take care of the "victim". Its all about business and they argued for the cheapest fix at every step. The whole thing has been a very annoying distraction. Luckily we've never been in an accident. I had no idea how the cards are stacked against the car owner. The insurance people met with the body shop people to discuss how to get the cost as low as possible while the shop still makes money. So the strategy involves either skipping non critical items/steps or using low quality parts. Since ours was only months old I insisted on using the dealership body shop so I knew we would get OE parts. The car owner has no real say in what gets done until you get the finished product and can accept or reject it. They depend upon you being either stupid or ignorant or both and aren't used to someone crawling under the car to look at what they've done. The body shop manager looked at me in disbelief when I dropped to the ground and shoved myself under the car to inspect his work. When I invited him to come under the car and look at what I was talking about he declined.
My wife is usually a pushover so I handled the back and forth negotiations. The reason she was mad at me is because when she went to pick up the car the body shop manager told her what he thought of me and didn't spare any details - she can't handle conflict - I actually enjoy it. I expect that my attention to detail completely erased their profit margin. Now I have to start the process for negotiating the cars diminished value which is likely to go on for another couple of weeks.
