This is a relatively straight forward job if you dont mind a bit of time on your back (which is most of you beat-offs
)Tools required:
17 & 14mm ring spanners and sockets.
Bennoz difficulty spanner rating: 3/10
Bennoz "You f**cking c**t!" rating: 2
These 2 lower mounts wear quite easily & should be replaced every 100,000kms.
Signs that your mounts are wearing:
- Time between pushing the accelerator down vs the time it takes the car to take off is slow
- Dull thuds coming from the engine bay during acceleration & when easing off the accelerator
- large visible movements in the motor when revving.
- loud clang when revving the motor if the mounts are badly worn through.
Here is a diagram as to how the mounts become worn. The natural toque of the motor pulls the mounts in certain directions. Over time, the mounts will wear & eventually break through the rubber. The rear mount is renowned for being the weakest link - as you can see its physically smaller than the front mount. Also note, that when replacing a mount, you should always replace them both at the same time - because if you only replace one, then the strongest point will still be the weaker mount & the new mount will wear out faster as it is relying on the other, more worn mount. For high horespower applications, its recommended that the standard mounts are upgraded. You can have old mounts rebushed with polyurethane. It will make the throttle application much more responsive at a cost of more cabin vibration & noise.
Also note - the mounts are different on a manual vs a tip.
Part numbers:
Manual front mount: MR197540
Manual rear mount: MB691237 or MB949166
Tip front mount: MR131296
Tip rear mount: MR223674
Oh, and they are FTO specific mounts - therefore Mitsubishi Australia will charge like a wounded bull for them. I bought mine from Camskill in the UK.
Both the mounts are bolted to the one crossmember - it has to come out to change them. The cross member is held in by 4 x 17mm bolts.
2 at the front of it:
And 2 at the rear of it: (not so easy to get to with just a jack)
Once you undone those, you then need to unbolt the actual mounts from the engine itself. For examples sake I have used the front one pictured here as I had more light there. Its just the one bolt that goes through each mount - they are often very tightly done up - hence the 2 x "You f**king c**t!" rating.
As you undo the last mount bolt, the cross member will drop out quite easily. It will look like this: (note in this pic I have already replaced one mount)
Now its just a matter of undoing the 2 x 14mm botls that hold each mount to the cross member & bolting on the new ones. While it doesnt matter which way the mounts face, it is important that the front & rear are kept seperate & bolted onto the same end of the cross member.
Here's a pic of an old mount versus a new mount. While it may just look dirty, if I poke a screw driver through the centre hole & move the rubber about, I can see cracks & effectively see daylight through the other side of the rubber. I've seen a lot worse thou...
Reassembly is the exact reverse of removal.
- put the crossmember back in place & bolt the mounts to the motor (do them up tight!!)
- Bolt the crossmember back onto the chassis
You're done!
