This is how I replaced the motor mounts on my 98 S500. Don't have any special tools, lifts, or help.
First thing I notice is no room on either side in the engine compartment. Period. But fairly easy to get to the two bolts underneath the frame. So I jacked up motor with floor jack by placing 4x4 board under oil pan. That gave me barely enough room to get a socket on it, and it finally came out. BTW - 13mm on the bottoms, 17mm on the top.
<-- Here's the old one that WAS on the right side (as sitting in car).
<-- notice how flattened the old mount looks next to the new one, also rubber is glazed flat where motor rested on top of collapsed mount.
<-- There's about 1.5" of room between the headers and the oil filter in there. This is with the motor jacked up too. Anyone notice the top plate/protector is missing?
<< -- No room here at all! This is on the drivers side, and is wrapped and routed with fragile plumbing of every conceivable kind, mostly air conditioning and bleed heat from the heater cores. Some hydraulics and pneumatics, even brake and anti-skid make there way near here.
Interestingly - lining up the new mount was how I spent most of the afternoon. If I'd screw in the bolts on the bottom, the top would not align. If I screwed in the top bolt, the bottoms would not align. So with a little finesse', I was able to jack the motor up and down and all around and finally get all 3 bolts started.
What kind of tools should I have had? A full blown shop lift (off floor), a tall tranny jack w/flange mounts, a helper and some REAL skinny arms would have been pretty cool.
BTW - I was pleasantly surprised at how much higher freq vibes the car exibited with flat MM's. I would never really have noticed as it felt pretty much like an American car. But after new mm's, this car gives no indication on the inside that the motor is even running. You'll have to look at the tach to make sure.
I had a blast doing this, and it probably saved me $600-650 from the shop. Now it'll cost me about $100 from the shop instead...
Did you replace all 3 or just the front L and R? How much did you have to pay for the mounts?
Did you replace the mounts because of the vibration or could you tell by visual inspection that they were flat?
Very cool!. I dont even own an S500 but still think its really nice of you to post this up. It will save someone a lot of time and money. Hats off to you!.
Nice write-up! It brought back "fond" memories of my motor mount replace project. You're not kidding about getting those damn bolts to line up...took what seemed forever to finally get them all going. For those that want a visual clue as to the condition of their motor mounts, look at the bottom of the mechanically driven radiator fan, because you cannot see the mounts well enough. If the blade tips are closer to the shroud than at the top, the mounts are probably starting to collapse or are collapsed. My blade tips were actually touching the shroud!
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1995 S600, 1 of 618 (sold)
"Speed is just a question of money...how fast you wanna go?"
I did that write-up so long ago I'd had forgotten about it. I posted a more lengthy detailed howto on my site as I remember, baxnet.com/merc. Not sure I left it before it went to publication.
To answer some of your questions, I bought the mounts from the dealer for about $100. I was doing it with a floor jack, but now I've got an engine crane which makes it a lot easier.
The old ones were just shot. Not sure if it's a time or mileage thing. Or both. They'll collapse and block your oil filter so you can't remove it. I saw an indy one day jacking up the motor on somebody's 5L to change the oil, claimed owner did not want to go to expense to do the mounts.
As the story goes, he griped about the car's overall noise level and coulnd't get over to the Lexus dealer fast enough. I know because I bought the 140 (my first), it was ticking and all that and the pracitally gave it to me to "get it off the lot". It was just MMs and oil guides. Sold it later for 4x my cost.
Same guy was told by Lexus dealer during sales cycle that "maintenance thingie" was just for unreliable cars like Merc. So he never changed oil in his RX330 and burned it up about 2 years later, sued Lexus and won.
Collapsed mounts will also crack your freon lines to the drier/accumulator and compressor. Look down there and you'll see what I mean. It's an easy fix. Saw a lady get her evap replaced over this. She never really found out, but it was the talk of the shop.
Yes, they're hydraulic, a fluid in the center is the hydaulic part. Yes, they bust and leak in short order. I've done mine twice in 50k miles, but frankly it didn't need it 2cd time around. Just preventative.
Oh - there are two motor mounts, and a tranny mount that doesn't amount to much. These are not the transmission bushings, which are solid and usually don't act up. This one sits on top of the tranny, up by the shifter electrics. There's also shifter bushings up there you should replace. Again, it's real easy to do them all.
Yes, I agree PC. Once the motor starts sagging all sorts of weird things start going on, like fan/shroud contact, fuel line cracks, I've even seen wiring stressed and one vacuum hose connector cracked.
Thank you so much for the feedback, and Merry Christmas to all!
<-- Here's the old one that WAS on the right side (as sitting in car).
<-- notice how flattened the old mount looks next to the new one, also rubber is glazed flat where motor rested on top of collapsed mount.
<-- There's about 1.5" of room between the headers and the oil filter in there. This is with the motor jacked up too. Anyone notice the top plate/protector is missing?
<< -- No room here at all! This is on the drivers side, and is wrapped and routed with fragile plumbing of every conceivable kind, mostly air conditioning and bleed heat from the heater cores. Some hydraulics and pneumatics, even brake and anti-skid make there way near here.
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