motor mount weekend of hell... input plz

[aznpoopy]

long story - skip to the bottom if u dont want to read it:

tried to install nismo motor mounts this past weekend and failed miserably... saturday started up... for some reason my ramps kept slipping on the ground so we spent about an hour just trying to get the car up in the air. it was ridiculous... should have taken it as a bad omen. finally got the car up and took off the top 2 bolts on the driver side motor mount. took a while as they were stuck pretty good. got to the passenger side and realized i had to take off the fuel filter and oil filter to get to it. fine. took off the fuel filter and started on the oil filter and it would not budge at all. wtf. looked around for my oil filter wrench... no clue what happened to it. at that point my girlfriend's brother got in a car accident so she had to drive off with them to the police station. yet another bad sign.

i gave up on the oil filter (too late to go buy a 5 dollar one) so i decided to try to get around it. i went under the car and realized i didn't have the right sized head to get it off with the ratchet! wtf? i thought i used it for the driver side. okay... i spent the next hour trying to get it off with every combination of unsuitable tools imaginable. naturally i got pissed off and quit. finally my girlfriend comes back and she's like, 'gee i hope you didn't need this,' reaches in her pocket and takes out the ratchet head i needed. grrr.

started up again on sunday and used jacks to brace the ramps against a concrete curb we have by the driveway. with the proper ratchet head and a oil filter wrench i get the last upper bolt off in about 5 minutes. now we jack up the engine a little to take some weight off the two lower bolts and get to work. the next three hours are spent grunting, hammering, spraying, kicking and cursing as we unsuccessful fight with the bottom driver side motor mount bolt. finally i gave up and went to watch troy.

question : how the hell do you break off the bolts on the underside of the mounts? i thought maybe the weight of the engine was keeping them stuck so i tried jacking it up a bit less... a bit more... nothing worked. i used two cans of lubricating oil and i banged on it with a hammer. i tried heating it with a bbq lighter (hah) and banging on it. the passenger side one doesn't look as bad... but the driver side one is almost unreachable. i used a tiny 5'' long 9/16 on it and pulled on it with a myriad of different tools in different, uncomfortable positions. how did you guys get this thing off??? the only way to get a good angle on it seems to require dropping the crossmember... but i'm really not willing to do that for such a stupid job. help plz... T_T

[dannyca13]

use a socket, extension, and a breaker bar. 2 extensions if it wont reach. if you dont have a breaker bar invest in one.

[mykem]

back your car off the ramps, loosen front lug nuts, jack up car and support on jack stands, remove front wheels and fender wells, this will give you much better access to the mount bolts

also a tip is to use a mid sized socket, the deep socket doesn't fit well, and the short socket doesn't reach down far enough on the nut

also buy some pb blaster penetrating oil, it works wonders

good luck

[omen2853]

had the same problem. oly mine became rounded from messing with it so much. so i bought a dremel and cut the damn thing off

[Flybert]

I had to cut that one off as well. At the time, I was using a pretty weak electric impact with a 14mm universal. A stronger electric or air impact would have done the job.

[drift into a curb]

also buy some pb blaster penetrating oil, it works wonders

good luck

I second that. PB blaster does miracles.

[aznpoopy]

thanks for the replies... based on what u guys said; i'm probably gonna grab some pb blaster. i guess i should get a new ratchet set with a thinner extension. i have an 18" long bar that i was using but i couldn't really take advantage of it b/c my extension was too thick so it would get stuck against the edge of either the crossmember or lca, making the socket go in at an angle. i really hope i don't have to cut itoff. thanks for the tips!

[gsracer]

get an air powered impact gun it will come off in less than 15 seconds with the wieght on or off.

[gsracer]

or it will break off but thats neither here nor there considering you have new ones, ill be doing that this weekend on my sr

[drift into a curb]

If you have space, a pivot extension helps, but only if you have the space to use it.

[drift into a curb]

If you have space, a pivot extension helps, but only if you have the space to use it.

[SilviaSativa]

I stripped the poop out of my lower mount bolts, even using PB blaster! Try letting it soak in and numerous applications though.