REVIEW: Nismo Motor and transmission Mounts

[Thoughtful_One]

I have installed these parts yesterday. I started at 5:45 PM and ended at 10:30 PM. I also did this with a semi-mechanic friend.

Before Mounts: When I had opened the hood and started the motor, the motor would shake violently. Revving the motor would cause the entire motor to torque. I could also move the entire engine through the shifter alone. (If you can push the shifter all the way to the left or right in neutral and cause the motor to move, that is not a good thing!). Shifts were very sloppy. When getting off the gas after revving high from a gear into the next one, the car would buck. Even at low RPM's, the motor would move when changing gears. When in gear the shifter would move 1 cm in all directions. I thought the shifter itself was loose, but it does not stop moving when holding on to it in gear.

Installation: The installation was quite a pain. http://www.importnut.net had helped ALOT, and I highly recommend that site since it has good pictures and detailed instructions of what to do. If you follow it , you should have no problems. I have some tips though.

-You doNOT have to remove the oil filter to remove the bolts on the passenger side.-When lifting the car to work on it, we used a jack to lift the car from the frame, then we placed a car ramp under that wheel. We did the same to the other side. I would reccomend this setup since you might have trouble with torqueing those bolts loose. -We went under and took the large plastic guard off, then took the bolts under the mounts off from underneath the car. Note: mine were EXTREMELY tight. We had to use a pneumatic wrench to kind-of break them loose and then finish them by hand with a LONG pole (3 ft.) and socket-wrench. Make sure you or your friend is strong! The tops are self-explanatory and just take some manuvering to get to. -When we lifted the motor, we placed a 2x4 under the oil pan and lifted it from there. Make sure it is not too long otherwise it will be a pain to get the motor mount out from the driver side. Our wood was too long and had to cut it with a Sawzall. -A tip to make things easier is to know that the bolts on the Nismo units are longer and become a pain when installing. Since there is about 4 mm of unthreaded portion on each bolt, we had grinded down 2-3 mm, (not touching the threads at all!). Trust me, when everything was setup at one point, all that was needed was 2-3 more mm to make it fit. -When installing, try to bolt in by hand the top bolts when everything is lined up since there is a little notch in the mount that has to line up. It makes installation easier. -The transmission mount also caused problems in that maybe the trans. was slightly turned to one side, causing the cross-member to not line up perfectly when reinstalling. Some wrestling with it took care of the problem. -Make sure all bolts are tight and hop in.

After installation: When starting motor, ther was no violent shaking! Revving it high in neutral caused it to move a little but def. not as much as before. When driving, and letting off of the gas to shift, there was no movement. The shifter, though it was at night, seemed to move very little. When glancing down, I could see that it was much more solid.

Concerning noise: I did notice an increase in noise, but its mostly due to the stiffer rubber compund of the mounts. I did feel a small increase in vibration but nowhere near what others claimed.

Concering clearance: I did not measure the height difference. You could see that the new mounts are a little larger in height than the old saggy ones, and I don't have a strut bar unless you want to permanently loan me one to check!

Concerning switching L and R: I did not do this. I switched L with L and R with R and everything worked perfectly.

Final Thoughts: Great product and def. a NECESSARY upgrade. I will have to do more driving before I say anything else. If you have amy questions, please email me and I would be glad to help. ([email protected])

[znelson]

Heh I remember installing mine, was all good until we had to drop the motor on the mounts.. and I didnt have an install guide to help things. 2 hours later and what felt like 2 broken arms and a broken pry bar it was finished. Nice write-up, I shoulda made one when I did mine. I would consider this mod nessecary after you see/feel the difference between the two.