My "luck" continues with 3sgte 3rd gen, Broke 2/3 motor mounts. Options

[yarik83]

My luck would have it... sometime when I was not in the car my passenger side mount and front engine mount broke. I am pretty sure it happened by itself because I would have heard a loud thud of engine dropping. My symptoms started with my exhaust rattling and I figured that I must have bent my pipe right in between cat back and the header. So I drove like that for a day then I heard thuds while shifting between first and second gear.. my heart sunk and I was dead sure that my tranny went banana sandwich. So I drive it to meineke and voice my opinion on the exhaust. They lift it up and they cant figure out why is my pipe right against the cross member. It did not take us long to figure out that engine was not sitting properly. Turns out that mounts broke. Right now I have it on order from that guy on ebay. I hope he wont rip me off.. just not in a mood to spend more money. I just bought a house and I must have spent like 10000 this month.

So.. this brings me to the question. I thought that stock 5sfe mounts and 3sgte engine go like bread and butter. What would cause it to brake? Car is drivable and until I get it fixed I am kind of forced to drive it to and from work. I am being very careful though. Although mounts are broken they are still holding engine up although it looks like tranny mount and the cross member are doing majority of the work.. sigh just another thing to add to random car fixes.

[yarik83]

I would have to agree on one of the rubber fittings wearing out. That is where the front of the car is and engine is attached to cross member right behind the intercooler and fans. Mount itself is fine but like you said rubber insert is broken. Now the passenger side mount is broken for sure (right where belts are). My engine is visibly tilted towards passenger side and not to exaggerate at least a few degrees. Car drives and everything but when my exhaust hits the cross member I feel like killing a baby seal. The car vibrates and you can hear the sound from at least couple dozen feet away. I scare middle school children when I pull out from the parking lot.

My mounts should be here on monday as per ups and I hope to have that issue taken care of asap.

I have postponed all further modifications until late spring of 2010 because right now I need my car like air. Working for a mining company comes with its perks. You have to drive in the middle of nowhere to get there. They are building a new office site about mile and a half away from my newly bought townhouse so at that time I will finally have it painted, install air suspension, lambo doors and I will be done. I figure that will take forever anyways but by that point I will be driving a bicycle to work.

I just hope that one of those days my almost 10 year celica odyssey will finally reach its successful finish line. I plan to keep the car until it dies I guess. I have been following developments of new gen supra, new gen celica and of course the evo.. and my celi will always be there complimenting my parking lot and recreational driving.