I am making a thread about motor mounts because for quite some time I have been driving around with excessively worn mounts due to our little burn out video when we busted them some time last year.
What is important to realize about the Mercedes-Benz motor mounts found on the W126 is that they are not made like many others where as there are metal safety guards that will prevent excessive movement of the motor. Once the rubber from the motor mount is broken the motor will move about in the engine bay and cause MANY other problems.
When the motor mounts are broken the engine will almost lift itself up upon high torque conditions such as acceloration, going from revese to drive and pretty much any time you are in forward or reverse motion.
The things that can be adversly effected are the fuel lines, brake booster vaccume line, Power Steering high side hose, drive shaft flex disc, and many other things are at risk of being broken under the torque of acceloration. When the rubber has been ripped the engine will no longer be held in place when under this torque, thus sending many vibrations down the drive line, it can also make the vehicle feel as if its shifting hard, breaking a fuel line as a result of the engine shifting within the engine bay can also be a fire hazard. A broken plastic brake vacume hose can cause a loss of power brakes, Broken flex joints can cause the drive shaft to smash up the under-side of your trans tunnel and also even set off your air bags if the break is at higher speeds!
Replacing the motor mounts is not a very hard repair. And the cost of the mounts are not that bad. I would recommend ONLY GENUINE MERCEDES BENZ MOTOR MOUNTS. I say this because many other manufactures of motor mounts out there are not of good quality. Spend the extra money on the Genuine Mercedes mounts and save yourself from having to do the job again. Another important factor is the hardness of aftermarket mounts is often not the same as genuine mounts, and this will be felt thru the entire vehicle.
If you need motor mounts, just spring for the OEM mounts. They are the best.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Hey finally got around to getting some photos of some nasty engine mounts. I have pulled three of these engines this month, so I figured I might as well post some photos of what they look like.
I am starting to see this more and more, W126's coming in with collapsed motor mounts.
In today's case it's a 560 SL - R107, and while I don't know if many of you are familiar with them, they are about 10X worse to change out than the sedan or the coupe. Also important to know is when the motor mounts collapse on these R107's it can eventually rub the oil pan on the cross-member!
One sign to look for that indicates your motor mounts are bad (On 560 models) is the drivers side air cleaner tube. If you are constantly having to put the air cleaner tube back into the front air scoop then it's time for motor mounts. Under hard acceloration the motor will lift up on the drivers side and actually pull this tube out of the plastic air scoop that mounts to the core support near the radiator.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
