I have just been told by mechanic that my motor mounts are bad. I have a 1993 honda accord ex. I called honda to get a quote and was blown away by the cost. The car itself is in pretty decent shape and its just not worth going with honda parts. I have always gone with honda parts in the past but this time its not possible. The value of the car is not worth it. Has anybody installed aftermarket mounts in their accord? If so what do you recommend I use? I'm a harley davidson mechanic by trade and have done pontiac and olds motor mounts and boy what a price difference. I haven't seen any reviews on the net about aftermarket motor mounts. I would hate to get rid of her because she's good on gas. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Chris

 

Car details??

Manual trans - go for it.

Auto trans Accord has a vacuum-operated mount in the rear (down low against firewall). Parts are pricey, and it's a bit of a pain to get at. (Well, the manual-trans mount is just as hard to reach, but isn't so pricey.) Aftermarket mount in the rear will give you all kinds of nasty vibrations, but if you like Harleys...

Grab the valve cover & shake - look for which ones are coming apart & look to see if you wanna tackle replacing them yourself. What symptoms is the car displaying? Maybe not all are bad?

 

I'm sorry it does have a automatic transmission. It just vibrates pretty bad in reverse and I can feel it at when I'm stopped. I quit doing oil changes on my car and I take it to a honda tech that left honda along time ago and runs his own business. He is a real straight shooter and he told me that all of them were completely shot. I think I could handle them all but the rear one but it just isn't cost effect to me to buy them at honda. I have looked on craigslist and ebay to see if I could pick up a oem rear one that someone was getting rid of but no luck. The aftermarket ones I looked at were from rockauto and autozone were pretty closely priced with napa being a tad higher. Do you think that the aftermarket one would produce more vibration than the worn out oem rear mount?

 

A lot more than the stock mount. The stock mount gets real soft when idling in gear to reduce the vibrations. Then gets hard when you're on the gas (or in neutral).

 

Looking around for the motor mounts I found some places like majestic honda and college hills honda have a pretty decent discount online sales department. You could see retail and the sale price. I really don't care for handling charges but what can you do. Looking at the retail price I came to realize that my local dealer colonial honda here in glendale,ca was charging really high prices way above retail. It pays to shop around for sure. I can get three of the mounts online for about 200 bucks new that's including shipping and I will probably go with a used rear mount. Labor on the rear mount is not to cheap but honestly I'm sure it will last the life of the car. Thanks again for your help. I see your from ohio. I was born and raised there. Thought it was cool that the only person who helped me was from my home state.

 

once a member gets the proper response from other members in the forum, there is no need
for other members to add to the already correct replies ..that's the reason no one else replied

 

Well I was born & raised in the Milwaukee area, not OH. Still it's just a matter of opportunity who answers first.

Shopping around is always useful. I've found that what the on-line places show as "list" price can be either higher or lower than my local dealer. It's always worth a phone call & occasionally the dealer will match a price.

If you get a used rear mount, make sure to check that it holds vacuum. Got a MityVac or something like that?

Aftermarket mounts are almost always stiffer than stock. They're intended for people who WANT that. I remember a thread by someone who got aftermarket polyurethane mounts because he thought they were "high performance". Well, they are, sort-of. He was completely unprepared for the bone-jarring vibration & it almost sounded like he wanted to blame everyone but himself.

 

Forgot to mention how to diagnose...

Follow the vacuum hose from the rear mount, until you find a solenoid valve. (Any rotted or loose vacuum hoses??) Then find someone you trust to stand on the brakes for you...

1 - engine all warmed up.
2 - shift into D or R and hold the brake.
3 - unplug the wiring harness from that solenoid valve.

That should make a big noticable difference in the vibration. If not, there's something wrong.
a) solenoid valve broken
b) not getting good vacuum - trace the hose back to the intake manifol
c) mount itself is broken (not holding vacuum)
d) bad circuit controlling the solenoid valve

Being a mechanic you can probably troubleshoot from there, but post back if you need more.

 

It is now 2013 and this is just the article I needed to read. Thanks guys and happy new year.