[SteveSarre]

Hi all,

Went into an independent Volvo garage recently to talk about front end problems.

I knew how to test the top mount, by pulling the engine forwards and backwards, looking for excessive movement and checking for splits in the mount.

But he grabbed the steel plate that the top rear mount sits in, and pushed and pulled it from side to side (left and right across the car).
I hadn't thought about it before, but that tests the lower right mount (near the crankshaft pulley).

He found much more movement than expected.

I took the old mount (Febi) off and compared it with a new (Meyle). The Febi rubber was still bonded to the base plate, and no splitting had started.
But the new mount was much stiffer in both the fore and aft, and left and right directions. The mount was also sitting taller within its steel housing.

The Febi mount was not very old, and had not done high miles although quite a lot had been done with a large trailer.


Hope that helps,
Steve