New Engine Mount Broken, Less than 1000 miles!

[Northboundtrain]

I've got about 700 miles on my new rebuild, and mostly, everything is great.  But the other day I noticed that the rear mount (the one that sits under the shift linkages has completely sheared in half.  This was a brand new mount.  Did I just get a defective mount, or could I have done something wrong to cause it to fail?  Is this common?  I did notice that the old mount was sheared in half as well.  Will I prematurely destroy the other mounts if I drive like this?  Is there a way to fab up a mount that won't fail so soon?  What about welding up a rigid steel mount?  

Thanks for any ideas.

[srivett]

You could put the engine through the radiator when backing up.  The solution is to wrap the mount with chain or cable to clamp it down until you get it replaced.  I'm not sure how it broke or how to prevent it.  Making a metal mount would make the car very uncomfortable to drive.

Steve

[Northboundtrain]

Perhaps I'd understand the problem better if I knew what function this rear mount serves exactly.  I'm pretty sure that the two side mounts and front mount will restrain the transaxel enough to keep it from jumping out of the car.  But it occurs to me that the transaxel wants to rotate around the axis defined roughly by the two drive shafts.  It would want to rotate opposite the direction it's turning the wheels, so in forward gears, it would be pushing down on the rear mount, and in reverse, it would be pulling up on the mount.

So maybe the mount didn't shear, but rather pulled apart?  Could I replace it and then fab some kind of clamp that would prevent it from failing again?

[vwmike]

That rear mount broke most likely because the front one is either bad or nonexistant. You probably popped the clutch in reverse a time or two and that is what broke the rear mount. That rubber "ball" on the front motor mount gets really small over time and allows excessive engine movement. As it is, that mount sucks, so I try to at LEAST use a heavy duty rubber mount like Techtonics sells.

[fspGTD]

It is not common for the rear mount to break.  Check the condition and alignment of all your other mounts.  If they are in poor condition or are improperly aligned, it will make life for the other mounts more difficult.  It may also be possible that you got a defective or crappy quality mount.  Go for OEM german-made mounts (try and find them with the VW part numbers cast into the rubber, as I have found these to be the highest quality.)

Oil or diesel will attack the rubber of any engine mounts and coolant hoses they touch.  If you have mounts contaminated with engine oils or diesel, clean the rubber very well and fix the offending engine fluid leak(s), so the rubber parts stay clean and might live long.

Heavy duty techtonics front mounts may be useful for gasser A1 VWs, but in my experience whenever they are installed in an A1 diesel, they make the dashboard vibrate like crazy, and so are very quickly removed.

If you want to keep idling vibrations reasonable, I would recommend brand new OEM mounts.

[vwmike]

Heavy duty techtonics front mounts may be useful for gasser A1 VWs, but in my experience whenever they are installed in an A1 diesel, they make the dashboard vibrate like crazy, and so are very quickly removed.

If you want to keep idling vibrations reasonable, I would recommend brand new OEM mounts.

I usually find that excessive vibration from the front motor mount can sometimes be avoided if you realign the cup. Usually people just leave that attached and pop the bracket out of the cup. Instead, try assembling it with the bolts tight on the starter and loose on the cup and then tighten the cup to the core support so that it isn't preloaded. I actually have run a polyurethane mount on my rabbit for the past 5 years or so and can't complain about vibration in the slightest...then again, we're also talking gas vs diesel so that will somewhat increase vibrations.