After enjoying the difference in the car from replacing the hydraulic passenger side mount, I decided I'd go for a polyurethane dogbone mount aka "Torque Restrictor".
The engine/trans do not rest on this mount, but it helps stop the 'rocking' motion that happens with transverse engines and transaxles. The stock one is known to allow a lot of rocking.
I have heard claims that it helps with shifting and clutch engagement. Never really believed it. The thing that bothered me, and the reason I replaced it, was I could feel the engine rocking around (to an extent, less than before) when taking off from stoplights or shifting. I never cared for it.
I bought the polyurethane dogbone mount from "Techstar Massive" engineering. It's just polyurethane bushings pressed into a 00-07 Focus factory dogbone. While they aren't designed specifically for racing, they do provide some improvement for street driven Focii.
Once it was installed, I noticed a HUGE improvement with the driveability of the car.
The downside? Noise. Lots of it. If the engine is pushing on the mount hard, at low RPMs (such as going 30 in 5th gear and trying to accelerate), you'll hear it. It isn't like a cabin vibration like the bad passenger side mount ... but it sounds like the car has an intake. It's a strange one, really.
Original compared to poly.:
Install instructions say 45 minutes ... Not so much. More like 3 hours.
To remove I had to:
- Remove two bolts from factory mount - bracket and frame end
- Knock out original dogbone. Woo - out in 10 minutes!
This is where things got tricky. The new mount was so stiff it couldn't just be punched in. So to install:
- Bolt dogbone to bracket (attaches to transaxle), slide assy. into the frame
- Bolt dogbone to the frame
- Line up two lower bracket bolts, bolt bracket in with 2 lower bolts
- Separate dogbone from bracket, rotate engine and transmission forward (this has to be done because the top bolt interferes with the steering rack)
- Bolt top bolt back in the bracket
- Bolt dogbone back into the bracket.
- Enjoy!
This is something I should have done when I was driving primarily in the city.
On the way back from my parents, I took the state road through small cities. Hoping to hit stoplights. Of course, I didn't hit a single stoplight.
I have heard they tend to tame out after a while. I hope that's the case.
The engine/trans do not rest on this mount, but it helps stop the 'rocking' motion that happens with transverse engines and transaxles. The stock one is known to allow a lot of rocking.
I have heard claims that it helps with shifting and clutch engagement. Never really believed it. The thing that bothered me, and the reason I replaced it, was I could feel the engine rocking around (to an extent, less than before) when taking off from stoplights or shifting. I never cared for it.
I bought the polyurethane dogbone mount from "Techstar Massive" engineering. It's just polyurethane bushings pressed into a 00-07 Focus factory dogbone. While they aren't designed specifically for racing, they do provide some improvement for street driven Focii.
Once it was installed, I noticed a HUGE improvement with the driveability of the car.
- I can "feel" the clutch engage. When taking off from a stoplight, I no longer have to give it a bit of gas or stay on the clutch longer than I'd like; I let the clutch out and go.
- Shifting is much more precise. I'm not entire sure how, but I did some "spritied" driving (never above the speed limit) but upshifting and downshift are completely different. I can tell EXACTLY where the gears are and where the clutch is going to engage. Before, I'd have to feel where the gear was when trying to accelerate quickly.
- No more wheel hop! The car used to wheel hop horribyly; even taking off from a stoplight quick I'd occasionally get some wheel hop. Now it either hooks up or just spins the LF tire.
- Engine/trans no longer feel like they are flopping around when driving.
- Engine doesn't shake at lower RPMs any more. This one really surprised me. But if I'm in traffic and need to idle along in 1st gear, or even hold the brake a bit ... no more shaking.
The downside? Noise. Lots of it. If the engine is pushing on the mount hard, at low RPMs (such as going 30 in 5th gear and trying to accelerate), you'll hear it. It isn't like a cabin vibration like the bad passenger side mount ... but it sounds like the car has an intake. It's a strange one, really.
Original compared to poly.:
Install instructions say 45 minutes ... Not so much. More like 3 hours.
To remove I had to:
- Remove two bolts from factory mount - bracket and frame end
- Knock out original dogbone. Woo - out in 10 minutes!
This is where things got tricky. The new mount was so stiff it couldn't just be punched in. So to install:
- Bolt dogbone to bracket (attaches to transaxle), slide assy. into the frame
- Bolt dogbone to the frame
- Line up two lower bracket bolts, bolt bracket in with 2 lower bolts
- Separate dogbone from bracket, rotate engine and transmission forward (this has to be done because the top bolt interferes with the steering rack)
- Bolt top bolt back in the bracket
- Bolt dogbone back into the bracket.
- Enjoy!
This is something I should have done when I was driving primarily in the city.
On the way back from my parents, I took the state road through small cities. Hoping to hit stoplights. Of course, I didn't hit a single stoplight.
I have heard they tend to tame out after a while. I hope that's the case.