How-To : AWR Rear Mount Install

gar777

Member
:
2003 Protege ES (sold in 2007)
AWR Rear Mount Install -- Instructions

I know alot of people have these pieces but have been putting off installing them cause they heard it was a PITA. After procrastinating about 9 months, I finally did this last Fri night/Sat morning and it wasn't all that bad. I wanted to write it up so others would be motivated to do it as well. :p
<o>:p</o>:p
I did this on my 2003 ES, manual trans with 11K. It took me about 5-6 hours but that was mostly trying to figure out how to do this. With these instructions, it could be done by 1 person in 3-4 hours, no air tools or special tools needed (except those listed below). Sorry for the lack of pics

Tools Needed:<o>:p></o>:p>

<o>:p</o>:p
all the ordinary stuff you'd find in a well-stocked tool box<o>:p></o>:p>

PLUS make sure to have:<o>:p></o>:p>

--sockets: 17mm -- 1/2" drive deep dish and 3/8" drive shallow, both 6-point, and 10mm --1/4" drive deep dish<o>:p></o>:p>

--1/2"drive socket swivel and 1/4" drive socket swivel<o>:p></o>:p>

--1/2" drive breaker bar<o>:p></o>:p>

--long jack handle (for breaker bar extension), and <o>:p></o>:p>

--LOTS of 1/2" socket extensions (maybe 30" or so in various sizes 2", 4" 6", 12")<o>:p></o>:p>

--long-handled 10mm combination wrench (mine was 7" long)<o>:p></o>:p>
 
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Step A Getting Access><O:p></O:p>


NOTE: some of this may not be necessary but I have big hands and prefer to see what I'm doing so I found it helpful. <O:p></O:p>

1. Loosen lug nuts on passenger front wheel, just break them loose.<O:p></O:p>

2. Jack up the car and put jack stands under all 4 corners. Make sure the car is high enough so you'll be comfortable working under it but not so high that you'll have trouble reaching over the fender and working near the center of the firewall. Most of your work with be on top.<O:p></O:p>

3. Remove passenger front wheel.<O:p></O:p>

4. Remove lower front subframe cross bracethe transverse piece which stiffens up the back half of the front subframe just under your shift linkage and exhaust. This piece is held on by 4 17mm nuts. <O:p></O:p>

5. Remove front strut tower brace.

6. Unplug 2 wiring connectors going to the stock air cleaner top cover and remove the cover. <O:p></O:p>

7. Remove air flow sensor and snorkel hose going to throttle body.<O:p></O:p>

8. Cover throttle body with duct tape or stuff a clean rag/paper towels in there to prevent debris from falling in. Remove air filter or put clean rag over it. <O:p></O:p>

9. If you don't want to forget your radio presets, write them down.<O:p></O:p>

10. Disconnect battery cables and remove battery and flat tray under battery.
 
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Step B Remove Plastic Wire Holding Bracket<O:p></O:p>

THIS IS THE PITA PART EVERYONE COMPLAINS ABOUT. While it is VERY FRUSTRATING, it isn't really hard. It just takes patience, determination and the knowledge that tons of guys before you have done this. <O:p></O:p>

This bracket is located just above the rear motor mount and blocks access to 2 of the 3 nuts holding the motor mount to the subframe. It is held in by 2 10mm nuts on studs welded to the firewall. The top nut is easily visible and removal is simple. The bottom nut cannot be seen from above but you can stick your finger in between the sides of the motor mount and feel it. Removing this bottom nut is the biggest pain in this project.<O:p></O:p>

1. Remove the fat bunch of wires which run through this bracket by: (a) on drivers side of bracket, remove electrical tape and then snip and remove zip tie which was under the tape and (b) on left/passenger side of bracket, carefully push down on the plastic tab using a small screwdriver and then use your fingers or another screwdriver to pry it out. You will reuse this piece so try not to break it.<O:p></O:p>

2. Slide the fat bunch of wires out. This will allow you to attack the bracket by itself.<O:p></O:p>

3. Remove the top nut.<O:p></O:p>

4. Use a 10mm deep dish socket (1/4" drive, with short extension and maybe a swivel) to see if you can get the socket on the bottom nut and then loosen the bottom nut. Once you've gotten pretty pissed off and have scraped your knuckles a few times (I spent about 2 hours), give up on this approach and go under the car. NOTE: Most guys who've posted here seem to have been able to loosen and remove this nut from the top so I'm including that here. I tried for like 2 hours, but wasn't successful. If I did this again, I'd skip this step and go right to Step 5 to try that approach instead.) <O:p></O:p>

5. Go under the car, lying on a creeper or your back and look up. Shine your light carefully up and you should be able to see this nut. Using the long-handled 10mm combination wrench, patiently work the wrench onto the nut and loosen it. I say patiently because it is tight down there, it's hard to get the box end of the wrench on the nut and, once on, you may be able to turn the nut only like 15 degrees at a time, but it WILL come off this way. If you want/need more room to work, then go back up top, pull the bracket off the top stud (you may need a pry bar, I did) and rotate the bracket clockwise. This will give a bit more room on the passenger side of the bracket, which is your point of entry for the 10mm combo wrench.<O:p></O:p>

6. Once you've removed this nut and the plastic bracket, take a break and celebrate. You are half way through with this project and now moving on to the easy part.
 
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Step C Remove 3 Nuts Holding Mount to Subframe><O:p></O:p>


1. Remember that bottom stud that held the nut which was a b**** to get off? Well, now it's right in the way. Break it off. I used a deep dish socket slightly larger than the stud along with a 1/4" drive screwdriver handle-type drive. I just bent it left and right and up and down until it broke. The firewall is not that strong here and the weld comes right out with the bolt fairly easily. It will leave a 3/8" hole in your firewall which you should fill later with Form-a-Gasket or something similar before you reinstall the plastic wire bracket. It isn't really much of a hole and there is something hard behind it but, still, I don't want to have an open airway between the engine and me.<O:p></O:p>

2. Using your 17mm deep dish socket (6-point), 1/2" swivel, various extensions and breaker bar, loosen the 3 nuts. You will need to carefully position the socket, swivel and extensions so that you have room to turn this assembly without hitting the various hoses and stuff on the firewall which are more or less in your way. These bolts are pretty tight so make sure to keep the swivel as straight as possible when breaking the nuts free. I needed the long jack handle slid over the breaker bar for extra leverage. You shouldn't remove the nuts at this point but loosen them up good so you can turn them with your fingers. Use WD-40 on the threads if needed.
 
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Step D Remove the Long Bolt Going Through the Center of the Mount<O:p></O:p>

1. Get out your 1/2" socket extensions. You want to attack this nut from the front passenger wheel opening (after removing the wheel). With about 30" of extensions or so, you should have a straight shot at the nut and have room to use a big breaker bar and possibly the jack handle as a breaker bar extension. This nut is very tight. To keep the bolt from turning, use a 3/8" socket with a shallow 6-point 17mm socket on the bolt head (drivers) side. Once you slip the socket over the bolt head, you can brace the ratchet handle against the firewall to keep it from turning and then you won't need a helper to hold it. If you want, wrap the end of the rachet handle with a rag or duct tape to keep from scratching the firewall. Now you can put some muscle into loosening the nut without worrying about the bolt turning.<O:p></O:p>

2. Once you've broken this nut free, take the weight off this bolt by supporting the engine from underneath. I used a 2x4, about 12" long, under the oil pan, exhaust and transmission. Don't lift it high, just enough to take the weight off the motor mount bolt.<O:p></O:p>

3. To remove this bolt, you may need to turn the bolt while pushing/pulling the bolt out. If it drags too much, try raising or lowering the jack supporting the engine slightly to make sure there is no pressure there. If needed, tap the threaded end lightly with a hammer (very lightly so as not to damage the threads). <O:p></O:p>

4. Once the bolt is removed, remove the 3 nuts on the top/rear side of the mount, lift the mount off the subframe studs and remove the mount.
 
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Step E Installation and Reassembly<O:p></O:p>

1. If you've gotten this far, the rest is really easy. Just insert the AWR mount over the 3 studs on the subframe and then slide the other end in so you can insert the long bolt through the mount. You may need to use a phillips screwdriver or a large punch to line up the holes before inserting the long bolt. Just stick it through the metal outer motor mount hole and then through the inner mount hole and wiggle until they're lined up. You may need some lubricant (WD-40) to help slide the urethane of the AWR inner mount piece around inside the U-shaped bracket. I also tapped it a bit with 1/2" socket extensions to get it in place. As long as you haven't tightened the 3 subframe mount nuts, you should be able to move the mount around a fair amount and get it all to fit.<O:p></O:p>

2. Once the long bolt is through with the nut on loosely, make sure the rear part of the mount (the part slides down over the 3 subframe studs) is completely flat against the subframe. Then install the 3 nuts but don't torque down yet.<O:p></O:p>

3. Torque the long bolt down. Factory spec is 50-68 ft-lbs but I went near the high end since the stiffer mount will put more vibration on this bolt. You will need your 3/8" ratchet and 17mm shallow (6 point) socket on the bolt head again to keep the long bolt from turning. This time position the ratchet handle against the transmission case, instead of the firewall, since you'll be turning the nut in the opposite direction.<O:p></O:p>

4. Torque the 3 subframe bolts. Factory torque spec is the same 50-68 ft-lbs. I went near the high end.<O:p></O:p>

5. Install all of the other pieces in the reverse order removed. If you broke off the bottom stud holding the plastic bracket in place, fill the hole before reinstalling the plastic bracket. I was only concerned about exhaust fumes getting in to the passenger compartment so I used Form-a-Gasket but there are probably other/better things that would work.
 
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Man your arent kidding about that plastic harness being the worst thing about this install. I started grinding away at mine with a mini die grinder the other day, Two hours of that and I still wasnt done with getting it out of the way. I NEED to get this done today though.

Great write up, some pics may help people who havent seen any of this before. Since I have been working on this for two days I know what things you are talking about.
 
TheJohnny said:
it's an awesome write up, congrats... but people need pics... ok people like me need pics.
People LIKE ME need pics, too, it helps you see what's in store. I'm just so focused working alone on stuff like this I can't really stop, wash my hands and take pics. I tried to make up for it by giving detailed descriptions but I know it's not the same. I'm planning the MSP front swaybar install next and I'll try to take pics on that one and do a proper How-to.
 
ELEmental59437 said:
Man your arent kidding about that plastic harness being the worst thing about this install. I started grinding away at mine with a mini die grinder the other day, Two hours of that and I still wasnt done with getting it out of the way. I NEED to get this done today though.
try getting a 10mm wrench on it from the bottom (lying under the car). it was slow going but that was the light at the end of the tunnel for me.
 
i got that 10mm with a small 1/4 drive, swivel extension and two inch straight extention on deep socket. After that was out of the way I took a dremel to the bolt (rant)

piece of cake install after that!
 
gar777 said:
People LIKE ME need pics, too, it helps you see what's in store. I'm just so focused working alone on stuff like this I can't really stop, wash my hands and take pics. I tried to make up for it by giving detailed descriptions but I know it's not the same. I'm planning the MSP front swaybar install next and I'll try to take pics on that one and do a proper How-to.


maybe even a pic of the finished install, with marks saying stuff like "here is the bolt from step 4 part B" would help. but this is the best write up i've seen. i just may try this myself.
 
Man, I took another stab at the mount tonight. I got the harness out of the way but I basically grinded the bottom half off with a die grinder. Once I got that out of the way, my 18" breaker bar broke my angle adaptor. So I bought another one and rented a 21" breaker bar and broke that one. In the process I also stripped at least one of the bolts. The shop that replaced my sub frame must have REALLY torqued down those nuts. I am going to try again when I do the clutch, or whenever I feel like grinding a nut off in a hard to reach location. It might just be easier to pull the engine out and do the rods at the same time than try and grind it off in its current location.
 
Wow, that is a pretty awesome write up, very detailed. It makes me glad that I just had the dealership install the mounts when they had the tranny out for the rebuild.
 
ELEmental59437 said:
Man, I took another stab at the mount tonight. I got the harness out of the way but I basically grinded the bottom half off with a die grinder. Once I got that out of the way, my 18" breaker bar broke my angle adaptor. So I bought another one and rented a 21" breaker bar and broke that one. In the process I also stripped at least one of the bolts. The shop that replaced my sub frame must have REALLY torqued down those nuts. I am going to try again when I do the clutch, or whenever I feel like grinding a nut off in a hard to reach location. It might just be easier to pull the engine out and do the rods at the same time than try and grind it off in its current location.

Man that sucks! If you haven't given up, try getting a jack handle or long pipe to slide over your ratchet/breaker bar and you should be able to get alot more leverage (and not break any more breaker bars). My jack handle was about 4 feet long and, even so, I had to push it pretty hard. Make sure to apply the turning force at the very end for maximum leverage.

This way, I was able to break the nuts loose with one arm. With my other arm, I held the ratchet head-extensions-socket down on the nut, pressing down as hard as I could. Actually, I think I had my whole body leaning over the engine and trying to put weight on the ratchet-extensions-socket column so it would sit tightly on the nut and not round the nut off. Make sure to use a 6-point deep-dish socket, as well, since 12-points won't hold the nut as well and will be more likely to round it off. Also, keep the 1/2" swivel as straight as possible so the socket stays seated on the nut and all of the turning force gets translated to the nut. Use lots of WD-40 too. Good luck!
 
wow, great write up

this will definitly same people some money (2thumbs)
 
If I may offer any suggestions... these are what they'd be.

To remove the wire bracket I removed the top nut without a problem. I then took the wire out of the bracket. With a screwdriver I wedged the bracket up so that I could get a socket onto the lower stud. That made it much easier to get at.

I put a regular sized 10mm socket on there first, then I put a 2.5-3" 1/4" extension on it, which I then turned with a screwdriver. After loosening it I could turn the socket extension by hand, and then the nut by hand.

That's as far as i've gotten. I need some 1/2" extensions before tackling the actual mount.
 
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