dmwil

Has anyone had an engine mount fail? I was installing a Rancho front differential slider skid plate yesterday and looked up and saw that the engine mount had broken and the bolt was sticking out. So I'll be getting that replaced this week.

Has anyone else had one of those fail? I'm at 156k miles and my Jeep is an 08. There did not appear to be any corrosion on or around it.

Sixty4x4

Wow! No never even heard of that. You had the Jeep for a while? or fairly new to you?

Mark Doiron

At 277,000 miles, I've not had one fail (knock on wood!). However, I did have a friend who had one break, along with a transmission mount, after a mild accident.

dmwil

I am the original owner. 156k miles and what, Coming up on its 14th birthday! LOTS of off-roading, but VERY well maintained. The darned thing almost looks as good as new, in fact. It runs/feels/drives normally with no unusual noise, but that sucker is sitting in there broken. I'll post some pics later. The mounts look very beefy, so I'm a bit surprised. I broke one on my 93 YJ many moons ago, but it had quite a bit of corrosion on the mount. This one has none.

dmwil

They do look very strong, so I'm very surprised. I've done some searches and found nothing, so it must be very rare. That's good, because I thought for a minute of replacing the passenger side as a precaution. But hearing your experience, I'm not going to do that. It looks perfect, so it probably is fine.

I'll post some pics later.

Interestingly, the cats were both just replaced. I'm thinking it broke shortly afterward because I can't imagine the tech would have missed the big bolt sticking out, right next to the cat.

It is also puzzling how it drives and feels fine, at least on the street. I'll be taking it in this week to get it repaired. Fortunately, the part isn't too expensive and seems readily available. I also don't think it looks like a hard job for a professional tech. It's a little tight in there, but there appears to be enough room to get at it without taking much apart.

dmwil

Here are a few shots from underneath. You can see the bolt sticking out and rubbing on the cat converter.

Sixty4x4

Mount bolt came loose and just got missed. Hopefully the flex mount is ok and new nut with serrated captive washer (from Mopar) will fix it. There should be some tabs bent out from the mount a bit to contain the bolt if it did loosen off. Did you talk to your son about this as that would only happen on an extreme shock on landing or something like that - IE not from normal wheeling even if it came loose..

dmwil

LOL, yeah, we may have a chat! He took his 04 Grand Cherokee on a dirt bike track in his friend's back yard and tore off his front bumper, fender liners, and bent a rear shock, not to mention burying it in a mud hole. He spent the weekend cleaning it off and out. He also liked the sound of the Magnaflows on my Wranglers, so he sawed off his muffler.

I do know he didn't take the JK off road because it hasn't had any mud or signs of dirt anywhere and he only cleans things up at gun point. But maybe he jumped a curb or something. Worst mistake I made was teaching him to drive a manual.

He's a chip off the old block, though.

dmwil

Got it back today. New O2 sensor on bank 2 cured the CEL and the engine mount was replaced. The tech thought the bolt just loosened and came out but upon closer inspection, the metal part that is hard to see inside cracked in half.

So she's good to go now and ready to get back on the trails!

Sixty4x4

Awesome to hear.
Funny thing about this reminds me of an instance back in 1978. Friend bought a brand new Jimmy in Vancouver and drove the Alaska Hwy to Fort Nelson. In those days it was washboard gravel (now paved) and when he got to the Fort (I flew) he complained about rattles and general loose feeling in steering etc. We went around that truck and tightened a lot of loose bolts in suspension, engine mounts and cross member even. Felt better than when he drove it off the lot.

Moral here is to inspect your vehicle often as I do at every oil change. Use a bar and big sockets to check all the big stuff.