Powerflex bushes & engine mounts

binjoau said:
Well mount is installed but the vibration is quite significant right now, really hoping it calms down a bit. I am very pleased with how the car drives now though. Feels more stable, gear changes are smother and easier! My mount was quite bad so it's made a huge difference to the car
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It will settle. Trust me I had all three fitted and thought I'd got back in a rocket ship when I first started driving. Nothing near as bad 1k miles later.
 
[MENTION=1144]DanT[/MENTION] just wondering how bad these actually are when you say 'nothing near as bad'

I have a full set of these which I just haven't got round to fitting and wondering whether to do so. I would like to stop engine movement, particularly on acceleration but worried about comments re very bad vibrations.

My car is not a daily - which I suppose in one way is a good thing as wouldn't have to put up with it all the time, but then on the other hand it won't be driven a massive amount to allow the mounts to bed in and vibrations to settle relatively quickly.

Is this just the upper torque link that is the problem or all 3?

Cheers,
 
I've got the vibra lower mount and powerflex upper mount - I think the settling in thing seems bollox. It's vibrated a fair amount from day 1 and still does! If I didn't need them I would remove them.
 
[MENTION=3170]nicknameless[/MENTION] - hey mate, I'm not gonna lie when I first had them fitted I seriously thought I'd ****ed up my car, it was vibrating badly and the drive home was nothing short of a nightmare. For days after I still thought I'd screwed up my chances of ever enjoying the clio again as a daily driver.

I had the mounts fitted mid November last year and 4 months on I can honestly say that I barely notice them now. I can't speak for others but I know that in my case the mounts have bedded in significantly, not to the point where you don't notice a great improvement but to the point where almost all the vibration I was hating has pretty much gone, there is now only the odd rattle at very specific revs, as soon as I accelerate more or slow down it disappears completely.

The front end of the clio feels sharp and responsive. Dives into bends nicely and all together feels more connected car vs engine.....Yeh I use every ultra racing brace, KW's and cup racer front arb but I can't help but think that the engine mounts make even more difference because of this.

All said and done my advice would be as follows.....if you can put up with hating it for 3-4 weeks ironing out panels that rattle building up to 2 months before you really feel that they have started to settle properly (1000-1500 miles for me) then I would say go for it as it genuinely is a great mod for the price too.

Incase you are wondering what I mean about ironing out vibrations then that basically consists of removing interior panels and fixing small thin pieces of squidgy foam to the vibration points. This absorbs the rattle and hence vibration disappears in bad areas. All I did to pinpoint vibration points was literally find an empty side road and drive down it pressing in different areas of whatever panel was vibrating in the front of the car and making a mental note of where I pressed when it stopped vibrating. Get back to drive way and remove panel, stick enough foam to the offending area and refit panel. Hey presto vibration gone. I'd say I've done that about 7-8 times around the car and can honestly say that as the mounts have gradually bedded in and I have smoothed out the vibrations I can drive along any road without constantly waiting for a vibration to kick off again.

And let me assure you all that feels very good.
 
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DanT said:
@nicknameless - hey mate, I'm not gonna lie when I first had them fitted I seriously thought I'd ****ed up my car, it was vibrating badly and the drive home was nothing short of a nightmare. For days after I still thought I'd screwed up my chances of ever enjoying the clio again as a daily driver.

I had the mounts fitted mid November last year and 4 months on I can honestly say that I barely notice them now. I can't speak for others but I know that in my case the mounts have bedded in significantly, not to the point where you don't notice a great improvement but to the point where almost all the vibration I was hating has pretty much gone, there is now only the odd rattle at very specific revs, as soon as I accelerate more or slow down it disappears completely.

The front end of the clio feels sharp and responsive. Dives into bends nicely and all together feels more connected car vs engine.....Yeh I use every ultra racing brace, KW's and cup racer front arb but I can't help but think that the engine mounts make even more difference because of this.

All said and done my advice would be as follows.....if you can put up with hating it for 3-4 weeks ironing out panels that rattle building up to 2 months before you really feel that they have started to settle properly (1000-1500 miles for me) then I would say go for it as it genuinely is a great mod for the price too.

Incase you are wondering what I mean about ironing out vibrations then that basically consists of removing interior panels and fixing small thin pieces of squidgy foam to the vibration points. This absorbs the rattle and hence vibration disappears in bad areas. All I did to pinpoint vibration points was literally find an empty side road and drive down it pressing in different areas of whatever panel was vibrating in the front of the car and making a mental note of where I pressed when it stopped vibrating. Get back to drive way and remove panel, stick enough foam to the offending area and refit panel. Hey presto vibration gone. I'd say I've done that about 7-8 times around the car and can honestly say that as the mounts have gradually bedded in and I have smoothed out the vibrations I can drive along any road without constantly waiting for a vibration to kick off again.

And let me assure you all that feels very good.
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Thanks for the very detailed explanation. Not sure I want to deconstruct the car to isolate vibrations though and naively I thought the symptoms were mainly at idle, not on the move.
 
No worries at all. With regard to vibration it is mainly felt at idle. It's the interior I found would vibrate as a result of the engine under load when driving along normally. When your gunning it everything shuts up I found I guess because the engine is putting considerably more pressure on the mounts than when just pootling along at 30-40mph.
 
Your right all the front end shudder is just at idle. I found this transfers into the interior when the cars moving. Hence the interior vibrating I'm talking about.
 
EviLNeeDs said:
Has anyone fitted all of the black series bushings?
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I have (3 engine mounts along with all wishbones and rear beam bushings, waiting for the gearbox mount to come), they really feel like You're driving a race car - much sharper steering, no engine movement whatsoever. Bear in mind though that the entire car starts to shake like crazy and new rattles appears every now and then, they settle down after a while but not much (or maybe i've got used to it), anyway at idle even the bonnet, not to mention the steering wheel, shakes like mad and because of that You can't see anything in a rear-view mirror - but i like it (its a track car with empty interior now so it doesn't bother me but used to serve me for daily commute before and wasn't all that bad for me, but it's just me - every one else just could not stand driving with me)
 
alex_hazard said:
How many hours labour roughly to fit camber and castor adjustable bushes? Is it something I could do myself with basic tools?
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As long as you can press out the old bushes you can do it. Some have set fire to their old bushes to get them out.
 
Just to resurrect an old thread rather than starting a new one.

Is there anyone in here who fitted only the lower engine mount powerflex insert? And if so can you comment on the vibrations please?

thanks
 
Yiannis197 said:
Just to resurrect an old thread rather than starting a new one.

Is there anyone in here who fitted only the lower engine mount powerflex insert? And if so can you comment on the vibrations please?

thanks
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[MENTION=2045]Yiannis197[/MENTION] From what I've read on here, adding the upper torque arm and the lower engine mount insert adds very little vibration. The majority of extra vibration comes from the upper mount insert. I haven't done the lower mount myself, although I have done the upper insert + torque arm. There's a lot of extra vibration from this, although it's also bedded in a lot too.

I'd like to change it one day and take the upper insert out, and put the lower one in. I can't imagine the car would feel any less tight to drive, since it's the torque arm that stops engine movement, but the most of the vibration would be gone.
 
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