2002 V70 T5. My front motor mount is starting to leak oil. I need to make a 1000 mile trip Wed - Thu. Should I worry about this or am I OK to take the trip? I'll order it and have time to replace it when I'm back next weekend?

Thanks

 

I'm surprised some of the more senior and more knowledgeable members haven't answered. I would think that unless you drive hard where large amounts or torque are required to be counteracted by the motor mounts, you should be okay. Just drive like an old man, OK?? Probably no one wants to answer for "liability" reasons, as they can't see what you are dealing with. I expect you to use good judgement.

Jerry

 

It's really all in the timing of the post. I believe this is the most active site I've been on so give em a break.

But for future readers: You should be ok in the short term driving on a bad mount. You will experience some bumps or knocks once in a while. Especially shifting into and out of drive modes, park, drive, reverse.
It shouldn't be left go in the long term. There could be problems that develop with misalignment and being loose.
And +1 to checksix, do not hammer it until it's fixed. Drive like it's a antique.

 

I always drive easy. This is my work car, reliability is important.

Started the trip today and noticed nothing different except that no more oil is leaking out.

Idled smooth, shifted smooth and got my usual 26 MPG. Most of the time on cruise control at 75.

The new mount should be waiting for me when I return home.

 

You will be fine!

 

Uneventful trip. The Volvo preformed fine regardless of the failed motor mount. The new mount was waiting when I returned home Thursday night.

Installing the mount was a bit of a pain. It looked like a 30 minute job. All fasteners were easily accessible with the car on ramps. Should have been, loosen bolts, jack up engine a little swap mounts and bolt it down.

In reality a bit more had to come off. The Haynes manual cautions not to lift the engine more than 30 mm or damage will occur to an inner CV joint. To prevent CV damage I left the right side and rear mounts in place and tilted the engine rather than lifting it. The front mount has a conical nose and a locating pin at the top. Both are recessed into their respective mounting locations.

To get the motor to tilt high enough for the mount to clear the recesses, I had to remove the engine bay cross stay and the transmission lower torque mount. To get the mount free of the sub-frame and engine bracket I had to loosen the engine bracket. I removed one (the visible one) of the three bolts and loosened the other two blind bolts significantly. To access the engine bracket, I had to remove the charge air pipe over the engine and the fan & shroud assembly.

All in all not a particularly difficult job but it did take 2 hours, not the 1/2 hour I anticipated. When completed I did notice that the idle was smoother, otherwise it felt the same. The old mount had leaked all of it's oil and was about 1/4" inch shorter than the replacement but otherwise looked to be in tact without any visible damage. The safety cable was still in place.

 

Glad it went well overall.