just picked up a 2003 a6 2.7t a couple of weeks ago and the seller said it needed new motor mounts, i have no idea what good or bad mm's feel on an a6 so i said sure and hopped in to do them. what a bitch. and i think my old motor mounts weren't even bad! i followed the guide posted there a few years ago but it didn't get very deep in the details. credit where credit is due:http://forums.audiworld.com/showpost...37&postcount=1
Start by jacking the car up. I rested mine on jack stands like this. I used sub frame near the rear lower control arm mount areas. Seems to be a strong and stable place to hold the car up.
Then proceed by removing the intake and putting the front end in ‘service position’. This is best done by following this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFmhJeDpLJU I was mostly able to follow this to the tee except I had intercoolers so to take the side brackets off the sides of the bumper I loosened the trim inside the wheel well to have easier access. You need torx bits for this. NOTE: on the driver’s side you can just remove the air box for access so you don’t have to take all the trim screws off, that way you only need to remove the two lower trim screws that attach the bumper. See the picture below:
The bumper has 4 plugs on it, as well as the windshield/headlight washer nozzle. if you washer tank is full, you will have to pinch off the hose with some vice grips or hose pinch tool before removing the bumper. i spilled half a gallon of this stuff on the floor myself.. when the bumper starts to slide out you can undo the electrical connections, the intercooler duct otherwise gets in the way. See the pic below
Once the front bumper is off, loosen the front end according to the video and move it forward one bolt hole like shown in the picture below. Put bolts back in so the front end stays stable and doesn’t rip anything. I didn’t have to loosen the coolant reservoir on my car
Next remove the six plastic covers on the engine and the air box so you will be able to take off the turbo intake pipe on the passenger side. There are 2 clamps and a bolt to remove for the upper inlet pipe coming from the Y-pipe (see squares). After removing the upper pipe, remove the lower intake pipe by unscrewing the hose clamp below the Y-pipe (may have to remove Y-pipe if hose clamp is oriented badly) and a 13mm nut mounting on the bottom. When these are removed, the lower intake pipe will slide forward and you can rotate it out and down in front of the engine. On the driver’s side the same bolts/locations apply, but to remove the lower pipe you will need to put in some extra effort as it will not come out as easily. Note: I removed the lower clamp in the upper turbo intake pipe also (as seen in picture, not circled), you don’t need to do that.
With the lower intake pipe removed, you will want to get some engine degreaser or carb cleaner and give it a nice cleaning, you don’t want any dirt getting into the pipe or turbo as you reinstall it. You can then use a 13mm wrench (use a ratcheting one to make your life 10x easier) to remove the upper bolt and washer on the motor mount. In the picture below you can see the motor mount bolt below the turbo manifold. This pic i stole from AW.
When that is removed, get under the car and remove your sway bar completely, this is straight forward, 13mm bolts holding it to the subframe brackets and 16mm bolt/nut holding it to the sway bar end link. Support the oil pan with your jack (and a hockey puck or piece of wood) like shown below for the passenger side and jack it up a half inch or so to apply pressure on the engine and not let it fall as you remove the motor mount (see square in picture). Then remove the 13mm engine mount bolt and the three 18mm bolts (see circles below). After this the bracket will come down, it is still held on by some cable brackets which I didn’t remove so wiggling out the motor mount was harder. You may want to try removing the cables from the side to make your job easier (blue square).
Install a new motor mount on the passenger side, screw the top screw in and line the motor mount up with the motor mount bracket (there are slots that need to line up on top of the mount). Tighten down the top bolt and then install the bracket below, tighten the bolts here hand tight and back off a quarter turn or so for now. Reinstall the turbo inlet pipe on the passenger side and button up the airbox and other things you removed. By doing one side at a time you have less bolts lying around and less risk of having something left over.
Now comes the hard part, the driver’s side. I will give you an option here, the job may be possible with small hands and the right wrench without removing anything up top. You can support the driver’s side of the oil pan with your jack and then remove the motor mount bracket under the car (3x 18mm bolts and a 13mm nut). With the bracket down, you might have enough room to get your hand/wrench above the motor mount and below the turbo inlet pipe and undo the top bolt. I was contemplating this because I was having trouble removing the turbo inlet pipe. Now let’s move on with the way you can for sure get it done.
See below picture for a view from the driver’s side with the upper turbo intake pipe removed. On the driver’s side you will also want to remove this small hose from the lower turbo inlet pipe (outlined in red). You will need all the clearance you have and this will get in the way. You will have to use pliers to break the small clamp on the turbo inlet pipe holding it on. Then you will pull it off, don’t be afraid to use force, it is probably on there real good.
Take a 17mm socket and put it on the tensioner pulley. Ratchet it clockwise and pull off the belt, then you can let it fall back again. You can also use an open wrench and a hex key to hold the tensioner pulley in place for easier belt reinstall later (see 1st picture). You will also need to remove the turbo hot pipe going to the throttle body from the intercooler for more clearance. Next remove the 13mm bolt from the passenger side that holds the ac compressor hard lines up. (see 2nd picture)
With the belt removed and hard lines loose, remove your oil filter (oil will slowly drip from the oil cooler, so it will get a bit messy, have towels). Now you can access the AC compressor bolts, there are three of them and I tried taking a picture of their locations so you wouldn’t have to track them down like I did. 2 of them are in front (ahead of the oil cooler) and one is in the back, between the turbo outlet pipe and motor mount.
With the bolts out, the ac compressor will slide down an inch or so and give you just enough clearance to get the turbo inlet pipe out. I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out so once it finally worked I took a couple of pictures. You have to somehow rotate the turbo pipe about 90 degrees counter clockwise for it to fit past the power steering hoses. To do that you may have to remove the bracket that the turbo inlet pipe mounts to from the side of the cylinder head (2 13mm bolts). I had that removed but I’m not sure if it is critical for the clearance. Pictures below show the moment the turbo inlet pipe is ready to slide forward, first pic from above, second from below.
With the pipe out, change out the motor mount just like you did on the passenger side. Reinstall everything and button the engine together. Now you can lower the car to the ground (flat) and start the engine. The motor mount bolts not being super tight will let the bracket and mount settle and hopefully reduce vibrations. After running the car for a minute or so, shut it off and jack the front end up again and torque the motor mount and bracket bolts down. You can also at the same time reseat the snub mount (and you should really be installed a poly snub mount because you are doing 95% of the work needed for that anyway.
Putting things back together afterwards, i only have a warning for the bumper, lining the two bolts up inside the fog light grilles took me over an hour (to get them to thread up into their threaded holes on top of the bumper). if anyone has a tip to make that easier i'd appreciate it.
hope this helps someone out, i did this in 3 long evenings, about 3-4 hrs each night, including one night that i mostly wasted trying to get the drivers side turbo inlet pipe out. realistically this can be done in <10 hrs if you're doing it the first time and following this guide.
cheers
Marko
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