Rubber Oh Rubber.......... you are so important

I believed many of you ignored these.
It is very cheap, US$10 each or so, genuine. V6 will need 4 pcs. 2 per Bank/Exhaust pipe.

These rubbers work hard and if harden can add vibration transfer.
If they snap, the exhaust manifold may suffer carrying the load/weight of the entire exhaust system. Hopefully the exhaust manifold won't crack.

Below is from my engine M276 3.0 TT and it is not yet the entire exhaust system, only 50% of it. There is another 1 of middle muffler and 2 of rear mufflers left and right side, still on the car.


I believe the M276 3.5L or M278 would be near identical layout to mine. Imagine the TOTAL weight of the system suported only by those poor 4 units of rubbers.


Approx 28,000KM. 7 years old. Below: Old vs New





The hole which get ruined is the body side



I lube them holes , so that it allows smoother movement




I always date print them
And it is supposed to be 2021 , not 2020 .......... DAH !!!


This humble rubber is very abused during use, even when not driven hard but on poor road surface. It is afterall the "suspension" system of the entire exhaust system.

The first section of the video below , the one on the tarmac was one of the lap on the circuit (2020) I so happened installed a camera underneath to see suspension movement.
The second section was me looking for vibration on all spinning components of the drive system and the bonus I get is seeing the thermal expansion of the exhaust system.


Have fun changing your RUBBERS

 

I'm a little surprised to see that much lateral movement from the engine.

 

thank you Surya for this ride along video... I like your Shakespearean poetry about "rubber oh rubber..." and miss the WOT swearing at non-turbo drivers....🤪

The heat expansion footage is terrific to witness. It must be stressing the 3 engine/tranny mounts to push against the rear difff bushings, right?
🙏

 

Cool vid, thanks!

 

Yes Pierre, it is suprising to see such movement. As with most long pipes, these exhaust sytem total length starting from turbo or exhaust manifold to the end,
along with the L bend woul be easy near 4 meters.... can "bend/deflect/whip" easy.

Yes Cali, so now we know, not only engine torque itself working hard aging our engine mount, the exhaust system is also twisting the engine mounts (2) and tranny mount (1) to 3 and 9 o'clock and the heat expansion pulling to 6 o'clock ( if seen from above ).

Senecat, glad you enjoy the video. At least it helps us understand more stuff on our cars.

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I have a spare DIFFERENTIAL mount ready to install, but looks like I have to drop the DIFF to do it, so its going to be a very long next time...


Actually we can tell engine mounts health at static engine OFF rather easy. It is height based, what's left of it. The elephant ear like rubber can be used as height control.
Here are my engine mounts height drop related to its mileage.


NO LOAD. 18,000KM ( my 2nd set ) vs NEW ( my 3rd set , currently installed ). New from factory is the 1st set, in 2014 when car got assembled.



LOADED, installed.








BELOW : My friend's 2010 C200, 70,00KM, never replaced since 2010. Only the left side one easy to take photo, as this is Inline 4 and exhaust system + turbo is on the right side.
This is a RUINED engine mount. A bit more use the engine bracket will kiss the engine mount under hard acceleration and braking and whatnot. These mounts is sending vibrations to the steering wheel already.
Its vibration isolation value has probably gone more than 60%.






My style of driving and super sensitive nature to degradation of suspension/mounts components, 25,000KM is probably the time I need to change engine mounts (2) and the tranny mount (1).
Granted the 18,000KM old 2nd set engine mounts has 20 laps of fun drive at circuit and say we put it as 10,000KM worth on street use ( my style of driving ), max 30,000KM is about as far as it can serve me for
its creme de la creme state of use.

It is easy to detect out of tolerance engine mount at idle in Neutral and Drive or Reverse but brake is held. The amount of vibration at the steering wheel is the give away and more so
in D or R, brake held. All one got to do is be vigilant.

I guess my previous yacht line of work detecting propeller and its drive shaft components vibrations have made me very sensitive.



Below is a neglected engine mount, it is not 195,000KM, it is surely less than that. However the driver surely experienced knocking sound big time already.
The engine mounts had rough sex with the engine bracket









Youtube link to see the above engine mount :