Oh HELL YEAH. Got the soft AWR bushings in!

[Mike R]

UPDATES! SOFT AWR bushings in!

Well, I froze my ass off and got the softer bushings in the rear mount. Was amazed when I fired it up. No more harsh bouncing of the car when it starts, the rattles are GONE, that horrid resonance when you hit around 1500 rpm is GONE, Idling in nuetral with the heat at full blast and the headlights and radio on vibrates at least half as much as it used to with no accessories on. I can now drive less than 40mph in 5th gear without being deafend by the resonant vibrations. Heck, I was going on a slight incline in 5th @1500 and it wan't loud OR vibrating much more than stock.

There are still some vibrations. The 1100-1500rpm is still there, but barely noticable compared to the harder bushing. The steering wheel and dash still shake at idle. BUT it's so much less than before. NO MORE RATTLES!!!!!

Oh and I only installed the softer bushing on THE REAR! Still have the hard ones on the front mount! If you love the AWR mounts but can't stand the vibration spend the ~13 bucks and get two of the soft bushings for the rear mount!
(headbang)
(mj)(dance)(nana)(yes)


Yes I'm Friggin HAPPY about these bushings!

EDIT: Just to clarify things:
I had the AWR manual mounts in prior to this. I now have the hard (manual) bushings in the front AWR mount and the AWR mount has the softer (automatic) bushings in it.

Manual mount bushings are 95 durometer
Automatic mount bushings are 88 durometer


UPDATE 1
Fired it up cold this morning. Little more vibration than yesterday. Still much better than the 95's. The steering column rattle is still there, so I'm going to pull the cover off and put some foam tape in there. I'm happy that 95% of the unbearable rattles are gone. The door panel rattles are gone, the resonations are gone.

I'm going to put the 88's in the front mount tonight and see how much more vibration is get's rid of. I'm still impressed with the reduction in vibration so far.

UPDATE 2
I just swapped the front bushings. Now I have more vibration! I think part of it is that the bushings need to break in. The other is that the way the front mount is sitting, since there is adjustment on two planes, is placing more wieght on the rear mount and causing more vibration. I'll know tomorrow when I put some miles on it.

UPDATE 3
Well, the vibrations from last night are gone. Car is even smoother than before. I noticed that I CAN SEE CLEARLY IN MY MIRRORS!!!!! They aren't vibrating at all! The idle-1100rpm vibe is still there, but even less. Above ~1300 the car is as smooth as stock, but still has the more solid feel of the mounts.

 

[hi-perf]

where did you buy them from?

 

[Mike R]

AWR, 4.50/ea. They are the bushings from the automatic mounts Tony offers.

So, a tip for anyone who is driving their car on the street and wants nice mounts, get AWR's AUTOMATIC ones!
The manual/auto's are identical, except fot the bushings.

 

[PhreakV]

so do these fit the stock mounts or is this an add-on to the AWR mounts that get rid of the wheel-hop?

 

[mazdaholic]

pardon my ignorance all, but what is the difference between the soft AWR bushings and the stock motor mounts?

 

[SpicyMchaggis]

interesting..how long was the install?

 

[Mike R]

The awr's are custom made with small polyurethane bushings. They keep the motor/tranny from moving all over the place unlike the stock mounts.

Phreak, I bought the manual transmission mounts. I got the bushings from the Automatic mounts to put in my mounts. I should have just bought the automatic mounts.

SpicyMchaggis, Installing the bushings was 30 seconds or less. Taking the mount out and reinstalling-about an hour.

 

[SpicyMchaggis]

Interesting..So what would I need to get. I have a manual.

 

[Mike R]

Just get the automatic mounts, if you don't already have AWR mounts. If you have the AWR mounts, just get the bushings.

 

[doggman]

i have a msp and i hate the wheel hop and anything that will aid in the process of eliminating this would be great. so if i get the normal "hard" awr motor mounts for the front then i get the awr soften mounts for the reaar? the only difference between the front and the rear mounts are that the front are for a manual and the rear are for an automatic?

thanks
-dave

 

[Mike R]

Nah, just get the both for the auto. The only difference is the bushing. Here's a pic of the AWR mounts. The only difference between manual and auto are the red bushings.

 

[Mike R]

Here are the different bushings. The left one is the softer one (from the automatic, note the fluting) and the right is the harder (manual) bushing. One of the ways to see how soft they are is but how shiny they are. The right one is much shinier, like hard plastic, were as the left one is dull, like rubber.
D'oh, here's the pic

 

[prospeed]

i have been emailing awr about these. he said he has the 88 durometer soft ones in stock but an even softer 65 in a few weeks.
which ones did you get?

 

[Mike R]

Dunno, he never gave me the durometer. He was out of the ones I got until about 2 weeks ago. I ordered them December 22, got them Jan. 23. I'll try asking him.

Whichever I got are more than soft enough-seem about perfect.

 

[Emode]

have you done any lauches with these bushings? Im not sure if the p5 suffers from wheelhop though.

 

[Mike R]

No hard (spnnning wheels) launches today, still have a borrowed set of Michelin Artic Alpins on. I always had a bit, even with all the hard bushings in. They do get rid of alot of wheelhop though, it was really bad with the stock mounts, the AWRs made a big difference.

 

[doggman]

so if i get those ones for the auto, they will fit the msp and it will greatly reduce the much hated wheel hop?

THANKS for the pics deffinitly helped a lot being able to see what you were talking about!!

-dave

 

[Mike R]

Yep. It's been done a few times.

 

[t3ase]

I can now drive less than 40mph in 5th gear without being deafend by the resonant vibrations. Heck, I was going on a slight incline in 5th @1500 and it wan't loud OR vibrating much more than stock.

....isn't that putting a *HUGE* load on the engie? in 5th at 1500rpm on an incline? my god. *shudder*

 

[Mike R]

Not that much, it wasn't bogging. It was like a .5* incline. Hardly anything. With all hard manual bushings I'd be in 4th or 3rd in the same spot because of the vibration and noise .