My how-to from another forum; if you haven't done it yet:
So we have all heard of the horror stories of removing the rear mount and either installing an AWR or RR-Racing inserts. Well, I found out that many of the problems people had could be pretty easily avoided.
After reading the how-to on msprotege.com I decided that that was too much work for me; I didn't want to take my wheel off or buy 100 more extensions, and guess what--you don't need to either.
To start off; the tools you will need are (I am doing this from memory but I think I covered them all):
-17mm socket x 2 (and 1 deep 17mm, can count that as one of the two)
-10mm socket & 1/4" socket wrench
-12mm socket (If taking off EGR valve, made it easier to get mount back in...)
-Big ass iron pipe (you'll see)
-Whatever tools you need to remove your specific intercooler piping@throttle body
-3/8" socket wrench, 1/2" socket wrench (might not need this, one of my 17mm sockets was 1/2" so I did need it), 3/8" or 1/2" torque wrench
I think that's about it, note: you do not need 30" of extensions or whatever the person said in another How To for this.
Steps:
1.) Jack up your car and put it on jack stands; you will most likely need the jack later to move the engine a bit.
2.) Remove your intercooler piping at the throttle body, for me it was just a short section from my MAF sensor to the throttle body...this will give you room to reach down to the mount.
3.) At this point I loosened the main bolt going through the middle of the motor mount. You need 2 17mm sockets, put one on a wrench and get under your car, you will need to put this one the passenger side nut of the motor mount. This is the picture of how I positioned that wrench:
Just make sure it is set to 'loosen', it should wedge itself up on something after the first turn from the other side.
Loosening the main bolt...that puppy is on there. Unfortunately a 5/16" socket wrench couldn't break it free on it's own so we called in reinforcements...say hello to the big ass iron pipe
The bolt didn't stand a chance...
Ok, so after loosening the bolt that goes through the motor mount and getting the nut off of the other end you have to put a jack (with a 2x4 for safety) under a part of your engine to take the load off of the mount so you can pull the bolt out. Here is where I put the jack:
Yeah, it looks a little unsafe but it was sturdy..that's right on the tranny if you cannot tell.
Jack it a little at a time and keep trying to take the bolt out, it will eventually come.
Now here is where everyone has problems...it took me 5 minutes.
4.) Remove the plastic wiring bracket dun dun dunnnnnnn
There are 2 little 10mm nuts holding this on. The top one is very easy to take off (use the little socket wrench). The bottom one everyone says is a pain; I cannot say that I agree.
Now, I have big hands and all I did was put the 10mm socket on a short 3" extension, popped my socket wrench on and unscrewed it. I really don't know why people had trouble with this, you can only turn maybe 15 degrees at a time or so, but it doesnt take long to take off..can do by hand after a couple turns.
Here is the infamous plastic bracket:
5.) OK, now you can see the 3 bolts that are holding the motor mount to the car.
Just to the right of the throttle body in this picture:
I used 4 extensions (2-5", 2-3") and my 3/8" torque wrench. You will most likely not be able to get perfectly square on the bolts, but you can get close enough to get it done.
Remove those and now you can wiggle the mount out of the engine bay.
There were no rips at all and I have had a front AWR mount in for quite some time now.
Insert your inserts (or just grab your AWR mount)
Yeah I know, my insert has a tumor.
Ok now for reinstallation. This is where I really should have read Gar777's how-to on msprotege.com closely; you will see why.
6.) Getting the mount back into its spot was not working for me so I had to remove something that was in my way.
In this picture you can see the EGR valve, it is attatched to the bottom of the throttle body by two 12mm bolts, very easy to remove.
With that out of the way positioning the mount was very simple.
THIS IS WHERE YOU NEED TO PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION
Insert and tighten the bolt that goes through the mount first, do not tighten the 3 nuts that hold the mount to the car before doing this
This is important because you can move the mount around to make sure you can get the bolt all the way through. I tightened the 3 nuts first and could not get the bolt through even by moving the engine up and down with a jack. This lead to a horrible strippage of one of the nuts when I tried to loosen it (I was using 11/16 instead of 17mm up to this point...it seemed fine (hand) )
I went to Wal-mart and got a deep socket set with a 17mm in it, it was too late for the nut, too stripped. Had to wait til the next day and go to Sears to buy an Easy Out set for $50 and to Mazda to get a replacement nut for $4 (no it is not made of gold as the price would suggest). Took a while but finally got the stripped nut off.
Tightening the bolt that goes through the mount is pretty easy, do it the same way as you did loosening it by getting under the car and putting a socket wrench with a 17mm socket on the nut, make sure the wrench is set to tighten.
After that you can tighten down the 3 nuts, these nuts and the bolt that goes through the mount I tightened to 68 ft/lbs (high end of manual recommendation).
Picture of installed mount:
7.) Reinstall the wiring bracket and the thing under the throttle body. Reinstall intercooler piping.
8.) DRIVE!
Just get a few extensions before you attempt it, and pull the harness out of the way for sure.
