Well, since not many were interested in motor mount replacement DIY I will share my own experience. I finally decide to tackle this project on my own and now I am ready to help someone else who may be looking for the DIY info on line. I have to tell you guys that not much info regarding 02 Rav4 online especially on the subject of motor mounts. Anyway, I got the Haynes Manual and decided to do this myself.
First, I ordered the set of 4 mounts on Ebay from a seller called 'power_autoparts'. They had a set of 4 mounts for $111 (Lifetime Warranty) - $20 Ebay coupon I got this for $91. According to the listing brand was 'Motorking' but 2 out of the 4 mounts were made by 'Eagle Motor Mounts". Since my wife drives this car daily, I had only one day to do this.
Initial symptoms of bad motor mounts;
Car shakes at initial engine cranking. When coming to a stop you can hear a clunk under the car like something got loose and hitting the front of the car. Car's engine also is moving front and back excessively while shifting from drive to reverse and with a loud clunk when shifting from reverse to drive only.
At first the 3 mounts, front, rear and the drivers side ones looked like they were pretty easy to replace. The passenger/right side was the mount that according to my Haynes manual needed to have the ABS Unit removed for the mount to be removed out of the car. I wasn't sure what and how to do this as I couldn't find any information online and youtube on replacing any mounts on any year Rav4. I also wasn't sure if the new mounts have to be torqued to the proper specs right away or do they need to settle down before they can be torqued to prevent any shaking due to a new aftermarket mounts. That was was the info I got online regarding other cars and aftermarket motor mounts ?
First I started with the front engine mount as it looked like it would be the easiest to replace.
First thing I did was to remove the splash guards from the front of the car and from behind the wheels for an easier access to the front mount. The rest was just unbolting the Through Bolt, loosening the two bolts holding the mount to the cross member from underneath, jacking up the Transmission pan slightly with the jack and piece of wood just so the tranny could rest on the jack while I take out the mount.
The front and the rear mounts are attached to the transmission and not the engine so I decided to support the tranny instead. Putting the new mount was the reversal of the removal. At the end I've torque it to 41 Foot Ibs and that was it.
The rear mount was a different story. First, the mount had two studs that go through the cross member from top to bottom and are held by two nuts from underneath. There was also a third bolt that would screw into the bottom of the mount from the bottom of the crossmember.
The Through Bolt is attached to the bracket that is attached to the side of the transmission.
The rear mount is located between cross member and the rack and pinion. On my 02 Rav4 with 208K miles these bolts were so rusty that I couldn't get anything unbolted for an hour or so.
Finally I decided to try harder using cheater bar thinking that If I break any bolts it will be Ok as the new mount comes with its own bolts/studs. And that is what I did. I broke all three bolts, unfortunately then I couldn't get the through bolt to turn so I decided to unbolt the whole bracket with the mount.
This bracket was a pain in the butt as well. One of the bolts, the lower right is located in such a tight spot that the only thing I could get in there was my small wretchet. And the only turn I could make is maybe 0.5 inch turn at a time. This took me maybe 40 minutes just to get this stupid bracket off.
With the mount off, now I needed to somehow unbolt the through bolt from the bracket. Unfortunately I couldn't do it. I just didn't have any way to hold the mount in one place while I try to turn the bolt counter clockwise. This is when torch would be very helpful. Since I don't have one, I decided to see guys at my local muffler shop. And yes, for $30 they took the through bolt out of the mount/bracket for me.
Back at home, I came to realization that now the new mount will not fit as it has these two studs that need to get through the cross member. Not enough clearance in there. To install the rear mount you have to drop down the cross member and unbolt the Rack and Pinion. I wish the Haynes Manual would said so. all they said is that the installation of the new mount is the reversal of the removal, stupid. Again, I couldn't get these big Rack and Pinion bolts to turn being under the car I just didn't have enough clearance to get enough leverage even using the cheater bar. Again, this time Casey Automotive helped me, and for $60 they installed the new mount for me.
Next was the passenger side mount. My biggest concern was the necessity of removal of the ABS unit and then bleeding the brake system. I had no clue how to do this so I reached out to someone I trust, the YouTube mechanic Scotty Kilmer on his blog. He recommended to just unbolt the ABS unit and gently move it to the side just to get enough clearance to the one mount bracket bolt that is located directly under the ABS unit. He said that its steel brake lines are very durable and slight movement wouldn't hurt anything. I followed his advice and got this mount off the car in about 1.5 working slowly, trying to think before making the next move. Here are the steps I did in removing and installing the new mount:
1. I needed to unbolt the ABS unit bracket so I could move it to the side. The bracket was held by 3 bolts, one on the bottom of the ABS and two other ones on the side mounted to the wheel bay.
Then Slowly move the ABS unit to the side towards the headlights. You don't have to hang it on anything as the bottom bracket will supports its weight no problem.
2. Now you will have an access to the mount's back bolt that was located under the ABS unit. I use 14 mm socket I think? to get it out. First i sprayed some Blaster on it just to help to break them out. I did not take any of the bolts out just loosen them out a little making sure there will be no trouble in the end. I was so sick of breaking the rusty bolts off with the previous mounts that this time I decided to be more patient.
3. Next to be removed were the two front bolts and one bottom one for the motor mount. The one front bolt closer to the front of the car was the easiest bolt to remove. The other one is located on opposite side of the mount but in very tight spot. I needed a 12 inch socket extension along with a flexible socket attachment to get this bolt out. Now, to remove the bottom bolt you have to remove the driver's side wheel and the splash guard to get access to that bolt from underneath. Once you take all this out the rest was very straight forward.
4. Next I had to remove the two bolts from the front bracket that connects the mount to the side of the engine.
Again, I had to use a 12 inch socket extension and I think 14 mm socket. They came out quite easy though. Of course before taking the bolts out I needed to support the engine from the bottom at the oil pan with my hydraulic jack and a piece of wood first. Just a little bit at first. Later on when you'll try to align the new mount you can use the jack to help in the aligning as well. I noticed that by lifting an additional inch or so helped the bolts to align much easier during the new mount install.
5. Next was the removal of the old mount. All I had to do is to slide it sideway towards the front of the car along the serpentine belt.
On the floor I matched the new mount to the old mount just to make sure that everything matched out, like bracket holes ets. The one thing I didn't do was to mark the position of the bracket in relation to the mount's mounting holes. I just simply took the old bracket out and then noticed during installation of the bracket onto the new mount that the bracket can be offset to the left or right or could be installed at center??? I didn't have any reference to refer to so I decided to mounted in the center of the two bracket's mounting holes (this worked so I guess I guessed right).
6. Finally I was ready to install the new mount back in. Installing was actually much easier and faster then removing everything. I already new what to expect and I already felt like a winner as I didnt break any rusty bolts and was able to learn another thing about my car. I love fishing things and over the last year the investment in the simply tools already paid for themselves. This job cost me $180 only because i had to spend $90 on the shop help during the install of the rear mount. If I had a torch or an air gun I probably could save the $90 and get a torch for that. Overall I am very happy with what I did and now I hope I can maybe help someone else out there.
7. Tranny mount (driver's side) is next.