MatraSport Forum

I was out last Friday, on my way to pick up a Chinese take-away.  I pulled out of a road junction a bit enthusiastically when there was a loud bang and much flopping about of the gear lever.  My first thought was "Oh no, I've done a Titus and the engine's fallen out!"  A quick peep inside the engine bay showed that everything was still in place and the car was still driveable.  After a very careful drive home (and a crispy beef chilli with egg fried rice), closer inspection showed that the stabiliser, that mounts between the engine and the rear chassis had failed.  There was no sign of the upper fixing ever having been fitted and there was just a jagged hole where it should have been.  The captive nut of the lower mounting had pulled through the bracket.  The photo is actually of my spare, but the original is exactly the same, apart from a jagged hole where the captive nut goes, so it can't be an uncommon occurence. I've added a reinforcing plate and re-instated the upper fixing.  But I'd like to know how to prevent it happening again

I can not realy identyfy the item on your picture. It must be for a 1.6?

Hans

LOL ...

I have tried the same with my 1.9i where that rear stabilizing engine mount (1.6 specific, btw) is shifted to the right on the engine, so the arm connecting the chassis/mountpont and the engine is at an angle. The fist arm was too fragile and broke  - luckily on my way home, at the top of the road. The gearlever becomes rather vivid in that situation :)

Anyway, I don't really understand what happened on your car - the force applied to that mount under acceleration should be flat compression, - how that gets transformed to something which can shear the mounting hole is difficult to understand. ?


Well - the current one lasted 27 years, so just replacing it with an original should be good enough ?

/Lennart

  The reason is that the top mounting is missing and when I decelerate, the  top pulls away from the bracket, with the constant flexing eventally causing it to fail.
Yes it is for a 1.6. it is bolted to the engine block and carries the stabiliser rubber.

What I'd really like to know is how the top mounting became damaged like that on both my bracket and the one from the scrap car.  It suggests to me that there is some weakness in the design.

Peter,

Glad the crispy beef made it. I'm trying to identify the part you picture.

My 'engine falling out' episode was the top left mount failing, so not the part in question. I assume it is the bottom one, as you suggest. Well I renewed mine as it was looking tired and it doesn't look like the one you picture. I attach the old one that came off mine. Is this the part you refer to? If so they look completely different.

Good pictures Titus - and I recognize these as the one I had on my car before its "heart transplant" - I had to replace it as the rubber had cracked up - but thats quite some time ago.

I'm puzzled, - is Peters engine-mount something completely unoriginal ? - or are we looking at / talking bout completely different things ?

/Lennart

The part Titus has pictured is the rubber.  The part in my picture, and the part that failed is the bracket that attaches it to the engine.  There are two mounting holes in the rubber that attach it to the corresponding fixings in the bracket.  In my case the upper one was missing and the lower one eventually failed.  You will see a rather jagged 'v' shaped hole in my photo at the top.  This is where the upper fixing should have been.

All becomes clear :)