Badly melted engine mount. Wondering what causes this? Toyota Camry 2002 model.
Engine Mount Has Melted Severely. What Can Cause This?
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Just replace it, order the part online for cheap and youtube how to do it.
Like several have already said it looks just like other engine mounts I've seen that come with a rippled surface from the factory mould that ages and forms cracks around the little rippled circles. I'm not seeing any melting. Rubber engine mounts do go soft and sticky and/or crack. So if that's the only reason you're saying it's melted, a melted feel is exactly how the ones on my car feel after several years, or if they get contaminated with oil - but in that case you obviously feel the oil too. When they just go soft so the surface feels "melted" and sticky, if there's no residue then it's probably just age.
e.g. Last time I tried to buy rubber engine mounts for my car, every source was now selling supposedly "OEM" ones, but they were made in India and people in auto forums were complaining about their awful quality. More than a few people found themselves changing them again 12, 6, even 3 months later again because the rubber was such rubbish it was failing. Even the manufacturer sold out of the originals and were now selling the Indian ones packed in their own branded box. Online parts stores said they'd replace them for free IF they failed, but that doesn't help because heaps of people were complaining and who wants to be changing engine mounts every 6-12 months. So people started buying polyurethane instead and put up with the increased vibration (they're stiff, no flex, so can create vibration).
Anyway after you replace it you can get rubber rejuvenating sprays. So you'd degrease everything, wash it off thoroughly with water, then give all the rubber in sight (like power steering boots, engine mounts, rubber hoses, boots on front wheel drive shafts)… a squirt and wipe so you know it's over the whole surface. Do it every few to 6 months. Front wheel drive cars in particular can be expensive as they have several more rubber boots over shafts to age/crack/tear.
Before changing it feel around it in case anything actually IS spraying on it. e.g. Some water pumps have a pressure/weep hole where coolant can escape from. But you might only see a few drops of green/red when the engine is hot right after driving - but again it might weep and dry again 20 minutes before you put your head under there. That mount surface patterning looks very uniform. i.e. The same pattern is over the entire surface like it's just part of the manufacturing process. And like I said, it looks just like the patterning I've seen on some other brand new engine rubber mounts I've seen (only without the cracks around the circles/bumps).
I'd degrease everything (at least in that area), then replace the mount, and check it over several days right after driving. The old mount might feel sticky from age, not necessarily anything on it. So if after checking a NEW one several times there's no new residue you can feel, put some of that rubber rejuvenating spray on it and forget about it for a few months, then check again. If it does get something on it that you can feel, then start looking again for the source, wash it off, put rubber spray on it again, or if you can't find what it is maybe find a plastic lid etc you can cut to fit a kind of shield around it until you do find where it's coming from.
'made in India and people in auto forums were complaining about their awful quality'
never mind the quality - feel the width !
may be cheaper in Pakistan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr4R3aO-7tI
The melting is caused by heat.
Looks like it has dried out with age, doesnt look melted any more than repeated engine heat in Australian conditions would cause.
Were there any symptoms? or did a mechanic just want the job of replacing it. Honestly dude, every rubber in the car is probably like that.So what did the mechanic say when your got them to look at it?
They refused to serve OP due to recently created Ozbargain account. Doing God’s work there!
god zone frugalista there
Not melted, just old.
I blame scomo
Seconded, he needs to be shown the door for the damage he has done to Australian engine mounts!
I demand a remount !
I think there's been quite enough remounting going on already in that prayer room of theirs.
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Do you drive for long periods at a time? Or more recently than you did before? Could be the rubber is worn and the cracked parts are thinner and melting easier.