Replace Motor Mounts on the Dodge Intrepid 1993 Through 2004

Dodge Intrepid, built on the "Chrysler LH platform", had two generations: the first from 1993 through 1997 and the second from 1998 through 2004 which all have three engine mounts from the subframe (engine "cradle"/or undercarriage) to the engine and transmission. Four bushings hold the subframe/cradle to the uni-body chassis. Bad mounts or bushings cause stress, premature wear and damage of vital engine and transmission parts.

The two engine mounts and the transmission mount – also called insulators – on the Intrepid are made of rubber (some may be "gel filled"), and a steel skeleton of embedded studs plus mounting bolts and nuts. With time, the rubber cracks, breaks-up, gets compacted, misshaped, and the mount can split or become fragmented. This decay causes more and more chaotic engine movement -- shake, wobble, clattering, vibrating, noise, bumping about -- must be fixed. Here's your ticket to save several hundreds of dollars.

Steps

Removing the Engine Mounts

  1. Choose a level, concrete surface (strong 3/4 inch plywood can make softer surfaces or the ground workable). Set the parking gear and the brake. Block the wheels. Raise the front of the Intrepid with a jack(s) and support the car with jack stands. Remove the splash guards under each fender to reveal access to the mounts.
  2. Place a full width piece of 2 by 6, or 2x8 inch wood between a jack and the engine oil pan -- but not extending under the subframe. Raise the jack only until it just begins raising the engine a very little, to mainly support the engine, but not to raise the vehicle at all.
  3. Loosen, but do not remove the upper nuts that connect the mount to the upper mounting-bracket using a ratchet and socket. (If your mounts have a heat shield between the mount and engine, remove the nut or bolt from the bracket holding the heatshield, using your ratchet and socket. Remove the heatshield.) Keeping the nuts loosely screwed on to just a few bolt threads, on the bolts, keeps the mounts aligned until both are loosened -- retained to this same degree, held on loosely, on each side of the engine.
  4. Loosen the lower nuts: But, do not remove them from the bolt attaching them to subframe, through holes in the subframe, using your ratchet, an extension and a socket, for both mounts.
  5. The transmission mount: Prepare to remove the third mount much in the same manner as the engine mounts (of a different design) at the rear of the transmission This mount may need to be replaced for backward and forward stability.

Installing Engine Mounts

  1. Remove the mount nuts and replace only one mount at a time: Raising the engine far enough with the jack to get either one of the mounts off, then replace it as follows.
  2. Slide the studs on the bottom of the new mount into the holes in the subframe -- and lower the jack a little to seat the engine mounting bracket down lightly onto the stud(s) on the top of the mount, maintaining alignment, so not binding, by tightening nuts and bolts little by little.
  3. Install the lower nuts and "finger tighten" at the subframe, loosely as before, just by a few threads, to retain the engine positioning.
  4. Install the upper nuts and "finger tighten", at the engine bracket, as well.
    • Install the heatshield and its retaining bolts, if your vehicle is so equipped (on the 3.5-liter engine, for example).
  5. Install the transmission mount by much the same techniques as the engine mounts.
  6. Now, lower the engine a little. Snug the nuts and bolts on all both mounts, at first only "finger tight". Then snug them all a little.
  7. Finally, torque all the mount attaching nuts and bolts to the manufacturers recommended number of foot-pounds with a torque wrench and a socket. The large nuts and bolts might be torqued to about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} pounds. The smaller bolts on the transmission mount are torqued less, perhaps to about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} pounds.
  8. Remove the jack from under the oil pan. Raise the front of the vehicle enough to remove your jack stands or blocks and such, and lower the Intrepid to the ground.

Tips

  • Subframe bushings: Another four rubber mountings are the four subframe bushings, basically between the vehicle and the subframe and sandwiched by mounting washers and secured by bolts or studs and nuts.
  • The first generation, original platform, Chrysler LH platform, was based on the Fiat designed Eagle Premier (when Fiat owned American Motors).
  • The Intrepid platform (basic design and structure) was the same as the Eagle Vision, and three other Chrysler models: the LHS (the successor to the New Yorker), Concorde, and New Yorker powered by a base 2.7-liter, 3.3-liter or optional 3.5-liter V-6.

References