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Quote:

Originally Posted by derf (Post 62567)

Only ever used AC Delco OEM replacement mount parts on my Satty; that was the de facto standard for upper torque axis mounts on an S car.

Stay away from anything mega cheap, like Anchor.

What's the driving force behind replacement, and why all at once?

If you have bad vibes at idle and near idle, the top mount is at fault.
The tranny mount will eventually stop isolating vibrations but it is just a slab of rubber

GM stopped making the upper mounts -- which by far do the most dampening.-- almost no one used aftermarket back in the day because they were cheaply made and isolated nothing.

Have you done the pencil test on the upper mount in your ride?
If you can freely fit a #2 pencil between the rubber and the top metal part, the mount is worn out.
Even worn OEM mounts are sometimes better than New aftermarket mounts.

Start with the upper torque axis mount.

It is recommended that you replace the mounting studs when you replace the upper mount, as the vibrations can damage the threads just enough to allow a bit of play betw the mount and the engine.

Saturn changed designs on the upper torque axis mount several times throughout the life of the S series.
Visually match yours up to pictures on the web to figure out if yours is a 1st design or 2nd design. I believe the 2nd design were better at vibration isolation.

The reason I am mentioning this is that when the mont design changed, so did the mounting studs

A 1st design upper mount will only attach properly with studs made for the 1st design mount
A 2nd design mount will only attach properly with upper mount studs made for the 2nd gen mount

Rockauto tends to have pretty decent quality stuff, although their low end $ parts for Sattys are descending into crap as the major aftermarket parts companies have stopped making a whole bunch of stuff and the riff raff are filling the void. Higher priced rock auto stuff is prob your best bet in general for Saturn S car stuff, but their shipping costs are a bit crazy unless you order a bunch of stuff at once

Please stop back and let us know what you decided on and how it worked out.

I finished installing the upper engine mount this morning, the one I found that is an GM mfg, and the difference is amazing. The vibration is gone, the droning of the engine that sounded like a bad muffler is gone, it's like black and white. The engine was at least 1/2" down!! Thanks for all the help. One question: At idle, when you go from park to drive or reverse, the engine will flex about 1/2" . Is that normal ? When you start the car, the engine doesn't move at all. Yea!!