Grateful1

My ES350 has 220,000+ miles and and still looks and performs like a new car. I had a private shop replace both front CV joint/axles, lower control arms, ball joints, wheel beaings and sway bar end links but the mechanic was a bit of a hack and jacked the engine up without disconnecting the upper engine mount (dog bone) destroying the rubber bushing and I forced the shop owner to replace it and he did with an after market one that went bad in a matter of months. I suspect the other engine mounts have been compromised and I am planning to replace the left, right and front engine mounts and bought Toyota Lexus OEM from Bell Lexus in Scottsdale, AZ. I see these are hydraulic engine mounts and the front one has other connectors like an electrical and maybe a vaccum one. Can anyone please brief me on the job. I'm old school and never heard of hydraulic engine mounts. They have always been made of rubber and steel. I do hear a clack when I shift into reverse first thing in the morning after the car has been sitting all night. Going from drive to reverse seems to produce a small jolt. I suspect these mounts are well worn and damaged by the hack that jacked the engine to get clearance without disconnecting the mounts. The dog bone that was replaced went bad very quickly, telling me the engine must be moving excessively because the other mounts are no longer securing the engine, although I do not feel vibrations when driving the car. Any information that will help me get this job done right will be greatly appreciated.

Clutchless

It sounds like you plan to attempt this yourself, but it may be too much for you. You will need a floor jack, jack stands, a torque wrench and some experience doing your own wrenching. You will need to not only jack up the car, but know how to partly jack up the motor to support it while you swap out motor mounts. Some of those motor mount bolts are hard to access. Same with the vacuum and electrical connections. It is not the time to learn how to repair your car. A local shop could do this for a good price if you have the parts.

If you need help finding another independent mechanic use this link of shops recommended by listeners of the car talk radio show, then cross check them on google or yelp. https://www.cartalk.com/mechanics-files

There are many youtube videos showing how to replace the motor mounts on the ES350, Camry and Avalon and all of them are about the same. If you do a search here using the term mount you should find more information as this has probably been covered before. Motor mounts wear out all the time.

Grateful1

Hi, Thanks for the response. The link you sent is dead. I went through all the videos on Youtube before posting here and none of them are on a 5th generation Lexus ES350. I am just trying to get as much accurate information before starting the job. Engine mounts are no biggie. I just have never seen a car with 4 mounts, three of them being hydraulic mounts. The mounts that I replaced were on American cars and were always made out of rubber. I have a hydrauic floor jack that I use for my 1999 Corvette and jack stands that I will be using. All the videos had other hardware that is not on my car and because of that, they do not show what I actually have that has to be removed to gain access. to each mount. They do not make things to be accessable these days. You have to take half the car apart these days because they put 20 pounds id **** in a 2 pound bag. I can figure it out on my own, I was just wondering if someone here had any info that is important that is specific to my year and model that might be tricky and easily overlooked. I ordered the OEM center mount from Toyota/Lexus and Anchor for the side mounts. My mounts were good until the shop I trusted had a stupid Mexican hack mechanic work on my car that tried jacking up the engine while the mounts were still connected and tore the rubber in my dogbone mount and I think the others are compromised. Having people do the yob (as he calls it) is the recepie for disaster. Never again! I'm doing the job now myself because I don't trust knuckleheads to work on my car again. If I do it, it will be right and not half assed. I'll just figure it out as I go along. It isn't rocket science. I've had way more complicated jobs. I'll stick with the clutch on my vette because I love having a stick shift and have been using one for almost 50 years. The punks today are so spazzy and uncoordinated that they need to be clutchless. Like girls they can only handle automatics!

Thanks!

Clutchless

The link was to search results using the term "Lexus es 350 motor mount replacement"

All of the 2007 - 2012 ES350 vehicles were the same mechanically.

There were many results including the almost exactly the same 2006-11 Camry, 2006-11 Avalon. That is why you should consider checking out videos for those vehicles.

I suspect the next generation ES was not much different as it was a stretch of the platform, which is also used on the Camry, Avalon, RX350, Venza, Highlander and Sienna. All will have similar motor mounts as all use the same engine, transmission and chassis. The 8 speed trans was not introduced widely until around 2017.

Clutchless

See these videos to start:
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Grateful1

Yes, I reviewed all of these videos long BEFORE I posted my thread here because these models are DIFFERENT regarding the accessories and components that must be removed to get at the mounts. The actual mounts and their hardware may be identical but the layout of tie downs, hoses, electrical plugs intake ducting from various systems have different mounting locations. I'm concerned that it may take jacking/raising the engine up a bit to gain clearance during installation and with 3 mounts, if any new mounts remain connected they may be damaged during installation. I had a careless mechanic that was equal to the guys on some of these videos that raced through the doing a job causing damage last time around. These hydraulic mounts might not take much abuse, that might compromise their performance. I purchased top quality mounts and I will get them in without putting undue stress on the mounts to get the clearance while installing them. Thanks.

w84me

the dog bone on top of the engine - piece of cake
the one on passenger side under wheel well - doable
the one up front - doable
the one on driver side under wheel well - leave it to the mechanics

ESh

All of them are doable. 2h job total.

Leepofaith

How did it go? I'm about to do this also. Do you have any advice? Which mount did you get? thanks for your time.

w84me

The left one is a bear, here is what I had to do

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...ement-diy.html

also listed some info over here

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...l#post10906254

Grateful1

Thanks for responding. ALL of the engine mounts were replaced as the hack mechanic damaged them by jacking up the engine without disconnecting the mounts. He got fired and I gave the owner of the shop hell for letting that jerk that works fast but does a half *** job for even allowing him to get near my car. He damages other components when doing a job and most of the work he does comes back because he did not do it right. I just had a transmission specialist replace the trans temperature sensor which was giving a false high temperature reading. This required the valve body to be removed to be R&R. The car and trans now has 265,000 miles on it and still runs and look like new. It's not high performance but it is the best car I ever owned!
Thanks,
Neil