Haha, I sure have not, I'm too scared (halfway joking). I was hoping to see a new reply to my comment confirming that the replacement went as advertised. Mind you, I have done the valley plate leak, all control arms, the rear motor mount, O2 sensors and every other type of maintenance myself. They were all not as bad as I thought it would be, but I just can't pull myself to do the front mounts. I will definitely report back when I develop the courage to do them though.

 

There are so many simple maintenance items on these cars that people overcomplicate especially the dealers/ techs. A lot of members like to shame people for not wanting to pay " flagship " prices for basic stuff. You're a rock star thanks for posting this. Now to figure out the AWD version

 

Thanks for all the info. There's 2 front mounts and 1 rear/trans mount. Can this mount also be replaced during this process?

 

The rear mount could be done at the same time, but doing the fronts won't welp with doing the rear. They are totally separate areas of the car. The rear is very simple and can be done in 30 mins to an hour.

 

Does anyone know if the front mounts are oil filled? They don't seem to be but I can't find the info anywhere.

 

...I finally got fed up enough with the crazy vibration to give the motor mounts a go.

The first thing I'll say is, I have no idea how OP was able to do either side with only unbolting the top mount bracket with 6 the bolts and not lowering sub frame any. I'm leaning towards it being a troll post, lol, I could be wrong.

I'll give a quick rundown.
1 - No suspension parts need to be removed. You could leave the wheels, but it's just better access with them off.
2 - Jack the car and put on stands, remove all 3 plates, easy enough.
3 - Unplug the power steering rack harness on the front of the rack.
4 - Remove the 2 big frame reenforcement peices, one on each side. (These open up a lot of space)


5 - Put a jack with a peice of wood under the oil pan and just put very light support for now.
6 - Unbolt the 2 bottom motor mount bolts. Totally unbolt the 2 large rear subframe bolts and just loosen the front 2 few turns
7 - You should be able to clearly see both motor mounts now, wiht the driver side blocked by the steering shaft.
8 - On that note, the steering shaft is easily moved by removing the lower bolt, sliding the top portion up and swinging it out of the way. First mark where the peices come together so you put them back exactly as it was. No steering alignment will be needed.



8 - Now you can reach the top 17mm bolt of the motor mounts. This is the fiddily part. You'll have to see what works for you. I was able to use a thin box-end wrench to get thos bolts off. It was a slim fit, they are tight, but it's doable.
The mounts will now be loose but there will not be enough room for the the top/bottom threaded shafts to release.
9 - Now you will slowly jack up the engine as high as you can, very slowly. If you have seen how much the engine rocks/torques with a bad mount you'll have less fear. Nothing to worry about here, just jack it up slowly.
10 - I had to also use a prybar on the frame to make enough space to roll out the mounts, but it works. You may have to loosen the front subframe bolts a little more and jack the engine up as needed, but you will get there.
11 - Pop the old ones out and pop the new ones in. Reverse everything to get it back togther.

Honestly the hardest part was getting the top 17mm nuts off the mounts because of the limited finger/wrench space. This took me about 8 hours to complete because I was trying to go the OP route. In the end it's just easier to drop the frame a little. If I had to do it again it would take maximum, 2 hours.

Edit: Even with the cheap amazon motor mounts, absolutely all vibration is gone. It's amazing to feel my LS be so isolated and smooth again. Cold start, shifting to drive and reverse... zero vibration.

 

I paid to get it done by my independent mechanic but I bought the engine mounts when Bell Lexus had a parts sale going on. $1100 + parts gone and the car rides like it's brand new. I totally forgot how quiet this car can be. I got so used to the vibrations cause the car is still quieter than my G35 which has all polyurethane bushings