Engine Mount Claims Another Tacoma

sorry for bringing up an old thread.

2 questions. i have a 2015 taco v6 4x4
do those engine mounts go bad? is it a thing?
also do those solid mounts cause a lot of vibrations. kinda dont want NHV to increase since we drive this truck a lot.

 

The NVH will increase when idling in gear (auto), if you don't get a transmission mount to match the engine mounts.

The durometer differences causes odd vibrations.

 

The frame/mounts problem was mainly in the 2005 and 2006 years, in 2007 and up toyota put reinforcement plates there secretly to not let people know that they knew about the problem to dodge liability. For the second question, the stock mounts are still pr3sent and intact (OE Rubber) the reinforcement from DMZ is just a thick gusset to prevent failure. I saw no extra vibrations or issues after the fix.

EDIT been awhile since i started this thread ha, if you were referring to the other posts on here my bad.

 

For those of us that had our frame replaced, would this info be accurate?

 

Finally welded in my driver side DMZ gussett, last week.

 

Here is a frame that really took a beating. 2008 model. So I was told...

Driver side frame mount. Was even tearing off from the top side.




Passenger side engine mount. Which I repaired with a thicker plate than the mount was made with.

 

Ive found that the extra harmonics, if they are noticed at all, only noticeable at idle and its very minimal. Ive never had a customer message me and complain about it. I'm talking over 10+ years of selling these and hundreds sold. An aftermarket exhaust system puts more vibrations and harmonics into the drivers senses IMO. Same with agressive off road tires. Ive never felt anything extra in the steering wheel myself and never heard of that from a customer either. Ive had the same amount of customers message me on this forum, and on the Instagram page that the truck actually ran and shifted smoother once the upgraded motor mounts were installed. So its really a personal thing, there is not a fool proof way to judge what every different person would consider NVH.

The 2nd gen motor mount failure rate with offroading is pretty high, as is the case with all these OEM toyota motor mounts.

I started making custom fabricated drivetrain mounts back in 2003 when we were off road racing in the deserts of SoCal, Nevada and Baja. A solid mounted drivetrain is a standard setup on any off road truck that is raced or used as a prerunner. Running OEM mounts off road in a race would result in a broken race truck immediately and losing the race. Any of you guys that have ran your trucks in the desert know how abusive it can be. Bolting on long travel suspension helps and increases how fast you can go but will only add more stress to the truck because you are now going faster and hitting things harder. As stated, the factory mounts are mostly designed around noise cancellation of any sound that could be felt in the cab, and designed to meet the bare minimum requirements to hold the drivetrain in place on a flat paved road. This is why soft rubber is used. Its a dampener. Unfortunately it dry rots, cracks and de-laminates quickly. It also flexes heavily. This is fine for a factory truck that lives on the street. Or if you drive slow on flat dirt roads, then you will be fine with stock motor mounts forever.

I make parts for trucks that are used off road. Driven hard, fast, bounced around, jumped, raced, rockcrawling, over-landing in rough terrain, etc. Thinking your OEM mounts will keep your drivetrain held securely while doing that is a recipe for disaster. But theres more to it than just preventing frame and engine bay damage...there is a throttle response/power factor too. So all our motors will torque to the right (passenger side) when we accelerate. This is the rotating mass of the motor attempting to lift itself off the frame from the power it produces. Doing this over and over isn't necessarily bad, if this is occurring on the flat street. The only thing you'll have to worry about is the slow deterioration of the motor mount rubber over time. Just like any part it will eventually wear out. However, doing this over un-even, rugged, tooth rattling unpredictable terrain is a different story. Doing it at high speed is another story. Now you have the drivetrain trying to twist off the chassis, and the whole truck being tossed around, shaken, vibrated and possibly taking impacts that send shock through the vehicle. Any axle wrap and moments of traction loss from the tires leaving the ground is exacerbated by this as well. Basically, you are experiencing a decent degree of parasitic power loss thru your drivetrain as lost energy that isn't making it to the ground. So you are not "making more power" with upgraded drivetrain mounts, but you are losing less power and making more efficient use of the applicable power on hand produced at the flywheel. Those pictures above showing the frame damage and mount bracket damage are from exactly that... the weak stock OEM mount failing to hold everything tight and secure and allowing the engine to become a 400 lb slide hammer beating the frame into submission while at speed. the more the drivetrain flexes and rebounds, the more damage is going to occur.

Upgrading with my poly fabricated motor mounts stops all those issues from ever happening and gives you a snappier throttle response.

 

I agree that one's tolerance to nvh is subjective to the individual and imo it is very noticeable at idle in gear at idle. To me it's tolerable as the benifits are good. I have two sets one on my 4runner, road course track truck, and one on my tacoma, rally, towing, dd. What was interesting is when the taco was n/a it had the nvh but with the addition of a supercharger it has basically gone. The throttle response and weight reduction make it worth it to me.

 

I would bold the whole thing, but quoting works two. That is all accurate.

The owner of the truck that has those mounts, I think contacted you. I urged him to get yours. He even came back later and asked if I knew of you. I said yes. Sadly, that was the end of the extent of that. No Bonzen mounts were purchased unfortunately.

My recommendation was strong. Who knows, maybe in the upcoming future, they will be added to the truck. I certainly hope so, for its sake.

To complement what you were saying about the abusive nature of Baja/Desert racing. The OEM transmission cross-member was barely held together by small strips. I corrected that, and added gussets to it as well. That genre of off-roading, really taxes the OEM componentry.

I cannot recommend them enough. Turbo kits, S/C, or even rock crawling.

You may or may not recognize this truck, @Bonzen . Don't quote this, but I believe it is a Class 7(?) truck now.


I wish I would have taken more pictures of the before and after of the cross-memeber.

 

Truck looks familiar, from the wild wrap job. I cant specifically remember when he contacted me, but I know I don't blow anyone off haha. I sometimes have 5 hours worth of conversations over days or weeks with potential customers before I make a sale. Doesn't bother me at all. Again this a product that 99% of people don't even know they should have before its too late and they are looking at a broken truck.

 

This may help.