WHAT DO THE ENGINE MOUNTS DO?
The whole engine and gearbox is located in only three places. One at engine-side plus another at the end of the gearbox which support the weight of the whole drivetrain, plus a third torque arm underneath the engine to contain the fore-aft movement (often called the pendulum or dog-bone mount).
The standard car uses very compliant rubber in these mounts to give a soft take-up of power and isolate the cabin from drivetrain noise. For a daily driven standard car, these bushings do a good job of keeping cabin vibration to a minimum. But when you ask more of these mounts, with higher power or hard driving, the flex in the bushes becomes very noticeable. This gives a slightly loose feeling to the drivetrain and an increased chance of wheel-hop under hard acceleration as the whole engine and ‘box assembly judders.
If your car produces high power, or has covered quite a few road miles, or is driven hard, the softness of these three standard rubber mounts allows more and more movement as you come on and off the power. With worn mounts, we have even seen failures of the exhaust manifold and driveshafts as the whole drivetrain shifts around under load.
WHAT DIFFERENCE DO THE Racingline Performance MOUNTS MAKE?
The Racingline Performance engine mounts stiffen the whole location of the drivetrain greatly to give a much crisper feeling to your car. This means no more jerky behaviour on and off the throttle or when you change gear, and all-but eliminates ‘wheel hop’ off the line. Of course, a bit more noise from the drivetrain comes into the cabin, but most keen drivers love the sense that they are more ‘connected’ to their car.
As opposed to some aftermarket ‘push in’ bushes which crudely fill the voids in the factory mounts, the Volkswagen units are completely redesigned replacement mount assemblies. We specify a stiff urethane of 75A durometer which allows some movement within the mounts, and filters much of the drivetrain’s vibration but with a design that very significantly reduces the movement on each.
For most road cars, we’d recommend the lower engine mount on its own, leaving the two upper mounts standard. This makes a huge difference to how the car drives, and is a pretty minimal difference to the cabin refinement. The lower engine mount on its own is one of our most popular upgrades for Golfs and Sciroccos.
For more heavily modified, track and motorsport cars, all three mounts should be upgraded.
Will Fit
Golf Mk7 GTI
Golf Mk7 R
Leon Cupra 280
A3 8V
S3 8V