Hi folks,

I just spent 6 hours trying to get my motor mounts replaced. I couldn't even get the first one off! But I'm alive, and that's good.

I chose to jack up the lip of the front of the oil pan, in front of the crossmember/swaybar area, directly under the bolts. I felt that was safe enough for the engine, since it looked like using the board-over-the-strut-towers would mess up some AC components installed too close to the passenger side tower.

The FAQ and searching the board was of limited help, since I think I'm a tad greener than other folks here. Here's the process I went through (driver's side):

1. Pop loose the 15mm bolt holding the mount to the engine bracket.
2. Loosen the three 13mm bolts attaching the lower bracket to the crossmember.
3. Remove the 15mm bolt.
4. Jack the engine up a tiny bit(slowly and carefully!!!).
5. Remove the 13mm bolts and let the threaded bolts attached to the 'plate' above the rack boots drop out.
[Here's what I couldn't do...]
6. Jack the engine up more, and pull out the mount and lower bracket.

As I jacked up the engine, the whole rest of the car came with it - distorting the mount and causing me to stop once the car was unreasonably high. The floor jack (with a wood block against the oil pan bolts) reached its full extension, a foot or so, and teetered over and DROPPED THE ENGINE! SCARY! I didn't hear the oil pan strike the crossmember (as I rolled out of the way), but I'm not sure I would have. I feel lucky to be alive.

I put the bolts back on the mount, and put everything else back together. I'm not sure what to do here.

Thanks,

Ari