front lower engine mounts replaced

[alpha omega]

hi all,just replaced the 2 front lower engine mounts bought from eBay.item no 325250874433 by meyle(justgermanparts).the mount with the wiring is for the passenger side.put electric handbrake on and first gear turn car off.i only jacked the car up one side at a time.starting at the drivers side remove the wheel,then at the back of the wheel arch remove the 2 10mm plastic nuts(pic)then remove the black plastic lug at the back of the wheel arch and also to the righ of the wheel arch remove the 2 torx screws and a funny looking lug.and peel back the wheel arch revealing the 3 bolts that need to be removed(pic)the 2 outer 16mm bolts and one inner 18mm bolt(that also has a triple square on it but an 18mm socket is fine.but first go under the car and remove the big under tray and jack the oil pan up a few pumps with a block of wood underneath it(otherwise you cant do the job)so you can get the 3 bolts out easier.you will need a long extension bar to remove all 3 especially the inner 18mm.and look close to where the lower engine mount cover is and you will see 2 rusty looking triple square size M8 triple square bolts(pic) be very careful with these as i was told you can easily damage the threads on them.i wire brushed and wd40 them i carefully tapped the triple square in with a hammer and carefully turned them until i heard a crack and they then freed off.remove the metal shield(pic8)after this i seem to recall removing a 10mm nut nearby to move 2 pipes to the right in order to wiggle the drivers mount out(take a pic to show the mount in position before removing the mount so you know how it should be positioned..note how you get the old mount out to work out how to get the new one back in.....believe me its not easy  to line things back up you may have to jack the oil pan up or down especially i noticed on the passenger side mount ....the passenger side mount is more awkward to do as a pipe and the alternator is in the way......very impotant always put the 2 long 16mm bolts in first once you have the shield cover lined up but at the same time line the 2 triple square m8 bolts up that go on the base of the shield..before putting the top 18mm bolt in(once bolts in position according to youtube the 2 long 16mm bolts should be tightened to 50nms and the 18mm bolt to 90nms....but 90nms seemed a bit tight so i did 80nms as i didnt want to over tighten.....please note on the drivers side mount i had to put a crow bar in to line one of the holes up....and on the passenger side once i put the 2 long 16mm bolts in i then had to pump the oil pan up a bit to get the 18mm bolt to line up...apologies for been long winded and hope you got the drift of it all....audi wanted £££ to do these.....tip... on the passenger side the wiring can get in the way of the shield when putting the shield back on. so i moved it to the outside of the shield as it should be in pic(10)last pic showing old mount on the left and new mount on the right,its a fiddly job so allow a few hours

[Steve Q]

Great right up and pics 🙂