I hope everyone had a safe July 4,,,,here’s a picture of N20 engine mounts from a F10,,,,the problem was the customer said the car was running rough,,,,the rough running got worse when you shifted it back into park,,,,in drive you could still notice it but not as bad when it was in park,,,,I checked out the engine mounts and found the passengers side mount was collapsed,,,,you can see the new mount on the left side is taller then the old one.
Here the new engine mount is installed,,,,you can see a gap between the engine mount and mount support bracket,,,,you can see the 4 black marks where the old collapsed engine mount was hitting the mount support bracket,,,,can you do this repair at home yes you can,,,,when replacing the passengers side you have to support the engine and remove the engine support bracket at the same time,,,,,,the drivers side is a lot harder to replace .
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bmwtechnician 
Hello,
How this is going to look for DIY? How hard is it? Dealership diagnosed as bad mounts on my F10 528i too. I can feel vibration during cold start when gears are changed to D or R. More colder outside, more worst is the vibration. But it goes away once engine is warmed up. Is it really motor mounts?
Thank you.
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It sounds like your motor mount is going bad,,,,as a DIY it’s not a easy job,,,,,you have to lift the motor up to get the mounts out
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Thank you for the response. I’ll find a good indy for the job.
Thank you again
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I bought oem motor mounts on ebay via bmw dealership in florida for a real good price($158/pair with ebay 20% coupon). I’m leaning towards using harbor freight engine support bar for lifing engine up from top and change one mount at a time.
How hard it’s going to be? And I have seen plenty videos using support bar on fenders. Just curious if fenders are strong enough to hold the bar while lifting engine.
Any suggestions are highly appreciated.
Thank you
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Yes you can use the harbor freight engine support,,,,you can lift the engine slightly,,,,that support is not made to lift it is a support,,,,so what you do is support it with the harbor freight and then you take a piece of wood 2×4 and a floor jack and you can lift the engine with the floor jack from the plastic oil pan,,,,be careful,,,the harbor freight support sits on the fender bolts area,,,,and use you tow hook screws into the top of the cylinder head next to the oil filter housing,,,,,I hope this helps
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Just a quick question, does this mount replacement requires the replacement of any bolts?
Thank you
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Nope,,,,you can reuse the old bolts
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Thank you for all these valuable information and I really appreciate it. Just one quick question, is engine tow hook suppose to thread in all the way down? Mine is not threading all the way down. The hook design stops screwing all the way in. About 1/4 (about 3 threads) of the hook screws in and the bulged part @ middle of the hook gets stopped by a riser on the engine block right next to tow hook screw hole. Is that right way bmw does it?
Any insights is highly appreciated.
Thank you
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Of course BMW has a special tool for everything,,,,lol,,,but we all use are personal tool hooks for the engine support tool,,,but modify the tow hook and grind down that lip on the tow hook that is hitting the cylinder head so it can screw in further in to the head
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On my 2012 528i, the tow hook will not thread into the hole by the oil filter. The tow hook’s thread diameter is too large. The tow hook was machined for clearance as mentioned above. Was the hole for the N20 lifting eye smaller in 2012 than the later model years? And the tow hook does thread into the front bumper.
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I have never tried the front tow hook from a N20 engine,,,the tow hook I use is so old I don’t remember what car or engine it s for.,,,I didn’t know the size of the hole was a different size
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Are there different tow hooks? I assumed that anything called a tow hook was meant to be used as a front tow hook for the car and it doubled as a lifting eye for the engine. Is there a part number for the lifting eye for the N20 engine? In case it matters, the diameter of the threaded end of my tow hook is 0.767 inches or ~19.5 mm. This is the tow hook from the tool kit mounted in the trunk lid.
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No the only tow hook for your car is the one in the rear trunk area,,,,I didn’t think they changed the size of the threads on the tow hook
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BMW tow hook 72-15-7-203-519 fits the N20 engine lifting eye hole. No modifications to the tow hook are required. Its outside diameter measures 0.616 inches or 15.6 mm.
Both of the engine mounts on my F10 have failed. To change them it doesn’t appear that the engine could be raised enough to get the mounts out of the pocket in the sub-frame. Am I correct in assuming that both support arms need to be removed to get the mounts out?
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Yes you have to remove the motor mount support bracket,,,,or you lower the subframe which might be harder to do
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looking at mini cooper tow hook (which this part is for as well) looks like spec are M15.8xP3.175 with plenty of them for $9 on ebay, but alu so not sure if strong enough
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The BMW tow hook is also made of aluminum
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the $9 ones look very flimsy, so I bought the real one ($15-30) on ebay and is very solid – goes 7 full turns in. In the end I had a local shop do it as the engine support I borrowed didn’t line up well with the shock mount metal or cross bar, and removing the engine support arm from above look like a lot of work (like 1 video I saw on driver side) vs pushing from below (another video but on 520D with metal underside instead of plastic oil reservoir on N20 – pushed engine a LOT but was also doing a shot tranny support so maybe why he was able to move engine so much).
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Hi @bmwtechnician,
do you know if the black rubber marks on the mount support are only caused by broken engine mounts? Are the marks a clear indication for a broken mount, or did you see it on pristine ones too?
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Usually if those marks are there then the motor mount is collapsed,,,,also there should be gap between the motor mount and motor mount bracket,,,it should not be resting on the mount
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Just finished this job. Funny, I thought the driver’s side was much easier. Possibly because I did the passenger first. Thanks for the post man.
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Glad I can help
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Hey Derek- Any tips on the drivers side mount? Did you need to remove the bracket or just unbolt the bracket from the mount and lift it until the mount slipped out?
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Yes just unbolt it’s and slip out the mount
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what’s the avg cost of repair for either side or both?
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Labor is about 2.5hr each side,,,I don’t know what the parts cost is.
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Hi, is it same for b46 engine on x3 2018? The passenger side, raise engine slightly and remove bracket bolts then engine mount bolts then reinstall new mount. Does the mount come out through the bottom? Any need to remove turbo or exhaust to gain access?
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You can remove the catalyst converter and it comes out the bottom
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It also looks like I can remove airbox and pull it out the top, what would you suggest? I have the harbor freight lift to hold the engine
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The mount comes out the bottom,,,you can use the harbor freight engine sling
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question is why would you get a BMW (or whoever they use – looking at Pelicanparts sounds like “Corteco” is the OEM) if they fail at 50-80k ? did they redesigned this to fix what appears a common issue or is there better after market ?
my 2014 528i (74k) is shacking badly when cold and in D more (ok on N, slight on R now) and suspect this mount issue…
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No they did not redesign the new motor mount
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I replaced mine with a vibracoustic mount. I would suggest coding OFF auto stop start to prevent failures on this mount. I had an N20 on my last car with 125k miles and no issues. The only difference was auto stop start was coded off from new. The fuel savings from your car turning off at lights is not worth the hassle of replacing engine mounts ever few years.
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that’s a good suggestion. I have auto-start OFF because I’m also worried about the starter going bad which could be a pretty expensive repair…
Update: I raised the car, took the oil drain cover off and can clearly see the passenger mount totally collapsed with no gab unlike picture #2 above. Time to order the parts and a hook/bolt to raise the motor…
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I replaced the passenger side mount on my 2018 X3 with B46 engine. It looks almost identical to N20.
This is a really poorly designed mount that is not up to the task of auto stop start loading over the life of the car. I suspect they all collapse around 50-70k miles unless you have coded off auto stop start. My mount was collapsed as shown in the pics attached – about 10mm or so, and the rubber bump stop was worn away. This should be on the maintenance check list. Symptoms were vibration felt through dash and steering wheel when the car was in drive or reverse.
Be sure to have plenty of various socket extensions including wobble extensions. E10, E12, and E14 are the only sockets needed for this job. I used the harbor freight engine support to lift the engine from the top enough to slip the mount out of the bracket. Pretty tight clearances with the cat in place. I also removed the bracket. Both parts came out from the front between the radiator and belts.
It improved the vibration about 80% but I still want to replace the driver side mount as that looks to be sagging a bit. Can that side be done without removing the bracket? It looks a bit tighter with the steering shaft and drive shaft in the way. Is there an engine lift point near that side on the B46?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2efSBhY6DN6TCNjr5
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Can the driver side mount be done without removing the bracket? Looks to be more difficult to access than the passenger side due to the fuse panel and steering shaft. Maybe it can be lifted from the rear lift point so the bracket clears the top metal piece of the mount without having to take it off.
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You might be able to do it,,,,I haven’t had any luck
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