I have never been more excited/anxious/relieved to see these 2 parts finally come in, after waiting nearly a month for them to arrive.

They are a relatively new part and is manufactured in England (the old one, across the Atlantic), so I knew it might a while to come in. I had ordered it from a guy in the one of the mini forums. He's based in SoCal and apparently had the hooks for these, and has been the supplier for several of the forum members. These members had nothing but nice things to say about this guy, so I trusted their collective opinion and ordered through him. Well, 3 weeks after the initial order & payment, I hadn't received jack, and had to open a Paypal dispute for him to actually answer my attempts of contact. I tried email, his website contact page, and forum private messages, but dude would not respond until Paypal put a hold on payment. He blamed the delay on the fact that he was currently out of the country and not really set up to process orders efficiently. He basically said I had to wait another week before he could actually find out if he could place the order. I called fucking bullshit and demanded by money back, which he willingly obliged. Lucky for me, a major mini parts website started to carry the same mounts, at about the same price, and more importantly, IN HAND IN STOCK. And I received them a week later.

So here's the old upper & lower mounts off the mini. The upper was leaking and no longer providing engine damping, causing additional stress on the lower mount. The lower mount actually looked fine (I've seen pictures on the forums where the lower mount is completely torn up), but I still replaced it anyways since I was already all up in there anyways, and for the peace of mind. With the new mount, I know that won't be failing anytime soon.

And here's the new mount installed. Pretty sexy, yah?

compared to this BS:

I could've driven on the leaky mount, but it could've cause damage to the transmission & axles. So I can finally drive the mini again without having to worry. The NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) is a little high right now, but that's to be expected. They say it takes a hundred miles or two for the new mount to settle & break in. It's only a little interior vibration at idle, so it's no biggie, and it'll eventually die down. The only downside is that when I was putting the front passenger-side tire back on, I left the wheel lock key on the wheel lock (AGAIN!!!! DOH!!!) and drove off, so it's lost forever and I have to order a new one. I feel like a giant idiot for doing that again.

....that f@ckin' piece of bull$hit, and I mean that in the most loving way possible. But foreals though, I was kind of surprised, but then again, not really. This time it was upper motor mount (it connects the engine to the body). It's filled with oil and it basically absorbs the vibrations from the engine so that you don't feel it through the entire car. Sooner or later, the oil is going to start leaking from the sealed unit. In 2010, at about 130K miles, the original upper mount blew.

Brand new on left, exploded'd on right:

It left a big ol' exploded'd mess:

Not too shaby, considered some people's blow at around 50K miles. It cost around $100 to replace, I did the labor myself, no biggie. I figured I could get another 130K miles out of this new one, right? Pshhaw, yeah right. 3 years and only 30K miles later, the replacement has started to leak.

It hasn't gone and exploded yet, but if I continue to drive it, it eventually will. And doing so will place more stress on the lower motor mount, which is only made of rubber, and is also known to eventually go bad and would need to be replaced too. I have no idea what condition my lower motor mount currently is.

So, my options are to replace it again with the same OEM, oil-filled upper motor mount, but that's $100 and will eventually need to be replaced again, who knows how many miles or years later. Or I could get an aftermarket, all-rubber upper motor mount. It goes for $300, but I will NEVER have to replace it ever again (according to the manufacturer). I did my research on the MINI forums, and everyone recommends it for that very reason. Replace it once and forget about it. The only downside is the high initial asking price, but that will eventually pay for itself the longer you keep your car running, and I, for now, plan on keeping the mini forever, barring anything horrible happening to it or my funds become too lacking, whichever comes first. And I'm ordering the lower motor mount too. Why not? It's eventually going to fail, so might as well take proactive measures. So I've "grounded" the mini until the new mounts come in. Dont' want to take any chances and mess up for stuff.

With taxes, it's about $500. Fffuuuuuuuuu.......at least I'm saving some $$$ doing the labor myself (I estimate at least $200). I suppose it's worth it. I don't really have a choice, so it has to be worth it. The alternative is to buy a new or used car, that would in theory be more reliable and have way lower maintenance costs, but that's probably not going to happen any time soon, since I'm supposedly saving up to buy a house. With these stupid unplanned maintenance costs, and the housing market being super sh!tty for buyers right now (too many buyers, not enough houses), I'm not even sure if I can find a house that I both like AND can afford. But I guess we'll see. My promotion raise should be on this next upcoming paycheck, and then another additional 5% from the furloughs going away should show up on the following paycheck. So this may all still work out. I'm still worried cause I haven't actually seen any total amounts yet. I'll only be happy when I see the additional funds in my bank account.

F@ckin' mini.....