Ok, I have replaced 3 of the motor mounts on our 2005 Nissan Murano 2WD.
I went back with solid rubber mounts, from Oreillys, cost was about $400 for all three mounts.
Tools;
1. 17mm sockets, end wrench, stubby wrench, and 65* offset wrench
2. 14 mm sockets and end wrenches
3. 10 mm sockets and end wrenches
4. 1 bottle jack and some 2" x 6" 's, a square 2" x 6" under the oil pan will work for jacking up the engine without causing any damage.
5. Impacts will help a lot, 1/4" cordless and 1/2" air if you have them.
6. Floor jack and jack stands
First thing I would do is put the vehicle up on jack-stands, remove the front tires, remove the inner splash guard on the passenger side.
The mount on top of the engine is the easiest by far, remove the radiator reservoir, disconnect the hose from the radiator, and set the whole assembly out of the way. Now you should be able to see the 2 bolt holding the top engine mount to the body, just remove the 2 bolts from the body, then one nut on the mount from the top along with the bolt in the middle, next go through the splash-guard service section to remove the nut from the under side of the top mount.
The rear mount was probably the worse out of all three. There is a bracket that strengthens the mount that runs from the mount to the cross-member (front drivers side of mount), remove the 2 bolts holding this on and get it out of the way. There is a heat shield on the passenger side that is bolted to the cross-member, 2 bolts holding it as well, remove it and get it out of the way. I would get as much as I possibly could off of the car and out of the way as room is limited, your gonna need all the space you can get and you are going to probably reposition yourself from several different angles. I would also suggest that once you have the majority of the bolts off and you are down to that last bolt that runs through the center of the mount, I would get a sawzall or something and cut that bolt in half, just so I could get the mount off. Take the bracket off the engine, hog that threaded hole out and pass a bolt through the hogged out side and put a nut on the other side. Nissan used a 5" bolt and made that mount so you would have to extract it from the passenger side, which the exhaust manifold is directly in the way and they only leave you 2.5" to remove a 5" bolt. Where as the other side (driver side) has tons of room. Absolutely makes no sense to me and you can argue engineering all you want, but what difference does it make when they use huge bolts on a mount that is going to fail long before the bolts do. Anyway, that's my take on the rear mount between the engine and the firewall.
The one located between the radiator and the engine is relatively easy. Just remove the air-duct assembly for the intake, disconnect your battery cables, pull the battery on out, remove the battery pan, it has 5 bolts holding it in position, slip the black box off of the battery pan and push it to the side, you are going to need the battery pan out of the way so you can finagle the fan shroud assembly out of there. Now you can disconnect the 2 bolts in the top of the dual fan mount, disconnect the electrical connections to both fans, I just cut all of the factory zip ties loose, and snake the dual fan assembly up and out of the way. You will also need to loosen the lower splash guard, just disconnect it from the radiator support so it will swing down and out of the way so you can access the mount from both sides of the radiator support. There is a weight on the drivers side of this mount, maybe 40 lbs or something, has 2 nuts holding it on, real easy to remove and it helps to get it out of the way. Once everything is out of the way this is probably the easiest mount to do.
The bottle jack will come into play when you are doing the lower 2 mounts. Which is also why you do not install the top mount until last (no reason to be torquing on a new mount before it goes into service.
I was having trouble getting the bolt to pass through the center of the front mount, I could not get it to go through. So I finally decided to remove it then with the bolt and mount in each hand I tried to pass the bolt through, it would not go, the bolt was straight and not damaged or distorted in any way, it was the bushing inside of the mount that was distorted and would not allow the bolt to pass through. So check all of these parts before you put the on and have problems.
Another note on the new mounts is I had to bend the mount out so it would slip over the bracket on the car. I used 2 crescent wrenches and just tweaked them somewhat and it was still a tight fit. But not to worry once you get the bolts in and tightened down all of this will straighten right up!
Maybe the new mounts from Nissan are made in a plant that has higher quality control than the China knock-offs and are easier to work with????
I went back with solid rubber mounts, from Oreillys, cost was about $400 for all three mounts.
Tools;
1. 17mm sockets, end wrench, stubby wrench, and 65* offset wrench
2. 14 mm sockets and end wrenches
3. 10 mm sockets and end wrenches
4. 1 bottle jack and some 2" x 6" 's, a square 2" x 6" under the oil pan will work for jacking up the engine without causing any damage.
5. Impacts will help a lot, 1/4" cordless and 1/2" air if you have them.
6. Floor jack and jack stands
First thing I would do is put the vehicle up on jack-stands, remove the front tires, remove the inner splash guard on the passenger side.
The mount on top of the engine is the easiest by far, remove the radiator reservoir, disconnect the hose from the radiator, and set the whole assembly out of the way. Now you should be able to see the 2 bolt holding the top engine mount to the body, just remove the 2 bolts from the body, then one nut on the mount from the top along with the bolt in the middle, next go through the splash-guard service section to remove the nut from the under side of the top mount.
The rear mount was probably the worse out of all three. There is a bracket that strengthens the mount that runs from the mount to the cross-member (front drivers side of mount), remove the 2 bolts holding this on and get it out of the way. There is a heat shield on the passenger side that is bolted to the cross-member, 2 bolts holding it as well, remove it and get it out of the way. I would get as much as I possibly could off of the car and out of the way as room is limited, your gonna need all the space you can get and you are going to probably reposition yourself from several different angles. I would also suggest that once you have the majority of the bolts off and you are down to that last bolt that runs through the center of the mount, I would get a sawzall or something and cut that bolt in half, just so I could get the mount off. Take the bracket off the engine, hog that threaded hole out and pass a bolt through the hogged out side and put a nut on the other side. Nissan used a 5" bolt and made that mount so you would have to extract it from the passenger side, which the exhaust manifold is directly in the way and they only leave you 2.5" to remove a 5" bolt. Where as the other side (driver side) has tons of room. Absolutely makes no sense to me and you can argue engineering all you want, but what difference does it make when they use huge bolts on a mount that is going to fail long before the bolts do. Anyway, that's my take on the rear mount between the engine and the firewall.
The one located between the radiator and the engine is relatively easy. Just remove the air-duct assembly for the intake, disconnect your battery cables, pull the battery on out, remove the battery pan, it has 5 bolts holding it in position, slip the black box off of the battery pan and push it to the side, you are going to need the battery pan out of the way so you can finagle the fan shroud assembly out of there. Now you can disconnect the 2 bolts in the top of the dual fan mount, disconnect the electrical connections to both fans, I just cut all of the factory zip ties loose, and snake the dual fan assembly up and out of the way. You will also need to loosen the lower splash guard, just disconnect it from the radiator support so it will swing down and out of the way so you can access the mount from both sides of the radiator support. There is a weight on the drivers side of this mount, maybe 40 lbs or something, has 2 nuts holding it on, real easy to remove and it helps to get it out of the way. Once everything is out of the way this is probably the easiest mount to do.
The bottle jack will come into play when you are doing the lower 2 mounts. Which is also why you do not install the top mount until last (no reason to be torquing on a new mount before it goes into service.
I was having trouble getting the bolt to pass through the center of the front mount, I could not get it to go through. So I finally decided to remove it then with the bolt and mount in each hand I tried to pass the bolt through, it would not go, the bolt was straight and not damaged or distorted in any way, it was the bushing inside of the mount that was distorted and would not allow the bolt to pass through. So check all of these parts before you put the on and have problems.
Another note on the new mounts is I had to bend the mount out so it would slip over the bracket on the car. I used 2 crescent wrenches and just tweaked them somewhat and it was still a tight fit. But not to worry once you get the bolts in and tightened down all of this will straighten right up!
Maybe the new mounts from Nissan are made in a plant that has higher quality control than the China knock-offs and are easier to work with????