I know this has perhaps been covered to death but I struggled to find the answer on a search.
My Exige currently has the Yellow Powerflex mounts fitted. I never drove the car prior to them being fitted by the previous owner so I cannot compare to the originals. The car has done around 200 miles with them fitted and there is a fair bit of vibration both in the cabin and around the rear of the car at idle and to around 2k rpm. I’ve read that they “bed in” with mileage but as the car is predominantly being used on the road, how long does this take roughly?
Have any owners switched to the Elise Shop parts which are supposedly much quieter whilst still greatly reducing engine movement and improving gear change and found them to be more “liveable”?
I have the yellow inserts in mine, I’m not sure if they ever ‘bedded in’ at all, or whether you just get used to them and stop paying attention to them.
I’ve heard good things about the ES ones, but also there’s an argument to just fit one of the sets of yellows, and leave the other set out… I just can’t remember which one is best to remove!
I find the vibrations themselves you get used to, but it can emphasise existing rattles - which can get a bit annoying. I’ve hunted down and fixed a few of these rattles but it’s a futile game really.
Powerflex yellow, front and rear for me too - exaggerates existing rattles and vibrations, but nothing crazy. Only had them 500 miles, so they may ‘improve’ but I’m still extremely happy with them - made such an enormous difference to the gear shift I wouldn’t even consider removing them.
Yellow ones fitted about 4yrs ago.
You will notice a vibration on engine start up but once warmed up you don’t really notice it.
Definitely improved the gear change and the engine stops rocking during gear changes (very evident when not fitted).
I’d certainly recommend fitting them.
Lee, I had them, essential for my car on track as 3rd gear could hide on downshifts with heavy braking and 4th can also sneak off on flat out upshift. They made my car rattle and shake at idle and if drove me nuts for road use but I think it varies car to car. I removed them when I stopped tracking the car as it was perfectly ok for road use. I also had the upgraded cables after the original ones melted, they were are improvement.
BTW, I’m sure you know, Gavin at Unit 4 in a Burton on Trent, just down the road from you, is very good for all work. I expect he would do a remove, try, refit if you asked him.
Just a quick update, I had Gav at Unit 4 (handy having them only 10 mins away) insert the Elise Shop inserts. It turns out the car had power flex inserts but one yellow and the harder black version towards the rear of the car hence the vibrations. The difference is night and day And a huge improvement whilst also providing an improvement over having none fitted at all in terms of gear change. Not cheap at £80 a set but at least I can be safe that I can save money on a new set of fillings with it being a road car.
When fitting the inserts is it just a case of removing centre bolt then jacking engine up/down (board under sump?) to get space then fitting inserts or does the engine mount have to come off?
OK finally got round to getting under the car again as getting fed up with the crap shifting. Started on the rear, 7 bolts to undo? first the cover plate then the 4 holding the mount to the subframe is that correct? Then the inserts can be fitted? Awkward in there as well. The front ‘looks’ a bit easier? Any hints?
Yep sounds about right, front has fewer things to undo but it’s the more awkward of the two as threading the bolts back into the gearbox blind and at an awkward angle is a pain.
Thanks for the response. The back ones are awkward enough. But tbh I’ve only spent about 2 hours amd most of that was spent finding the tools! Makita impact driver just fitted on the central mount bolt.
My advice would be to do one at a time, I found just one insert was adequate to significant improve shift and reduce movement. Lots more noise and vibration though and assume fitting both would be even worse!
