Is there a better design than the OEM standard Top Mount available ?

[macspring]

Was just wondering if anyone had an easily "duplicatable" idea for a decent design of front top mount for a B4 ?

To me, even a new standard one seems to have too much play in the original design ?

Maybe Rusty could develop and sell a decent one that would last and not have play in it from day one ?

Ideally one that is used on some other car, Audi or non Audi, that we could all use easily as a direct or almost direct replacement ?

I thinking of one for road cars by the way, not competition or track cars, what's available for them would be too severe for an everyday real world car.

While the heavy duty Meyle top mounts may last longer, aren't they a similar design to the regular OEM ones.

Any thoughts either way ?

Big potential as these top mounts are on every B4 out there ?

Thanks.

[Audicted]

Mance 'mount savers'

Meyle mounts are crappy and are now made in China. Guaranteed failure here in the US within six months of installation. An enthusiast has developed something called a mount saver and it almost guarantees non failure of the top mount if it is a Dealer supplied OEM mount. We have had good results with it. Works on B4 and B3 cars. if you do a google search with the words "mount saver Mance Audi" you will find plenty of information on them. HTH.

[macspring]

Audicted

Thanks for info on Meyle.

Found this with the quickest of searches.

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=2126142

Where does one obtain a Mance insert ?

Thanks.

[jogi730]

Hi,
Mance does occasionally pop onto this site under the username of VAP.
He not only makes mount savers, he also provides a complete topmount although not cheap. Try to PM him.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42296

Good reports about him from Rusty and I have some coming!
Cheers
Chris

[Rusty]

I have a set of promounts that are new and I'm looking to sell - pm me.

Still waiting for prices on the offset topmounts... - if they break then I'll eat a humble pie. Costs are frankly stupid, expecting £300 a pair quality costs unfortunately.

[Error404]

Is that going to be viable for the market Andy?
Not being funny and with utmost respect for what you're doing matey , but thats A LOT considering most people complain about paying less than £150 for a set of pro-mounts for road use and to be fair on a nice smooth track the existing compbrake / QRS type ones with the 20mm bearing will hold up fine and albeit getting replaced regularly - they now do a 10mm offset mount as far as I can make out.
Obviously in terms of quality and longevity not even comparable to yours but my point is I'd hate to see all your efforts go to nothing because people simply won't justify spending that amount if you get where I'm coming from?

[Rusty]

Yeah, when you consider that the bearings alone cost the same as a set of QRS mounts, things become clearer. The QRS items must be mass produced - I can't do that and have to pay for machining and full whack for all other parts. The only comparable mount is the 2 Bennett ones and they're $$$ also. The bearings I've specified have been done for quality and not price - there are already plenty of solid mounts out there that will last for a while and then start clunking and groaning, I can't compete with them on price so I've gone down a different route - quality. I don't expect to sell many of them and indeed won't make much on them but I can learn a lot from the design and hopefully solve an issue that even the pro-mounts didn't solve. I am basically making these because they solve a problem that I am getting more and more fed up with throwing money at and others must be in the same place.

I've squeezed the cost out a bit but there are many reasons why I can't even get close to the price of the exisitng mounts. Then again, my mounts are much beefier so it's a little like comparing stock mounts with pro-mounts, which are now more than 10x the cost... These are small batch, specialist items and are desinged to last.

Wait and see what comes back when I eventually get the costs and then see what I can sort out with the prices. Hopefully it'll be a bit less with the new design but that remains to be seen.

[Error404]

Just to reiteriate totally understand the thought behind them and what they are all about, I guess when i saw the dollar signs i had a mini heart palpitation as if I'm frank its not the kind of money I can jutstify spending at the moment with the way things are in the world

On the subject of the bearings, what kind of a factor is dirt ingress on bearing wear and failure?
I know the cheap ally mounts already available have issues with the bearings not lasting long, but is that definately because they are under specced in terms of load and not due to road use which they haven't been designed for?
Thinking about it commercially would people be more prepared to replace a smaller / lesser bearing say every 2-3 years say, and benefit from the handling improvements of a properly designed and made mount, whilst also keeping a lid on retail price?

[Rusty]

unfortunately, I've got £150 worth of bearings here and have had for some time... I also want the mounts to be offset and offer the option of a rear brace bar on the coupe.

Will see how things look when I get the prices. I'd love to do them for £200 a pair but the prices of small batch, quality aluminium, hard anodised parts are somewhat greater than ideal... Wait and see. There might be the option of doing a set of lesser, concentric mounts, with some proper motorsport spec bearings in them, rather than budget-conscious bearings that go clunk in the night.

[Error404]

I'm badly overdue a new set of mounts so waiting with anticipation