Front and side mount

When do you know that the front and side mounts need service? There’s no leak I can see anywhere underneath at all.

engine mounts?

You really need to clarify the question - and perhaps explain why you are asking.

???

Huh?

???

Yes, thank you for being respectful in your response. I brought my car to Acura for its regular maintenance. As always almost the case, the service advisor would let you know what additional service needs to be done on my Acura. Well, I told the service advisor to note it down on the recommendation sheet and this is how it was noted - “front and side mount leaking”. Nothing more, nothing less.

Don’t these have hydraulic engine mounts, might that be it? You’ll need to call them to find out. I imagine it’s not serviced, it’s replaced, but I’d want to make very sure it’s needed, not cheap.

I am guessing (and, this is truly guess-work) that this model Acura uses liquid-filled motor mounts. If that is the case, and if they are indeed leaking, then they do need to be replaced.

My suggestion is to go back to Acura to ask for clarification. Certainly the people who made the recommendation will have more knowledge of what they were attempting to inform you of than we would.

Then, ask them to put the car on a lift and to show you the leaking parts.
Ask for an estimate of how much this job will cost. Show some shock at the price (which will very likely be shocking), and tell the service people that you will have to check your schedule before making an appt for this repair.

Next, go to a few independent garages to get their estimates. More than likely, an independent can undercut the dealer’s price by 40% or so.

Yes, thank you. I will have to get more information from them. I have just gotten a little bit suspicious of the recommendations they have been giving me. It seems that the mechanic has been finding problems with my car and if I ask them if it is something that will put my life in imminent danger, if it’s not repaired, they need to put it in writing as such. They will not. This is an Acura dealership I’ve been going to in the last 5 years and I’m having suspicious feelings on the accuracy of their assessment of my car’s repair needs.

Unfortunately, this does appear to be a frequent repair, at least as discussed at http://www.mdxers.org/forums, so it very well may be legitimate.

Thanks. The link you provided was very informative. Now, I can go back to Acura and ask them if they could pay for the engine mount since I have a 100K warranty.

Thanks again. Great!!!