I found my side engine mounts were both leaking and I was getting a faint grinding noise when driving. I had a receipt for them being replaced by the previous owner last year so it was surprising to see that they had failed so quickly. Turns out this is another feature of these cars and there's lots of good write ups on vx220.org.uk about how to fix them. Managed to get a couple of replacements off Autovaux for about £60 and after a couple of missed deliveries and a fair few calls to Autovaux, they turned up about 3 weeks after ordering them.
The job was actually surprisingly easy. First thing to do was to whip off the under trays and jack up the car.
Then remove the rear wheel followed by the wheel arch liner. Then jack up the engine slightly to hold it in position and unbolt the the lump of metal that connects the engine to the top of the engine mount. It appears that the last person to do this job may have tried to get the engine mount on by levering it on rather then doing this and there are a couple of tell tale nicks in the metal around the mount to prove this theory. This might be why they failed so soon after fitting. Next step was to unbolt the old mount using a long socket extension from the bottom of the car and then bolt everything back together.
The grinding noise has gone and gear changes now feel much more precise, which is a nice bonus.
Also managed to get a nifty little cover for the expansion tank off ebay, hopefully this will stop it cracking again from UV exposure. Was only £10 and just clips on to the top most hose connected to the tank.
Still useful :)
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