Thanks for your reply Pudding I was also looking at the 034 street mounts the OEM look appealed to me but like you i have seen some reviews regarding quality if I go uprated after your comments and reading their website I will use Vibratechnics and AKS Tuning can supply at a good price. My main concern with using uprated mounts is dash rattles they drive me mad how were yours when you had them did you feel benefits out weighed the negatives
The benefits were a massively improved gear shift (manual) and the engine not flopping around in the engine bay round corners, like a seal trying to escape from a wheat sack. The engine actually felt like part of the car, and not an anvil floating around aimlessly on a couple of bed springs. That initial response when you stab the throttle improves too because the power is put down rather than the engine moving around.
It really does make a huge difference. I've used them on older VWs (MK2 16V Turbo, MK1 16V, Corrado VR6 Turbo etc - so they can handle the grunt) and also a MK4 R32. Wheel hop was zero with the FWD cars. I haven't used them on a MK5 yet, but very tempted to.
The downside is obviously increased noise and vibration. I can't comment on whether that happens in the MK5 FWD, but on the MK4 R32, NVH increased quite a lot, so I would expect the same in the MK5 as the mounting system is identical. The dashboard didn't shake. They were most noticeable at 1200rpm, where the engine felt very coarse and it vibrated the car. Either side of that rpm was spot on. The problem is mitigated with heat (from the engine, and ambient) so it does feel better the more the car is used.
The manual O2M/O2Q gearbox is a noisy, rough thing, so expect a fair bit of noise from that in the cabin!
Some people have different tolerance levels for this sort of thing. If you know increased NVH will bother you, £400 odd is a lot to sink into this, only to be disappointed. So I would say go into it expecting increased NVH from the outset, but it might not be as bad as you thought and can live with it. Going into it expecting no increase in NVH at all will definitely lead to disappointment!
