Been recently having a lot of squeak noises coming from the drivers rear side area whenever I go over minor bumps, and its been getting louder. I tried lubricating around that area and where the e-brake is but nothing seems to work. I'm guessing a replacement is needed for the lower control arm/bushing. Any advice on this and where to buy these parts? I'm having a hard time looking for it.

 

Fezz, did you squirt the upper shock mount. I bet you will find that the noise is coming from there. Also, squirt where the rear sway bar goes through the mount connected to the body of the car. Both of those spots are notorious noise makers. A little bit of WD-40 will do the trick.

 

Thanks Thermo, I'm gonna give that a try. Nothing WD can't fix :P

 

I had the same issue. I tracked it down by running the car up ramps and then bouncing it with one hand while listening with a stethoscope. A squirt of WD40 stopped the noise but did not fix the problem.
I installed a new control arm and found the outer bushing in the old one had broken up completely. The other side was quiet but had also disintegrated so I changed that.
Now sounds like a new car - silent. BTW the bad bushings creat havoc with your rear end alignment.
Good luck,
Brian

 

Where did you buy the control arm?

 

I bought mine from Autopartswarehouse.com. Don't know if they are the best price but they were in stock and gave free shipping.

Brian

 

Yeah I lubed up the bushings/control arm but the problem persists. Looks like I'm going to have to buy something. I'm going to try to save money and just replace the bushings instead of getting the entire control arm. Thing is, with this noise - I'm not entirely sure if I should be getting the bushings for the lower or upper control arm. (My guess is lower)

 

Easy to tell. Put a jack under the spring cup on the rear control arm and remove the wheel. Put a 15 mm socket with a big bar on the outer (nearest) bolt holding the lower control arm and lift. On mine the whole hub assembly waggled up and down - not very comforting. With new arms there was no movement.
Be careful about buying bushings. The ones I have seen advertised are for the inner (diff) end of the control arm and do not seem to wear very quickly. I could not find a source for outer bushings.

Brian

 

I found a nearby junkyard that had a control arm in stock, but he mentioned that the "ball joints" were bad. I was wondering if these could easily be replaced or fixed - or the control arm is totally shot. I've having a hard time looking for these parts lol

Furthermore, I was wondering if this one is a good price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/REAR-LOWER-C...ae84a2&vxp=mtr

 

Fezz, yes, the ball joints up front are replaceable. Look at:

2 FRONT Lower Ball Joint Set JAGUAR X-TYPE 02-08 X TYPE | eBay

If you have the arm out of the car, that will make for a quick job to upgrade to the new ball joints. The only "difficult" part will be grinding off the rivets from the factory to get the ball joints out. From there, the rest is pretty easy.

 

Thought I would not start a new thread but I'm wondering if anyone has found a source for the rear lateral arm bushings? I can tell they are just pressed in and I am sure that you can get them seperate if someone knew a source or part number.

If no one knows, I am going to get mine off in a couple of weeks and take it down to the parts store to find a match.

 

kccode1, I would recommend pulling out a micrometer and doing some measuring. From there, look up a company called Energy Suspension. They are big into the 4x4 world, but they carry a very large stock of bushings of all sizes and materials. I am sure you can find something close and then from there, with a little bit of shaving, make it work.

 

Thermo, Hi I am new to this site but had a question for you as I saw you listed some pics of a upper control arm you replaced. Went to have my summer tires put back on my 02 Jag xtype this weekend and when they went to align the rear end they said that I needed to replace the control arms that allow rear toe adjustment. they said the bolts had seized up and one of the wheels was sliding around causing the tire to get chopped. I am guessing the one they are talking about is the lower control arm that the spring sits on but figured I would ask as it looks like you may have some experience. Again sorry if I am not posting properly.

 

We now supply these lower control arms for $64.00 with your JF discount. Very competitively priced.

 

Dgoose, as a general rule, the arm that has the spring attached to it does not go bad. NOrmally the arm that goes bad is the lower/forward arm on the rear suspension. If you look at the rear suspension, you have 2 arms on the bottom and 1 on the top. The bottom ones, you have a large arm and a small arm. The one in question is the smaller arm that sits more towards the front of the car than the other. This is a fixed arm, but when you get play in this arm, it can sometimes be overcome with adjusting the larger arm via the adjustments in the center of the car.

By the way, if you would, please stop by the New Member Section and tell us a little bit about yourself. We like being a better car group and as part of this, we like to get to know one another. This will also give you a chance to meet those that make this place what it is.

 

Ok so basically what the mechanic is talking about is the front lower control arm then? he says it controls the toe adjustment. Claims the bolts have seized and there is a lot of play in the one causing the tire to move back and forth he says. Is this a easy fix, trying to do more of my own work on my vehicles. If this is the fix for my problem any chance you know what the part number is ? Want to make sure I get this fixed soon. Thanks again I will def stop into the new members section

 

Best bet is a new set of lower control arms. You can get them new at Rock Auto for $80 and they have new ball joints and bushings. Not a part you would really want to get used unless you really had to. I had to change mine a couple weeks ago after installing the lowering springs. They were a little tricky but if you're mechanical it's not bad. You may also want sway bar end links.

 

Dgoose, I would say to get into your car a little bit and see what is going on yourself. We seem to be discussing 2 different things. But, what you can do is to raise the wheel in question off of the ground and then put your hands at the 3 and 9 o'clock position (NEVER!!!!!! at the 6 and 12) and then try to turn the wheel like it was a front wheel making a turn. Do you feel any movement in the wheel? If yes, see where the movement is coming from (may need the help of a second person). If you see movement, then you have too much play. The other trick that you can try is to see if you can get under the car and put some match marks (lines that run from one part, tends to be a fixed point, to a second part, what you are trying to get back to a specific spot or seeing how far it moves). From there, you can jack up the passenger side (in this case) and see if the match mark is still in line. You are simply using the weight of the car to try and stress the suspension and see if things move.

The mechanic is saying that it is the larger control arm that has the spring attached to it. I am talking about a different arm. If this is all sounding too involved for you, then I would say to go to a second shop and see what they say. If they are both saying the same thing, then odds are, that is what is wrong.

 

Thanks Thermo, I will definitely try what you say and post back once I do.
I have already fixed some minor parts in the engine bay but you definitely learn something new every day with these and would rather not spend money with the shops if I can do it on my own. Thanks again.

Daniel

 

Hi,
I was also facing the same problem in my BMW.Then with the help of armstrongdistributors I did the BMW Control Arm & Suspension Bushings done.Now its running smoothly.I think you should also try this.