Came upon this excellent youtube video about inspecting the front and rear suspension for wear:


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Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

Thank you for sharing

 

>Thank you for sharing

Sure, was happy to

But that video does raise an interesting question, how frequent are those suspension wear problems with our cars? The fellow in the video describes them as being very common on S-Types. But, I don't remember much mention of them in this forum.

So, how many of you out there have had to replace any of the components covered in the video? Particularly, in my case, how common are tie-rod failures?

I actually started looking stuff up a couple of days ago when I had snow tires installed on the rear of my car. The tech in the tire shop told me that both tie-rods needed to be replaced. And when they moved the car I believe I saw the front wheel shift forward and back when the applied the brakes (i.e., move in relation to the fender, not up/down).
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Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

That's very helpful, but what I wonder is why he didn't at all mention A-arm bushings up front? I thought the uppers especially were prone to bushing wear. Perhaps wear and failure patterns depends on road quality, type of roads, weather, etc that the car experiences over a lifetime.

Thanks for the post though, I'm going to have a look on my S-type.

 

It just depends. I would not say any of that is common EXCEPT the front sway bar bushings on the GEN I cars. Next most common is the sway bar end links on the front and then the rear. Both of these are pretty cheap and easy to fix.

My 2005 STR has 108K miles and everything down to the tie rod ends are factory. Perfect alignment and no noise or rattles. Now I do have some torn rubber boots so water and grit are getting into the joints and for sure are causing wear.

But when I need to replace anything is still unknown.
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I'd replace just the boots as soon as I saw they'd failed. Saves the joints.

 

I have considered this but have you looked at the front control arm boots?

They look like some kind of clear plastic with a wire retainer. I have never seen these after market. I guess I could just pop a rubber boot on there and it would probably work too?
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I reckon anything that doesn't leak will do. It's better if it's durable just to save replacing it often. (Otherwise a plastic bag would do.)

 

Suspension repairs? Suspension repairs? ::in my best old 90s SNL sketch voice:: "I gots yer suspension repairs right 'ere."

2003 S-Type 3.0, 136k miles: Front upper ball joints (d & p sides) replaced with upper control arms (factory-pressed) last month. Lower ball joints too. Rear stabilizer bars (d & p sides) this month. All four wheel bearings (2 just for good measure) a couple months back. Just wear-and-tear given the mileage on the vehicle.