Suspension Commentary
 

Todays driving environment takes a unbelievable toll on Jaguar's multi-link front and rear suspensions than any time in the last 50 years. Urban centers have always been plagued by potholes, ill-timed stoplights, and poor parking access, all of which put a toll on a cars suspension. Suburban enviornments are characterized by endless shopping strips filled with discount shopping "opportunities," high calorie, high fat casual dining establishments serving supercharged drinks to its patrons mostly in search of a little slap and tickle afterwards, all of which have people accelerating to the nearest stoplight only for the damned thing to turn red so that you have to slam on the brakes. High dive braking isn't nice to suspension components or even brakes, but I don't pay too much attention to that. Constant turning into parking lots, into and out of shopping strips puts a strain on your steering system. Even rural areas are being infested with new "development," which consists of new residential areas followed by a Wal-Mart, a bank and maybe a doctors office. The 70 mph speed limit sections are getting shorter and shorter. Our suspensions seem to pay the price for the problems plaguing our road system, which is woefully clogged with dumb drivers and discount retailers.

Only two short years ago, I would have cried foul over someones attempt to sell a set of struts after only 50,000 miles on the clock, but I am not so sure today if that isn't a proper course of action. There is evidence that improperly damped suspensions can stress and strain critical suspension components to the point where they have to be replaced on almost a monthly basis.

Every time my car goes onto a lift, I am finding that more of my suspension and steering parts need to be replaced. It is getting annoying. With 91,000 miles, I have had had to do the following to this car:

1.) Replace front upper control arms
2.) Replace rear struts
3.) Replace front struts.
4.) Replace lower control arm bushings. (not done yet)
5.) Replace the outer tie rod ends. (not done yet, discovered today)

Is it correct that replacing struts could put off more costly work further down the road? Or just the act of taking suspension pieces off to get to them causing unreasonable strain on the suspension components?

Any thoughts or comments?

Thanks.

Our 2005 3.0 had to have its rear stabilizer links replaced under the factory warranty due to crushed rubber caps and bushings at about 30,000 miles in April 2009. No other suspension parts have needed replacement since then. The car is approaching 71,500 miles....

Differences in road conditions could be the explanation. So could a fully-loaded car most of the time vs. ours which is mostly driven with just the driver aboard. It will be interesting to see what other owners have to say in this thread....

If the shocks are still doing their job properly, replacing them won't help one bit.

Driving like you had an egg balanced in the neck of a milk bottle stood on the floor will help tremendously.

That's a good point, but people (myself included) often let things like struts go long after they need replacing. It seems that with multi-link suspensions, it is harder to tell when the struts are gone. I know that because of the way this car is sprung, it was not obvious to me that the dampers were failing without taking a look at them.

Since you mainly do highway miles on yours, it may be a while before symptoms show. Hopefully.

I started to notice degradation in ride quality when the car hit the mid 80's. I had no idea that things were this far gone.