Hi, I would like to know how many ball joints there are on an x-type and what they are attached to and do you get them on both front and rear.

Also when these wear, what are the symptoms..?

 

Monz, as for the rear end of the car, there are no ball joints back there. All the joints are a rubber bushing that has a bolt going through it. So, fixing those is normally buying new parts and replacing the arms.

As for the front, you have a single ball joint there.

As for signs of a worn ball joint, what you will notice is a bit of sloppiness in the front end. If you lift the wheel off of the ground and then put a pry bar under the wheel and lift up on the tire, you will see the spindle move more than the lower A-arm. If you can see relative movement between the lower A-arm and the spindle, then your ball joint needs replacement. The spec for most ball joints in the way of movement is like 1/32" (1 mm). So, like I said, if you can see the movement, it is bad, replace.

If you need to know any more, let me know.

 

Thanks for your response, so if I was to go to the dealer for example, and wanted to buy every ball joint there is on the car, what names would I ask them for..?

And as for how to spot worn ball joints, to be honest I didn't quite understand what you meant. Is there an easier way, perhaps whilsts driving. I do notice that when i'm turning into a road which starts with a raised hump, (turning into a hump), it doesn't feel right for some reason in the front. I don't even know how to describe it..?

 

You really need to check it as Thermo says. However, you don't have to go to the dealer. Any good repair shop can trouble shoot the front end. This is not a Jaguar specific item.

 

I should add the ball joint is a part of the control arm. You can't buy them separately.

 

Monz, as for other ways to check the ball joints, unless they are really, REALLY worn, the method I mentioned above is about the only way. All I am saying is you lift the tire off the road and then you take a pry bar and slide it under the tire slightly and then lift up on the bar. This will cause the tire to be lifted slightly and also be pushed in on the bottom. This will cause the ball joint to become unloaded and move around a little bit (if there is slop there). Having a second person there with you makes this job easier as one person can lift up on the pry bar, the other can watch the ball joint.

 

hey good mrning thermo do u know how to replace the front ball joint and will u happen to know the torque spec for front and rear suspesion?

 

tford, replacing the ball joints is going to involve the use of either an angle grinder or the use of an air powered chisel. Either way, you have to remove the head off of the rivets that hold the ball joint in place. From there, you will use a punch or other similar device to push the rest of the rivet out of the joint. At this point, you loosen up the other end of the ball joint (normally done with a pickle fork) and the ball joint will come right out. When you go to reassemble everything, you will use the bolts that are included with the ball joint to reattach the ball joint to the lower control arm.

As for torques, I do not have a list of specific torque values for the components, but this is what I have seen in the past:

Spindle nut: 175 ft-lbs
Tie rod end: 50 ft-lbs

Doing some looking around, this is what I have found writing for:

Lower rear control arm: 115 Nm
Tie rod end locking nut: 40 Nm

In short, you want things snug, but don't be putting lots of strain on things. If you are seeing spots when tightening something down, you are going too tight. As long as you are using a combination wrench to tighten things up, unless you are really straining, you can not over tighten (unless you are a mini-Hulk, then be smart about it). So, that really only leaves you with leaving it too loose. The rule of thumb I will tell you is to tighten things till you feel the joint have a dramatic rise in toughness in turning. Stop, then give the fastener another half a flat to one full flat turn (ie, look at the nut or bolt, see the six flat sides, each of these is called a "flat", go half to one more). You should feel it get stiff to turn yet not be overly taxing to turn. that is about where you want things.

The length of a wrench is very carefully thought about. If you notice, almost every wrench for a given size nut/bolt is about the same length. This is purposely done to prevent you from overly torquing something and breaking the bolt, yet, giving you enough leverage to get the bolt tightened down enough to be safe.

 

Thermo's observations and advice are spot on correct. Another way that worn lower ball joints manifest themselves is to allow a slight front end shimmy upon braking and can be felt just before the vehicle comes to a stop. The shimmy feels like a warped brake rotor but is sometimes accompanied with a slight metal-on-metal bumping noise. Sometimes if the ball joints are severely worn, the front tires may appear to be splayed out at the bottom...sometimes described as being 'duck footed'. This condition can be seen when looking at the car head on. However, before this condition appears, you will hopefully have noticed the poor way that the car handles. Cheers, Andy