After an almost complete rear suspension rebuild on my x-type, It would seem I now need to do the same on the front!
I have a creaking sound coming from my front end, most pronounced when going over bumps. The front suspension has a "soggy" feel to it & there's more body roll than there should be, especially while making a left turn. I'm thinking it could be the front lower control arms/wishbones (the arms with a small bush, a large bush & a ball joint)
My front end already has new struts,road springs,roll bar bushes and drop links - should I go for new control arms or does anyone on here think the problem I'm having could be because of something else?
Any help/advice/suggestions would be most welcome and appreciated, thanks!

 

Sounds like you have a lot going on there. The only thing you did not talk about are the tie rod ends. Make sure they are tight.

I use an automotive stethoscope (cheep tool) to locate sounds. You place the metal probe onto different parts of the suspension as a friend bounces the car a bit. This will locate the sound for you.

Alignment shops in this part of the "woods" do a free inspection before doing an aliment.

Remember you are dealing with the part of the car that can kill you and others should something fail and you loose control of the car. Do the work good and soooon!

 

Thanks, do you think worn tie rod ends could be the cause of the creak/bounce in the front end? I had a full alignment six months ago - the shop warned me about worn bushes in my rear spring pan arms, but said nothing about tie rods so I had assumed they were ok. My steering seems fine, new tyres & an alignment took care of an earlier "tramlining" issue I had.

 

I would say generally no...but is they were very dry and tight they would check out ok, but could make noise.

I have also felt the cracking noise by placing my hand on a bad bushing, but the automotive stethoscope is the way to go.

 

I'd say your noise is coming from the lower control arms or the upper strut mounts. How many miles on her?

 

92,000 miles on her - think I've found the problem! You can just see the corner of the lower control arm that houses the large bush when looking under the wheel arch. The metal and rubber "sandwich" that makes up the bush is coming apart & moving around within the arm - I'm having both arms replaced later this week followed by a fresh alignment - hoping that's the end of my suspension problems, I've replaced everything now except the subframe mounts, and I really don't want to go there! Thanks again guys.

 

That bushing is oil-filled; when the rubber cracks the oil leaks out. I recently replaced my front struts at 105k miles and damaged one of these bushings in the process. Unfortunately this bushing cannot be replaced (unlike the ball joint), so the only fix is replacing the whole control arm. Part's in the boot and is the next job up!

 

Had the arms replaced, massive improvement - the ball joints were badly shot (you could move them around easily with your finger)
The job was well worth doing, however the creak and body roll coming from the front right of the car remains. We found that the outer cv joint on that side has a lot of play in it, although I don't have any of the classic "clicking" or "popping" noises when making a turn. The boot also looks intact. I don't know a great deal about cv joints but I suspect my "creak" and body roll are caused by the up & down play in this joint. I was about to make a 1000 mile trip in my Jag, now I'm wondering if it's still safe to do so with the cv joint in this condition - any further help and advice much appreciated!

 

I have a 2003 X type with 32000 plus miles on it. I had a a suspension noise also, it was the sway bar bushings, had them replaced and the noise was gone.
I recently had new tires mounted on my car and a 4 wheel alignment done and this also quieted the suspension quite a bit.

 

Can you make the noise my pushing down on the fender to get the car to bounce?

The CV joint would be doing very little when not driving.

 

The sway bar bushings on the front were replaced 10k miles ago, as were the droplinks - new struts & road springs 5k miles ago - new lower control arms & fresh alignment just 4 days ago! I can't replicate the noise exactly when pushing down on the front, it's the body roll when driving that worries me, the degree of roll seems to match the amount of play we found in the cv joint. I had a cv joint fail on me some years ago on another car, which is why I'm worried now. I was parking at the time, so all it cost me was money & a tow truck. Had I been travelling at speed, it could have been catastrophic!

 

Please tell us more about the body roll.

Only on some turns? Going fast or slow? Dip and stay there or bouncing?

Have you tried to swap the tyres front to back?

 

The best way I can describe it is a "squishy" feel to the suspension on that corner. As if there's more travel to the suspension on that side. I can feel it more on left hand turns (at any speed) It dips & stays dipped when making a turn, but there's a little bounce in there also. I haven't swapped the tyres but all 4 were replaced with new dunlop sport blueresponse 2.5k miles ago. I'm also very on the ball with tyre pressures, check twice a week & run with 34-35psi all round.

 

This sounds like a strut problem. I have also felt this with a broken sway bar link.

 

It also sounds like the strut bearing may be bad...im about the replace a 3rd!.
My bad bearing sound could be considered a "creak" and also causes some weird body roll

 

Hi again! 9 months on I haven't completely solved this issue yet! Had new inner & outer tie rod ends fitted (plus another alignment) & this has solved some of the problem. The squeak and some of the body roll remains though...I also have the same problem to a lesser degree on the rear, same side - a slightly "squishy" feel. The strut mounts/bearings are available seperately - do I just go with new bearings or replace the mounts as well? Does anyone think this would finally cure the problem? Advice much appreciated!

 

sorry you can't solve your problem. Are you using OEM parts? Just from reading some archives here, it's important to use OEM parts for some things and not so critical for others.

 

I've used a mixture. jaguar (bilstein) shocks & struts - kyb springs - ford after market control arms - lemforder drop links & tie rods. Generally speaking I've found the suspension parts I've bought to be of equal or better quality than the originals. I'm leaning towards new strut mounts & bearings at the moment (it's all that's left apart from the subframe bushings!) I've found plenty of info regarding the front strut mounts, nothing on rear shock mounts though. Anyone have any info on how the rear shocks are mounted?

 

I really like these guys videos =

 

On the subject of strut mounts & bearings, has anyone any experience with the Karlmann brand? many of these for sale on ebay, much cheaper than jag originals.