whenever i go over cobble stone or rough rode i can hear a clunking like noise from the front left. plus my steering wheel wobbles at semi high speeds. i just replaced the lower control arm bushings. any ideas on what it might be?

 

For the wheel wobble issue, do you have spacers installed or aftermarket wheels with wider offsets installed?

 

no the cars completely stock other than exhaust cut out valves

 

Control arm bushings are known to fail. That's where I would start looking.

 

I would check the tie rod (steering) ends, wobbly steering is a dead giveaway when these are worn. A pretty simple fix, but you'll need an alignment if you replace them.

 

I just had this problem with my 11 XF at 30,000 miles. I had a really good idea what the problem was, and sure enough it was the strut mount, left side front, like yours. If you remove your coolant reservoir, you can see the strut mount. the rubber should be a nice reddish color and look, for lack of a better term, intact. When I looked at mine, it looked like a pile of rubber 'crumbs' were piled around the mount and there was gunk and grease all over it. Not sure if someone put grease in it to quiet it down, (I am the car's second owner and have only had the car about four months) but you do NOT use petroleum based grease on strut mounts, or anything rubber for that matter, as the petrol will break down the rubber. Checked the right side one and it was fine.


That being said, if you're getting a clunking noise when you go over any bump, this is most likely the issue. Mechanically, the repair is cake, but in reality, as I struggled for hours with my car, wondered how they actually got the thing assembled, since it seemed like everything was in everything else's way!


If you want to attempt the repair yourself, you need a decent set of metric sockets (medium and deep well, and you'll be using 10mm, 13mm, 15mm, and 18mm mostly), a T60 or T65 (I cant remember, but I can edit this later) torx (star) bit, metric wrenches, a hex key set, a set of spring compressors, a hydraulic jack (or two), the service manual (I found mine on the internet for free), and a ton of patience.


If you want to spring for the Jag branded mounts, you can, but you can get a set of Monroe mounts, which are OEM quality, for about half the cost. You're supposed to replace these in pairs, and everyone says you should do the dampers while you're about it since the assembly is already apart, but my car was super low mileage, so I opted not to at this point and just replace the mount.


Another handy tip the manual doesn't tell you....you may have to reassemble the strut with the mount already bolted to the car (I was afraid to compress the springs too much with the auto parts store compressors, having one of those break with a body part near by could mean certain disaster), then bring the damper with the compressed spring and get the rod lined up with the hole in the mount as closely as possible and then SLOWLY lower the car and guide the rod through the mount as the spring starts taking the load, then as soon as the rod is through the mount, get the nut on and tighten a bit so you don't lose it when you bring the car back up to make sure everything is seated properly.

 

Thanks for the info. I have had a clunking in the front that I can feel through the steering wheel during fast hard turns. It has done it since I bought my car with 27k miles on it. It doesn't change the direction of the wheel/car when it clunks so it shouldn't be tie rod related. Seems like it is up and down movement. I'll check the strut and control arm mounts.

 

I didn't have a problem with my steering either, but any bump, no matter the size, sounded like I was going over a pothole. Another thing I noticed when I was taking things apart was that the bushing/ball join on the upper control arm was starting to go. Not looking forward to that since Jaguar sells the part as an assembly, and does not offer the ball joints separately, so one has to spring for the entire $450+ upper control arm. If anyone knows of a good place to get replacement press-in bushing/ball joints, let me know!

 

I don't know where, but I know you can do so. Search the forum and you'll find more info.

 

I just changed my upper strut mount. If you have done any kind of strut work, it is very easy to do. I bought the new strut mounts from RockAuto.com. And while I was there, I replaced the shocks with ones from Bilstein. You don't have to do them in a pair. But it would save a lot of trouble later. If you are hearing any clunking, that is normally the culprit. My car has less than 70k miles.

 

Hi


I would check the engine mounts .I have just had this problem with my XF SV8.


The engine mount had leaked out hydraulic fluid and the engine then drops and causes clunking noise on up and down bunps and on som
etines on full sterring lock.

 

I wonder if my driver side mount is shot too, as I'm experiencing similar symptoms stated in this thread.

BTW did you get the Bilstein B6's? How do you like them? I always felt the stock struts were way too soft (on a 5.0 NA) yielding boat like body motion in spirited driving, but feared aftermarket dampers like B6's would shoot too far to the moon and start causing rattles in the chassis. However those fears are probably more applicable to the B8's...

 

I bought new Bilsteins from Rock Auto when I bought the strut mounts and dampers. I like them much better than stock. They seem to have stiffened up the front perfectly to my taste while still providing a nice comfortable ride. The price was really great compared to Jag original parts.

Like everyone else stated, it is a pain to change the mount because of the limited space surrounding the spring. So I removed the strut as a unit by placing a floor jack under the lower control arm and disconnecting the lower ball joint.

On re-assembly, I ended up partially assembling the struts on the bench by only starting the strut nut where it just passed completely through the threads. Then I installed them. I did this so that I could still use a belt type oil filter wrench to turn the spring so I could align the upper mount in the holes on the inner fender. Then when I jacked the car up on the bottom of the lower control arm, I tightened up the strut nut. I could not get a spring compressor properly seated on the spring while the strut was in place. Otherwise, I would have done it that way.

I hope this helps everyone to get this repair done without injury. I don't like using the auto store spring compressors which are known to fail with improper use.
Also my theory is that the coolant causes the upper strut rubber to fail prematurely since it contains alcohol. Mine too turned in to a cake like substance. So when you put coolant in your reservoir, try to avoid spilling it on the mount. And if you do, flush it with soapy water. Most XFs have this issue with their driver's side strut mount which leads me to think that this is the cause.