For a MY2010 5.0 n/a LHD with approx 67,000 km on the odo.

Just last weekend I started to notice a little clunk from the front end when hitting bumps in the road. I suspected the front shock mounts and possibly the sway bar links (correct terminology?) were the culprits. Sure enough, the shock mount under the coolant tank looks bad, and I can even see that without having to remove the tank. I also noticed that the upper ball joint boots have perished. All other joints look okay to my untrained eye. I understand that the ball joints are integral with the the upper arm and are not replaceable as a separate item. A bit of reading on this forum revealed to me that sometimes the boots perish but the joints themselves are still good, and some people just replace the boots. My question is, how can I determine if the ball joints are bad? Perhaps more pertinently, how can I determine how much life is left in the ball joints? What would I expect to feel when driving if the upper ball joints are bad? I want to know if I should change the upper arms now or leave them for the future when other bushes are likely to need replacing. I've also noticed a little front suspension squeak when going over some speed bumps, specifically short, steep speed bumps, not the more gentle speed humps with less aggressive angles. I think the squeak occurs when the front wheels roll down the trailing edge of the bump and contact the road again.

This is the only XF I have owned, and I've done less than 10,000 km, so I'm not really in a position to judge how it handles now compared to how it should. What I can give are some observations and comparisons to a series 3 Sovereign v12 that I used to have. Generally, I think my XF handles very nicely. It runs on 18" wheels and it's fairly comfortable. I think sometimes it wanders slightly but that may be due to the poor roads here. I don't get any wheel wobble or brake pulsing. I find the ride noisier with more road buzz than the S3. I get quite a bit more vibration through the seat than I expected to, especially engine vibration. Perhaps comparing an XF with a seres 3 XJ v12 is not fair.

Your advice will be most appreciated, thanks.

 

Nothing?

 

https://www.carparts.com/control-arm...ent/rj28150004

Change them.

 

The best way to check your ball joints S to jack the car up and put a big crowbar under the wheel and try to crank the wheel up and down and look for any play in the joints. Usually it takes two people to do this as I’ll have one person man the crowbar while the second person puts their fingers across the ball joint components as your fingers will be able to feel a little bit of movement where your eyes won’t pick it up. So as one guy cranks up on the crowbar and your fingers are across the bar joint you can feel the slight compression or separation at the interface between the ball joint and the spindle arm if you have a loose joint. But As you mentioned typically the deteriorated boot doesn’t cause any looseness in the joint. It just looks ugly

 

That's only true if the arm in question is loaded against the spring. The upper arm on an XF is just a pivoting wishbone with rubber inserts so can move up and down without much load on the wishbone. Easily removed and check for play then. Any boot deterioration will quickly allow water and dirt ingress therefore causing the joint to soon fail.

 

Thank you for your replies. Aftermarket parts are definitely much cheaper than from an official dealer. Just out of curiosity I messaged the dealer local to where I am for a price for the 2 front upper control arms and the two front shock mounts. Sit down for this ... almost US$1,800 at current fx rates. Wow.

How about the Monroe branded shock mounts (part # 904972)? Are they okay? And the unbranded control arms referenced by kansasbrit? Okay, too?

Thanks

 

I fitted one 1500 miles ago, looked exactly the same as the original and has performed fine so far. Monroe is a good company so I would think their shock mounts would be fine.