My 09 XF has 65,000 miles on her, I had it on the lift this weekend changing the oil and rotating the tires. While inspecting I noticed one broken dust cover on one of the rear tie rods, then two then three and it seemed un-ending.....
It turns out that almost every dust cover is cracked and leaking grease and the majority of the bushings are broken and leaking, this includes the bushings for the Diff.
I will post a link
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resi...P8A8yJsfYHB2lQ
to all of the pictures I took Saturday so you guys can see what I'm talking about, they are not all the rear of the car but those who know can figure it out. I'm not under factory warranty anymore but do have the Ford ESP, I'm hoping they will cover all of these items.
Have any of you had this type of failure?
Are the fluid filled bushing not worth the benefits?

 

wow! 100 views so far and no replies?

 

Many of your photos show cracks in rubber bushings which are not grease seals. The ball joint pictures show no leaking of lubricant which is odd, suggesting that these are not grease boots. The drive shaft boots are intact. I'm not sure why you are concerned.

 

Thanks for responding jagular, but I don't understand why you wouldn't be concerned.
The torn open dust covers on the tie rods don't concern you? It is there to keep the lifetime filled grease in and dirt out, being torn open it can do neither.


The oil leaking from the fluid filled bushings doesn't concern you either? I also own a LR3, when the fluid filled bushings leaked on that one LR changed them immediately. From what I could see, except for 2 bushings the rest are leaking.
If my thinking is off, please let me know?
I'm not implying that every bushing and joint has a problem, but most do.

 

The only thing I can think of is that the car has been in more dry heat then normal. The rubber must have dried out and cracked. Since you are in TX maybe that's part of the reason. Your post is the first that I've seen noting this issue.

I highly doubt that the extended coverage will cover those boots. Those are probably considered wear items. If the joints aren't worn you might be able to replace the outer boots and re-pack with grease. I don't think I'd leave them the way they are for too long.

 

Thanks Black, you make sense.. I usually agree with jagular but his response confused the crap out of me....
I'm off to Autobon right now, I will post what they have to say.

 

I was referring to the bushings.

The grease boot failures require replacement of the affected ball joints when they wear. There is nothing useful you can do about the boot itself.

Until the ball joint develops play there is no useful repair and when it does develop play you need to fit new ones immediately which come with a new boot. There is no separate procedure to replace just the boot.

Same for cracked rubber bushings. No repair is useful until the bushing fails to work properly. Once the bushing shows actual wear then you fit a new bushing. Some suspension components are only supplied complete with the new bushings. Some bushings can be replaced in the old suspension component using a suitable press. Jaguar are noted for fairly high wear rates on some bushings, roll bar drop links for example.

My point was cracks mean nothing unless there is also play in the component.

 

Ok, I didn't get that from what you wrote before, and I agree with that to a certain degree.
The dust covers being open will lead to a premature failure, there is no debate about that, and the fluid leaking from a bushing is a failure of that bushing and it should be changed. My only question is what will Ford ESP do about the non-serviceable dust covers? I am hoping that they get changed now instead of having to wait for the inevitable...
The service department wasn't surprised and said that this is common, not to the degree of mine though. Judging by that statement I'm willing to bet that a lot of you have the same problem also...

 

Waiting until there is play in the affected bushings etc is not always the best choice. When the play is there it will accellerate wear in neighbouring components.

 

Thanks Wardo..you gave me the incentive to jack up my XF and douche' down all the rubber bushings and seals on everything that was rubber...I used Aerospace 303 Protectant..it really keeps those sort of things soft and supple and prevents cracking due to dry rot.

 

That's a great idea. where can I pick up some of that stuff?

 

Amazon is the cheapest I've found it....It's awesome stuff

 

Try a marine product store like West Marine

 

It should be here Tuesday, thanks for the link!
Update: Autobahn has recommended new upper and lower arms and t-rods inner and outer for both sides, they are waiting to hear from Ford now. I am also getting the upper console light replaced and the sunroof reattached... They will have that car for a while I think

 

Bump

What are the chances these get taken care of under the CPO? Two on the right rear, the one pictured is from the left rear and at least one on the left front (upper control arm). I already had the right front on when i noticed the bad bushings on the right rear so I am not sure if any are bad but chances are there is at least one. The two in the second picture are fine but one of them is torn on the right rear.

Most look pretty easy to change if jag declines to fix it under CPO.

 

Bumpty bump

Washing the car yesterday and was reminded of those bushings, checked rock auto looks like the only way to replace them is to get the entire assembly?

Has anyone replaced them without the new bars? They all have grease in them and they look clean that wont be the case forever.

Stabilizer bar links are $32 on rock auto.

I bought a can of aerospace 303 and will be periodically spraying all bushings and mounts.