Was told that I need to replace my read upper control arms due to sway in the rear while driving. This shop said my bell joints had play in them. Should I just replace the ball joints instead? Sounds like they tryna get money out of me

 

Well all shops are in business to make money, but some are more honest than others on the labour and parts needed for a repair. People complain about main dealer prices but I can assure you that Jaguar lay down the labour hours and parts needed for most jobs. It's just the main agent labour rates and always using new Jaguar-supplied parts that bumps the price up. If you can tell us how many miles the car has done better advice can be given, but the X350/358/351 aluminium XJ saloons are notorious for the short life of their suspension bushes. The design is basically identical on all three iterations, except your car only has air suspension on the rear, the earlier models have it on all four wheels.

Having said that, the upper wishbones front and rear last a lot longer than the lowers, so if your miles are high it is probably about time for replacement. Wear will be in the trunnion bushes and probably the outer ball joints especially if the rubber protective boot is split

 

Can you replace just the ball joint?
Sometimes you can't get the ball joint by itself and you must replace the entire suspension arm.
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The ball joint at the apex of the upper wishbone can be replaced but the main difficulty is actually finding a new balljoint. A number of suppliers offer t he complete assembly with all-new balljoint and trunnions for a lot less than the official Jaguar price

https://www.berkshirejagcomponents.c...gKRx%5FD%5FBwE
and
https://www.onlinecarparts.co.uk/lem...-12795846.html

So why bother f*rt-*** around swapping out joints ?