The control arms have suffered from age such that the boots holding the lube in the ball joint have completely failed. Not much left of them after my intense cleaning during the brake work.


Replacing these takes a 5mm allen socket and an 11/16 open end wrench. The nut is not difficult to remove. And the ball joint slips right out once the nut is off. Note that there is tension on the control arm so you need to slightly lift the wheel hub with a jack to hold the weight once the joint is loose from the hub arm.


Once its loose it will spring up a bit. You can also check the upper bushings for movement. These are fine. Now you just need to remove the 2 boot retainer rings so you can clean the entire area.


This is all the tooling you need to do this job. Notice the remnant of the original boot. The boot retainer springs will be reused.


It should look like this once its clean and ready for new grease and boot. The joint itself is still in great shape. Nice and smooth movement.


Test fit of the new boot looks good to go. Found a generic bag of them that had the right size (13-30-23) in it. I think it has the sizes I need for the rear too. Whole bag was a whopping $11


Reassembly starts with getting the lower retaining ring in place on the boot. Takes some trial and error but it happens eventually.


Once the lower end is secured you can fold it down over itself to get it ready to pack with grease.


Pack the grease into the ball joint and work the joint around to get it in there good.


Once the grease is packed in just roll up the boot into place and install the upper retaining ring. That install is easier said than done. Best advice I can give is to "think slinky" and extend the ring so it is more pliable.


This is the grease I used. Got it local for about $12


Give it a good wipe down and you are good to reattach the ball joint to the arm.


You will have to use a pry bar to leverage the control arm back down enough to get the nut back on. Not difficult at all.


I replaced the driver side boot while I was doing the brakes on that side.


I circled back to do the passenger side. Took about an hour to do just that part on that side.


So this was a really easy and cheap fix to a serious problem these low mileage cars get when they age. Replacing these boots will extend the control arm life quite a bit. Glad I caught this before any real damage was done.

Going to do the rear brakes very soon. Probably have to replace the control arm boots back there too. No worries...I gotta bag full now.

 

You stole those!!

 

Thank you for an excellent and detailed repair!
I have always just left these boots in tatters as I have never had one wear out and cause noise or looseness. But I hated how bad they looked when under the car. This is another almost 100% guaranteed failure and I will get the boots you posted and next time she is in the air I will give it a go!

Which package did you get? They have 1 thru 4 and they are different.

If you do the rear boots post again but I have noticed that those upper front A arm boots are the worst for decay. I did just replace both rear toe arms and both rear sway bar end links. These again are always trashed on every XF and XJ I have looked at. Not terribly expensive and somewhat of a pain to install.
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I have yet to look closely at the rear but I expect the same decay to be present.

The boots in "Model Four" package are the ones I got. It contained the two 13-23-30 boots that were the exact spec. It looked like I could do the rear upper control arms with the 13-24-30 boots that are in there too. I don't think an extra mm in height will be a problem. Some of the others may be useful in the rear linkage as well.

 

Thank you again!
Order placed.
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Johnson controls is the same people that make the Deka batteries which is probably one of the best batteries out there. That’s pretty much all I buy, but they are labeled by whoever is selling them i.e. Walmart and some other places.

 

With all the problems these cars have with batteries I kept a sharp eye on my 2014 XJR.
Now a funny thing happened in that the factory OEM battery was still working fine after 10+ years!
I never had a car battery last even half that long and was suspicious for sure.

I have also left the car at the airport for 6+ weeks because of my Mom having medical problems. No problem as the car started as if it had just been parked yesterday. I was expecting to need a jump after that long of a time.

After 10.5 years I could not stand it anymore and put a new Walmart H8 AGM battery in. That factory one had done it's job. Heck if this one last that long I will be surprised again.

So I think it's time more than miles but putting the battery in the trunk does add a lot of life to the battery.
I also put a cheap cigarette lighter voltage gauge/usb combination in so I can always see the cars voltage. It's hidden in the center console glove box.
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I finally got back to working on the XJL. I've had all the parts to do the rear stuff sitting on the table daring me all summer. This car gets maybe 500 miles of use a month so I decided to take the chance that the rear pads would last until the weather got cooler. This weekend has been very nice, so I got it done.

The rear brakes were looking very aged and due for a refresh since I got the car. While I redo them I plan to change the color of the calipers to match the bracket like I did in the front. I am not a fan of "showy" brakes, prefer the wheels get the attention after I get the powder-coating finished.


As expected, the boots on the upper control arms are falling apart like the front. Got my bag-o-boots handy so will tackle this too while I have everything apart.


I pressure washed everything, then pulled it all apart, then pressure washed again to get most of the grime out of the way.


Cleaned the bracket so I could paint it first and give it most time to cure up. Using the same ceramic engine paint I used for the front.


Here's a good pic pf the nasty old boot. I bet a lot of these cars have this problem.


I decided to unfasten the wheel speed sensor to get the wire out of the way of wrenches swinging, etc.. Used a 9/32 socket.


Before doing anything else, I plugged the hole into the hub.


Back to the brakes so I can get the caliper painted and curing while I focus on the rubber boot replacement. Used a free loaner tool from AdvanceAuto. Tool fits without needing any adapter. So slow and steady I cranked the piston back in. I did open the fluid tank while I forced things back.


Cleaned the caliper and changed color from silver to this. Need to let this cure while I handle the boot now.



Getting the ball joint loose is easy. Getting the nut all the way down the rusty old threads may not be. And there is not a lot of space so you have to use a wrench. The space between the axle boot is so tight that you have to force a closed end wrench thru there. I used an 18mm that had a ratcheting closed end, but found that the closed end gets in the way as you get to the end of the threads. Unlike the front where the joint could be held with an allen key, the rear uses a hex 8mm on the end. In my case the rust made it necessary to resort to vise grips, but it held it enough to succeed. I did take a very long time easing down and back up, over and over, slowly getting thru the rust threads until the nut was clear.


Once its free, the arm will spring up a little bit. Nothing dramatic. Note the worn end that used to be 8mm hex.


Like the front, the rear cleans up nicely and shows no signs of wear in the ball joint. Very smooth.


I test fit the rubber boot. Fits perfect. So on goes the lower retaining ring. Its a pain like all spring rings are but it goes on eventually.


Time to get this wrapped up so pull the boot down over itself and pack in the same grease we used for the front.


Pull up the boot and get that top spring ring back on. That one is a real PITA and took me a while. I was being careful since I did not have another boot to spare.


I used a pry bar to leverage the control arm back down. You can do it by hand but its easier this way you have better control. I used a 2nd jack under the front of the wheel hub and raised the hub slightly to get the angle aligned so joint went thru the hole without resistance.


After the paint had cured enough I put the brakes back together doing all the usual stuff. This side had the wear sensor. Replaced that with new.


Some copper grease on the hub, new Brembo rotor goes on, brakes go on. Note I painted the back of the pad too. Brembo red was a non-starter. This side turned out great. Took me most of a day to do, but I take my time. clean as I go and document so there is that. Other side will go faster no doubt.


The ball joint boot looks great too. Glad I got to these before the joint itself was damaged.


The other side was similar in appearance.


This time the hex head 8mm was not so rusty and things went a bit easier/faster all around. Helps I had practice I guess too.


Cleaned, packed and ready to go back. It all went back together same as other side.


And this side turned out great too. Glad I finally got this done.



So next up I want to clean up the wheels with fresh powder-coat. Need to decide on color.....

 

Well Done!
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This is such a great and well detailed thread of numerous projects that I am about to undertake on my newly aquired 2011 XJL. Thanks so much for documenting it. I am no stranger to Jags, I have restored a few X350's and my current X358.

 

ended up replacing mine with the Everstart/Johnson one Nov2023 since kept getting low battery warning every time shortly after shutting off engine, was done at Wal Mart so sure they didn't perform the proper reset but the issue seemed to resolve for a while

then last year as I transitioned back to using as mainly a weekend car (also just couple hundred miles/month) started getting the constant low battery again, though never had problems starting.

Took it back to Wal Mart this month and got it replaced under warranty, had only been 2 years but they surprisingly said it tested out pretty much dead (not sure how). Again they didn't do the reset so it still shows low battery (though maybe slightly less often/quickly?)


think you stated not having reset, do you remember if there were warnings after replacement that eventually went away? and how has it been since then with low miles

have read both that reset needs to be done to properly recognize new battery, and also that car may eventually calibrated itself to it

 

I haven’t noticed any low battery warnings like I was seeing before the replacement. Mine goes for days, sometimes weeks between drives so still under 500 miles a month. Glad to see the warranty works.

 

Great detailed review of how to get the analog clock out, thanks!