Hi everyone. New here and needing a little help on what I thought would be any easy job.

I have a 2010 Jaguar XJ 3.0 Diesel (X351), and I need to replace the rear lower suspension arm on both sides. I bought new arms rather than try to press out the bushes and set about doing the job.

I jacked up the car, removed the brake calipers, pads and disks and then removed the bolt holding the air strut to the lower arm, as well as the nut holding the anti roll bar (sway bar) to the arm and the main bolt holding the arm to the hub bearing carrier. All that was left was to undo the two bolt that hold the arm to the rear subframe but I found that whilst I could undo the front bolt, it had a nut with a cam type lever to stop it rotating, set inside the subframe but still accessible, but even with the nut undone and removed the bolt will not clear the bodywork. Even more puzzling is the rear bolt which also appears to have a cam type nut on the other end but this nut is inside the subframe and cannot be obviously accessed! So I can undo and remove the bolt but have no way of lining the nut up when I come to put it back together!

Am I missing something? I would have thought that these should be captive nuts, or perhaps the job requires the subframe to be lowered and that perhaps gives access from the top?

I downloaded the official Jaguar maintenance manual and removal of the arms makes no mention of first removing the subframe, but if I remove the bolts and can't get them done up again, I am stuck with a car that cannot drive.

Any help would be appreciated as the job was going really well up until that point!

 

This sounds like something I vaguely remember reading in the X150 or maybe X350 section...if I recall correctly, there was an issue where those bolts were put in the wrong way randomly at the factory. I don't remember what the resolution was so you might want to run a search and see if you can find those posts.

 

Kind of hard to say?
Can you post a picture or two?
I can check to see if mine is the same way.
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Hi. Thanks. Yes, that does sound likely with the front bolt as it would easily remove it if were the other way around, but the back bolt has a nut that is inside the subframe itself and I can only find a very small hole on top of the subframe that seems to access it but I can hardly get a finger in there, so the hole seems smaller than the nut inside the cavity it accesses

 

Hi, and thanks for the offer but I have had to put the car back together again for now incase it needs to be used. I'll take the wheel off and take a picture in the next few days

 

Hi All. So I had another go over the weekend and discovered that the nut on the back bolt is lodged inside the subframe in such a way that the bolt can be removed and reinserted when assembling again. With this bolt removed there is enough play to allow the front bolt to be angled past the bodywork. So the job os done and the lower wishbones fitted without needing to drop the subframe.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.