Apologies in advance for the long post but we have had a journey! I have had my 2004 VDP with 23K original miles for a couple of years and had one of the rear shocks rupture about a year ago. Ordered two new Arnott replacements for the backend. Mechanic noticed that alot of the other suspension parts were showing age, so I ordered all new control arms, tie rods, etc. and replaced all the way around. During that install a couple of the ride height sensor clips broke and we could not find replacements. Queue full conversion to Arnott coils. All of that work was completed only to start having a "CLUNK' in the left rear. The only remaining suspension parts not replaced were the lower rear control arms, so I ordered bushings and those have been replaced. The "CLUNK" remains anytime I hit a bump or pothole. I have had the car on the rack with the mechanic for two hours looking for anything loose or hanging. We can find nothing. He even rode in the trunk to make sure of the location. I am over $4k into this now and worse off than before. Has anyone else had a similar issue? Any possible component we have missed? I am at at a complete loss....would much appreciate any insights!

 

It is almost certainly one of the struts which has failed inside.

The struts are a combination of a hydraulic shock and an air bag
and the shock part has failed.
The only way to confirm is to identify which corner the noise is coming from
then swap that strut to the other side and if the noise moves then that is your answer.
Looks like you will be on your journey for a little bit longer but there is light at the
end of the tunnel
BTW I am a little bit envious of your low mileage. lol

 

Thanks for the response! I might have misled in my initial post. The air suspension has been completely replaced by coil springs. Posted in another forum which led me to look at all the replacement parts and we may have overlooked rear sway bar bushings. That is my next stop. If not that, then MAYBE the left rear coil shock is bad out of the box.

 

Then again, maybe I need education. Are the coil springs the hybrid you are speaking of? If so, the car has been driven less than 100-200 miles since installing the Arnott Spring coils. Could one be bad out of the gate?

 

Have you replaced the rear sway bar bushes? I understand these are sometimes overlooked as I think the rear subframe has to be removed for access? Someone correct me is this is incorrect

 

Were the rear sway bar links replaced and if so, with which brand? I had bought some moogs with grease fittings one time thinking it would be a better option. Nope. Had one break shortly after install. Replaced with lemforder like I should have to begin with.

Also, be sure all replaced suspension parts are torqued properly. Had an alignment done not long ago and tech did not torque to spec giving me a clunk over slow bumps. Once torqued the clunk was eliminated.

 

Sway bar links were replaced with Mevotech parts. Seemed to have good reviews? I have no idea on the torque question....I am in a small MS town and don't have alot of resources for mech work. I may end up needing to take it somewhere else, but have spend so much money at this point that will probably have to wait. Rear sway bar bushings seem to be the overlooked part, so planning to check that first. Thank you for the response! Any idea where I would find torque recommendations/standards to share with locals?

 

All workshop manuals can be found here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...enance-246865/

In them, you will find all torque specifications.

Best regards,

Thomas

 

Defective Arnott strut is my guess.

 

Thank you!

 

It is possible that a new shock is faulty

 

Thanks to everyone who responded on this. I decided I had nothing to lose by testing the shocks, so I had the original installer swap sides with the rear units thinking if the left one was defective the clunk would follow. Turns out the clunk disappeared altogether! The tech said he saw nothing wrong and no difference in the two but I am thinking they messed something up at initial install. I use the same indy for all my vehicles and they have been great to work with over time. I admit this troubled me a bit but I am very happy to have the CLUNK resolved.

Happy New Year, all!

 

Probably was not torqued properly when first installed if doing nothing but changing sides solved it.

 

Well, my Jinxie has an all new suspension, along many other brand new things in the engine bay, and still has a clunk, not a single one, many, both front and rear, the only thing left to be replaced are the Arnott spring struts.... which I think are overpriced. The car has 127k, I will replace them along with the 130k miles service. I hope I could get the lovely feel of driving an x350 again.

 

Now that we have the clunk resolved, I am getting alot of road transfer into the cabin. The roads here aren't the greatest and on smooth surfaces it is good. Just don't hit any small bump or be on rough surfaces. Wondering if the same folks that installed the shocks got some torque wrong on the new control arms, tie rods, etc. Could that cause excessive vibration? The coils probable contribute and the tires are 7-8 years old now. even tho mileage is only 23k. Any ideas from the crowd? The rattles are getting to me...!