2005 XJ8. Have a mild clunking in front suspension running over uneven pavement. Most noticeable first few miles. After a forum search, I replaced the front sway bar end links, which had some slop and there was some improvement, but I did not replace the d-shaped sway bar bushings (yet). Could this be the issue? Also recently replaced all 4 air struts along with new front strut bearings, no improvement. All suggestions welcomed, thank you.

 

Hi, Andy, sorry I do not have personal experience with suspension problem you're describing. I am sure someone from frequent visitors with relevant knowledge will share their thoughts. I have a question about your replacement air springs: what brand did you go with for replacement?

 

Hi Andy,

it is definitely worthwile to replace the sway bar bushings. My car had some clunking noise at the front, as well, some years ago, and in the end it was caused by the sway bar bushings! I had replaced everything else by the time I replaced the bushings, so I might have saved myself a bit of work and cost if I had done them earlier...

Best regards,

Thomas

 

Thanks guys for the quick replies, I will order some new sway bar bushings. The air struts are aftermarket units (not Arnott) ordered through Amazon. No problems, they are working fine. Cheers, Andy

 

+1 to the sway bar bushings....just did mine this year for the same minor dull clunking reason.

Tips: If you are going to do the job with the radiator in place.

Take a fist full of chill pills before you start the job as you will need a lot of patience and a few band aids! This will take you about 3-4 hours if you have a good run.

• Jack the front of the car up to give yourself work space, but make sure both front wheel suspension heights are even, so the sway bar is not under any tension.
• Remove both wheels and inner guard linings.
• Unbolt the aluminium cross bar that is located just beneath the radiator (you can move it out of the way carefully or remove it if necessary to give you some better access to the sway bar bushing mount bolts).
• The access is in no way great, so be prepared to use multiple extensions and a couple of styles of universal joints to get onto the bolt heads. (I used several 150mm and a 300mm extensions with one or two universals to get the ratchet to a workable height above engine bay clutter)
• Be careful working around radiator hoses. You will have to put some cautious pressure on a couple to get the driver down and you might encounter a temporary O ring leak while you have some lateral tension on the hoses.
• Start the bolts by hand (easier said than done!) as they are very easy to cross thread with the angles of approach with a driver and the bolts are self tappers so will cut an incorrect thread given the opportunity.
• If in doubt......do not just crank a tight bolt down as that is likely cross threaded and will not seat properly and you will still have a knock reappear in the very near future as the bushing saddle will not sit right.

(I cross threaded one and was lucky to be able to re-tap the encapsulated chassis nut from underneath to correct my mistake - you don't want to repeat my mistake!)

Good luck.

 

Hi Andy,

I've had many clunks from mine over the years and pretty much replaced all of the front and rear suspension components, some twice, but a really noticeable one is caused by the upper control arms. Mine has 207k miles and I've had to replace them twice. Never the anti roll bar bushings though. Like yours, it's only noticeable at low speed.
An alternative is your track rod ends, but they're easy to check.

Good luck!!

 

Good stuff, thanks everyone. This job may have to wait for a bit, but I will post my results after.

 

+1 front upper control arm

 

Hey Andy

Almost certainly those bloody sway bar bushes. A major pain to replace but doable without removing lots of topside parts.

Let me find the amazing step by step with pictures tutorial I found on this site and get that to you. Tons of tips that made it easier

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...7/#post2697346

 

If you plan to do a cooling fluid change, you could do it when you replace the sway bar bushings.
The reason is that if you remove the expansion tank and the cooling hoses, you have reasonable access to the bolts holding the sway bar bushing clamps from top of the engine bay.

I was doing jobs on the engine that needed draining the cooling system in any case and I had removed the cooling hoses, so I found out this way of access by chance and was glad to have done, as in my opinion it makes the job of replacing the sway bar bushings much easier in comparison with only the lateral access from the wheel wells.

Best regards,

Thomas

 

A year ago I renovated the front suspension and more, everything is new, Lemfo parts, additionally new engine mounts, steering rods and rod ends, rebuilt front crossmember with new bushings. Since then I have had a knocking problem from the front end which drives me crazy. The rule is that there is no knocking for a few kilometers after start driving and longer, about 20 km after the car was lifted. A few days ago I disconnected the sway bar by removing the links... there is absolute silence after that from about 100 km. Strangely enough, there were knocks, as if metal on metal, while the bushes would rather indicate creaking. I looked carefully at everything from the bottom, as far as I could, and there are no signs of rubbing or impact anywhere. I have a theory about this: the stabilizer is bent at the point of attachment to the crossmember and hits it a little. Maybe I'll buy a small camera and try installing it under the car to make it sure.

 

That's good info Peter, and you may be onto something with the theory of tight clearance. I still have not gotten to mine yet, but I do remember driving the car with the front sway bar disconnected and the knocking noise was gone, so I should probably try replacing the sway bar bushings first before I tackle the upper control arms.

 

If replacing the sway bar bushings don't forget to replace the two end links as well.
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Thank you, yes as noted I already replaced them.

 

Nop, I was wrong, got something better...

So, after more than 100 km of silence I mounted the links back, and the knocking appeared almost immediately, so I am 100% certain that it is the stabilizer's fault. I lifted the car, unscrewed the links ... and now Gentelman there is the solution to the problem: I noticed, that the holes in the stabilizer were little but strangely oversized and even a little oval at the top/bottom, meaning they were machined by the thread of the links. The thread is too thin and even tightening the nut hard causes the stabilizer jumps when it is stressed. I welded the stabilizer holes and redrilled them with a 9.8 mm drill. The link should not have a thread where it contacts the stabilizer, it should be a little thicker and smooth in this place, we have an engineering error here, but also all other replacement parts are made the same way ..... Silence, silence, f..ing silence
https://www.mediafire.com/file/o7c0m...70915.mp4/file

 

"Engineering error"? "Design flaw"?

On a Jaguar motorcar?

Whom, ever, wudda thunk it?

Good timing, thanks. My one has just recently started 'speaking'.

More inclined to ream the holes, turn a pair of bushings than to TiG & redrill.

 

Peter X358

The metal clunk that you were getting was it only at low speed over bumps or at high speed as well?. I know you state jumps when it is stressed in your comment but just want to be clear. I myself just changed my entire front end with Lemforder parts and the car is fine and tight but when I go over bumps at low speed there's metal to metal hitting and no one can figure it out.

I watched the video but would like more info. Thank you in advance.

Mike

 

Sway bar links and bar bushings. Be sure to use factory Lemforder links. I put some other well known brand and they lasted about 3 months. With a long extension you can reach the sway bar bushings from the top. At least the drivers side. I took the passenger wheel off to get that one from the side with a swivel joint on a short socket. Barely enough room but worked.

 

Unhook the sway bar end links and drive the car to reproduce the metal to metal sounds. Simple and quickly tells you yes or no on all of the sway bar stuff.
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