I recently changed out the front Upper Control Arms and tie rod ends. They helped alot to tighten up the feel of the front end, however there is still something up there that feels and sounds loose as a goose. I have a replacement arnott strut on the front passenger side and an oem strut drivers side. I think the oe strut must be going bad at 101k mile. Something up there is making a fluttering thud noise whenever i hit even the smallest bumps.
I noticed the front lower ball joint have busted boots. Ive foubd them online but i cant tell if you have to get them pressed in or how the installation goes...Has anyone changed these out?

 

The bottom ball-joint on the underside of the Wheel bearing knuckle is a machine press fit, so it has to be pressed out and a new one pressed in.
You can remove the entire knuckle, top ball-joint and bottom control arms and shock strut bush and wheel bearing assembly.
When changing ball-joints then bushes also have to be done.
Look at the thread further down here on front suspension which I have just covered along with 100's of others who have done this before us.

 

I should add the wheel bearing also has to be changed.
You can buy the complete unit on eBay for £57 with a new wheel bearing already fitted or the bearing you can separately and let a garage fit it for you. I think they are about £30 each bearing.


Your knackered ball-joint and wheel bearing will make the car feel like it is a bone shaker.

 

Replace your sway bar bushings and possibly your sway bar endlinks. If possible, you can test the endlinks by disconnecting one side, then take a short drive around the block. If you still feel/hear the clunking, try the other side. If it still clunks, the problem is elsewhere, but the 8 times out of 10, the sway bar bushings and endlinks are the culprit.

 

+1 on the sway bar bushings that are worn.
I also have just posted that I had a rattle/clunk on the smallest of bumps and it turned out to be the plastic air dams.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ension-161161/

 

Let me chime in on this clunk. I started getting out early last yr, & got the sway bar bushings replace. It got somewhat better, but didn't go away, but I'd notice when it'd get really cold out, & the car would it's infamous bottoming out, I'd not hear ANY thud whatsoever.

Well, tonite, obviously not being cold here in Memphis, my car (frontend) bottomed out! So, of course I'm ticked about that, but the good part is that the clunk is absolutely gone! So that makes me think it's more of a bad shock rattle.?

 

I have replaced the Sway Bar End links, i have the new sway bar bushings and i baught a set of long socket extensions today. I saw a video of the bushing replacement on a Xk, but this Xjr looks abit harder to get to them. Has anyone done this sway bar bushing swap themselves? If so what all has to be removed in order to access the bolts from the top?

 

I do not know how, my Rastafarian Jaguar mechanics replaced mine. I showed them the top method listed here. They said was easier from the bottom. But I think they did it after dropping subframe. They dropped front and rear subframes to inspect chassis bushings. All four were fine.

 

I removed the bolts from the top, removed air intake on drivers side. Used long extensions. Replaced bushes from underneath.
Bolts are self tapping style, but you can get them to rethread in same thread.

 

I have the same noise in mine. But I'll garner courage to take it to suspension specalists to have a look as I'm not gifted in such mechanical repair work

 

Same here! I wouldn't know where to start!

 

UPDATE.
I have replaced the Curved arm Bushings as well as the straight control arm bushings. The result was a much tighter feeling and less noise over uneven pavement. However there is STILL a tremendous knocking clunking sound over hard bumps. The only remaining bushings i can replace are the Sway Bar bushings, Ive been holding off on the Swaybar Bushing job untill i do the Serpentine belts since ill have alot of things out of the way.
I Had the car at the Jag dealership today to have to oil changed and while they had it on the Lift i walked back and talked to the Man working on it. Told him what was going on and we started inspecting everything with the flash light. He noticed the engine and trans had shifted about an inch to the Passenger side (american). Where the cat on the pass side was touching the heat sheild while there was quite a gap on the driver side. The verdict was the Motor mounts are Shot as well as the Trans mount. the Drivers side mount being the most destroyed (which correlates to most of the racket coming from the Driver side) He showed me exactly how to take them out and do the job myself which should save me God Knows how much money lol ive ordered the parts online today and they should be here in a few days... hopefully this will be the end of the matter and i wont need a new Shock. I had first thought the driver front shock was bad (and it still may be) its an original.

 

Good luck, Bobby, (I like the flag BTW)

I was able to reach the front sway bar bushing clamps from the top with a long extension and a universal or a couple of short wobble joint extensions on the end. Putting the bolts back was best done from underneath with the wheels off. Be sure not to mix up the long and short bolts; I did and tried to tighten the long bolts in one of the clamps and screwed up the threads because the unthreaded body of the bolt bottomed out. I had to use a thread restorer from underneath to clean them up and get the correct short bolts to start in.

When I did my engine mounts I made lifting eyes to hold the engine up and a lifting beam across the engine bay, but the bottom stud of the new mount was still too long to fit in the frame hole with the bracket attached and I had to take them apart again, put the mount in the frame and then try to tighten the top stud nut in the bracket where it was very hard to reach. In hindsight I should have cut some of the bottom stud off as there is plenty of length to thread the nut on.

The left side engine mount is worse than the right because you have to drop the steering rack to get the mount out or in, and the top front bracket bolt is a real PITA to reach - be VERY careful not to cross thread it or any of them in the aluminum block.

I did the sway bar bushings at home but I could not have done the engine mounts without our car club's lift; I can't imagine trying to do those on your back on a creeper - especially that &^$$(* top front bracket bolt on the left side.

The tranny mount was easy in comparison. However, I was warned after the fact not to use a jack under the transmission pan because it is plastic; I did use a 2x6 across the pan and a jack on a jacking bridge on the lift to hold it up to do the tranny mount, but I may have been just lucky that I didn't crack it.