Guys, need your advice, I'm facing really annoying problem - I have this clunking sound from somewhere driverside front wheel area going over roadbumps and patholes. It existed since I bought the car a year ago: changed all front suspension(bushes,ball joints, roll bar links, driverside shock, shock upper bushings too) and now just changed steering rack because it was leaking but I supposed it could cause the sound too. Month ago changed from r16 to r18 wheels, sound didn't change. Only parts in the front which are not changed are roll bar bushes and subframe mounts bushes but they all seem ok. Three mechanics looked into it and found nothing, one of them shaked it on special stand and couldnt see the problem too. One of them told that it could be break support but going over bumps and pressing break pedal doesnt change the sound. Bearings seem ok too since wheel is not loose...
P.s.Before I bought it, the car was hit in the same corner from where sound comes from.
I have no idea where to look further, I really want to get rid of that ****ing sound....
Please suggest something, maybe you have similar experiences

 

Is it like a squeaking clunking noise? If so, my car has it too. Mechanics can't find it, and it can't be replicated by pushing it. I have a fleeting suspicion that it is the wheel bearings themselves making the noise, but I'm not too sure how to find out if it is them specifically.

Sorry I can't be more helpful!

 

actually there's no squeaking. It sounds just like shock absorber would be bad or shock itself. It comes from under feet. I was wondering maybe it's because absorber upper bushes ar poly and not oem, thus they are from harder rubber. But I suppose than sound would be from both sides but it is apparently only driverside.

 

I had a Clicking sound from left front Shocks going over manhole covers. Replaced both front top and bottom bushings and the sound is gone. Please revisit the installation of the bushings to see if done right or you have dud of a bushing.

 

It is most likely bushings, I am actually having the bottoms replaced today, ran out of time a couple of weeks ago when the top yellow ones were replaced. The top ones which are basically foam only seem to last a couple of years.

 

Roll bar bushes often make noise even if the look okay.

 

Hi Povilas,

The most common cause of the type of sound you describe is a problem with the upper shock bushings. The poly bushings are much firmer than the OE yellow foam rubber type, but they won't usually knock if installed correctly.

One possibility is that the driver side shock absorber top nut (part 6 in the diagram below) was not tightened all the way down till the large top washer (part 7) seated on the upper end of the spacer tube (part 10). Any play between the ends of the spacer tube and the top washer and the lower washer cup (part 11) will allow movement that creates knocking when going over bumps:


One easy check is to raise the front left corner till the tire is off the ground and look for any space between the top of the lower bushing cup washer (the lower part 9) and the underside of the wheel arch. There should be no space at all even with the suspension fully extended by the weight of the wheel hanging down.

If that looks OK, lower the car back down to compress the suspension and check the top nut to be sure it is fully tightened. You'll have to immobilize the shock shaft from turning while you tighten the nut - a ratcheting box end wrench is the fastest way I've found to tighten the nut while immobilizing the shaft with a suitable tool (Allen wrench, Torx bit, hex bit, Crescent wrench or Vise/Mole Grips on the flats, depending on the brand of shock).

Cheers,

Don

 

One additional thought, based on personal experience.
I had an annoying noise from the front over potholes etc, a bit like a squash ball being shaken inside a biscuit tin. Having experienced a similar noise from the rear, I diagnosed lower shock absorber bushes, and was impressed with how clever I was as this solved the problem. Even more cleverly, I had sourced the parts online, for about a third of the cost of the Jaguar classic part.
You can probably guess the next bit, but the noise returned within 10,000 miles, and I dived in replacing ball joints and bushes wherever I could find them at the front. To no avail, the noise persisted. Of course, I paid no attention to the lower shock bushes as they had been replaced so recently.....
When eventually, and having wasted much time and money, I looked at them again, they were in tatters: properly shot, and I could hardly believe the noise hadnt been louder.
These are heavy cars, and the bushes have a lot of work to do. Could some of the parts you have fitted in the last year have already failed, as mine did?
P.S The parts I sourced online were from a well known motor parts retailer, and purported to have been manufactured in europe.

 

i would spend the extra $$ on bushings but man what a pain to install lol

 

Guys I hope you talk about shock bushes and not fulcrum/wishbone which are more complicated to change. All the bushes I ordered are german/uk manufactured. And if they would be bad I suppose sound would be on both sides, and I wouldn't believe that they already gone bad because sound was already there since all the front suspension was changed. Maybe they just installed it unproperly on that side. But you give me hope that the reason could be more simple than I fear of.

I had idea that top shock nut can be not tight enough so tightened myself with no success, but also had no idea that shaft has to immobilised. Also shock has been changed month ago and I wonder if those guy could not tighten it properly both times because they used wheel gun to do it.

I will drive her for more proper check when be back from the trip next week.

Guys huge thanks to you all. I hope I will eventually solve it because its the only thing that's keeping me from full enjoyment of this beautiful creature.
Cheers

 

my lower shock bushes were fried. Cheap, but a royal pain to get them out and in without a press. Now I have a small press.

 

Sound travels around on cars , have you checked the exhaust system.

 

I noticed the foam ones wear out very quickly on my XJ40!

 

So finally I got rid of this terribly irritating problem. It appears that the guys who changed all the front suspension didn't know what they were doing and recently it got fixed by a guy who specialises in Jaguar and know every detail of it. So previous mechanics changed the lower shock bushings with unoriginal ones which had smaller hole for the bolt, so they changed it with one which would fit the bush, but apparently its too small for shock mount holes and it rattles there every time I hit any bump or hole. And that's why no one could tell that without disassembling the whole thing because bush itself looked totally fine.
Also they assembled upper part in the wrong way too, they added metal spacers between upper bushes and mounting plate which added extra hardness. In addition when I taught that it could be shock itself gone bad I changed it with used one from Sport XJ ( which I didn't realise). Now after all Im starting to love this car again. Thanks for your answers <3