I am contemplating buying their suspension bushings. I have also read some unfavorable reviews on their stuff. Looking for input..

 

Have you read any Jaguar specific favourable reviews of URO branded suspension
bushings?

No abolutes, just "balance of the evidence" as in civil trials.

 

No, it was on a BMW forum. There's not a lot of Jaguar related "evidence" to exonerate or prosecute URO parts yet

 

Hi SD96XJ6L,

I have limited experience with Uro Parts, and it's mixed. A driveshaft flexible coupling I purchased from my long-time supplier Coventry West, arrived in a Uro Parts package and it just would not balance in any of the six possible orientations. See photo 9 in the album below:

Welcome to Jag-lovers - Members Photo Viewing Page


On the other hand, I've used anti-sway bar bushes from Uro Parts without issues, and I recently purchased their X350 hood lift support struts via Rock Auto, and they're working fine so far (about two weeks, so take that for what it's worth).

Uro Parts claims that they now are an "Approved Jaguar Supplier," but as far as I've been able to tell, they've only been approved to offer some of their aftermarket accessories to Jaguar dealers, they are not actually supplying OE parts that are installed on Jaguar cars at the factory:

http://www.uroparts.com/uro/site/about
Quality Jaguar Products

Cheers,

Don

 

I purchased the FCP ball joint/bushings kit last year for my XJ6 which included the ball joints, swar bar link bushings, upper and lower control arm bushings. I replaced upper control arm bushings, sway bar link bushings, all 4 ball joints.

I did those things at 135k and now I'm at 170k. Car still rides smooth over bumps and handles well. I honestly don't have any complaints with the URO parts bushings

 

Thank you. This is what I'm looking for. I have their sway bar end links and front sway bar bushings and would like to do tuse whole front end kit minus the non-premium ball joints. The control arm bushing quality is what I am most interested in researching.

 

Used two URO A/C hoses (the two with the high and low side fittings) and has been working fine. And the fittings came with Schrader valves instead of ball valves. Also used a uro fuel lever sender that is still working.

 

I owned an X300 for 5 years, and now I drive an XJS, plus I am a parts dealer in Japan. So I have dealt with and used by myself a lot of their parts.

Of course the ac hoses are fine, because they use Bridgestone or Good Year hoses. Their AC hoses are cheap and of good quality. I recommend them.

Ref the bushes, I won't use them.
If it is upper arm bushings, it is alright to use them. Because they don't bear so much weight.
But when it comes to lower arm bushings, they move a lot and bear a lot of weight, so if you draw a bad bushings they wear really fast. The anti roll bar links too.
The problem is that there are vary in quality with their parts. So some have good experiences with them while others don't.

Coolant hoses are bad. Straight hoses are fine, but when it comes to the ones with branch stems, there are many cases in that the joint leaks. The lower hoses for X300 and aj16 XJS are terrible.

They don't make ball joints, so it must be made by other manufacturers.
I only use and sell Lemforder OEM joints. And TRW isn't bad.
If you choose other supplier you can draw a bad one.
Lemforder ones are really trustworthy and they do last really long.
The genuine joints from the factory last for 20years/100k I'm while the inferior ones last only 2 years or so.

In the long run it is cheaper choosing more expensive but of good quality parts.

So, in conclusion, it's not all their parts aren't that bad. Some of their parts are rather good and cheap.
So if it is a parts that easily replaceable it won't be a problem at all, but if it requires a heavy work to change the parts, I will use genuine or OEM parts.

 

Well I hope I got some "good ones" when the previous owner replaced all of my coolant hoses, including the octopus hose, last year with URO hoses

I guess time will tell.


.

 

Excellent rationale.

Cheers
DD

 

Yes, if you are lucky enough to have good ones... I hope you have one

I suspect there was a bad lot, for mine was alright too. But other vendor who have sold the URO hoses here they seemed to have gotten a lot of complaints and stopped selling them.
There was also a guy who changed the XJS rad lower hose several times and all of them leaked. Finally he bought the genuine one and the problem was solved.

Sometimes cheaper parts result in a massive expense...

 

Not always, for instance the GM 3800 lower manifold gasket is a two day bear to replace on some cars and is a known problem , even the "improved" OE gasket set is terrible. The same goes for Lincoln's PCV elbow on their 3.0 liter LS, have to pull the whole manifold and FI up and off to get to an inferior part, aftermarket is better. GM coolant bypass elbows take all day and night yet there are aluminum ones to replace the cheap, faulty plastic OE ones. The FelPro improved version gets the job done once and for good on the 3800 series lower manifold. I agree with doing "research" especially when doing a "heavy" job but don't particularly prescribe to "OE" I've had too many OE parts fail before they should have. Do your homework, go on other forums and parts sites, more $$ or OE doesn't always mean better.

 

I've also got two Jaguars with plenty of "genuine" Jaguar parts that have failed before their time. Do your due diligence and homework. This thread if proof in that pudding.

 

I do agree, not always the OEM/genuine ones are good.
For instance, URO parts provide a lot of "improvement" parts like X300 rubber radiator mount, X308 aluminum thermo housing etc... they are well made and far better than the genuine ones.

So it is a difficult problem and it will be a responsibility of the owners to decide which parts to choose...

But, as long as it is about X300 suspension parts, URO isn't a good choice. The genuine bushes are of much better quality.

 

As an update to this, I noticed FCP doesn't have some of the Uro parts I was looking for. I have all of the front suspension bushings now from them from Uro. I emailed tech support and asked why. Their response was that they were no longer selling Uro parts due to low quality, namely the window regulators and other electrical parts. They said the bushings were "OK".