Hi all,

I have been a member for some time after getting a 1997 XJ6L in November of 2013. I have been a car enthusiast my entire life but never gave Jaguar a second look. I am so glad I have this car after driving it and most importantly learning about it from all of you. I have made many upgrades to my car which I need to update on here and share with all of you.

Like every car I have owned, I am a stickler for a tight, responsive driving experience no matter the "sportiness" of a vehicle. Inherently, in all cars, rubber (and coil springs) wears out and as far as I'm concerned that is what makes a car feel "old" from a handling standpoint. Plus and tires, shocks, springs and possibly worn bearings.

I am preparing to tackle my car's OEM bushings replacement and possibly bearings while I'm at it. I don't know the entire service history of my vehicle and piece of mind is key.

I am most likely going to get H&R springs for it as well as I want new coils and if I'm going to go through the hassle I want the increased performance and look. I'm 35 years old and still a punk on the inside. Lowering springs don't necessarily ruin the ride as people like to say. I have recently replaced all of the shocks with Bilstein Touring. I will have to see if they can operate with a shorter stroke from the decreased travel of the H&R springs. The other issue is lack of camber adjustment. I am an enthusiast and having my tires rotated more often to minimize uneven wear isn't a big deal. I still have access to my old tire changer and balancer that I sold to a friend when I got out of the wheel/tire business some years ago (both Hunter machines including GSP9700 road force balancer).

I was thinking about doing the front end first. I also want to upgrade to either aftermarket (less likely) or XJR/Sport sway bars.

The rear is a whole different story as I had to replace a broken rear shock last summer and watched my mechanic have to lower the entire rear subframe to do so. Man, what a pain compared to most cars. I also want to upgrade to XJR/Sport rear sway bar and mono-tube.

I am a DIY'er and will do this myself with the help of friends. I also have a friend who is a Jaguar mechanic.

I want to vet this out before I start accumulating parts and devising a strategy. I intend to keep this car and do this process just once.

Issues to figure out are:

Front suspension:

1) If I do the front first then my front end is lowered (from the H&R springs) for a week maybe until I do the rear...oh well. I will just deal with this as attempting to do the whole car is a daunting task on a daily driver.
2) Rubber replacement bushings in lieu of polyurethane. I want increased performance but not if it means squeaky and stiff. I've done Poly bushings before and really prefer the little bit of give and ride quality from rubber. Plus I live in SoCal and deterioration of the rubber is not much of an issue.
3) Do I just bite the bullet and replace wheel bearings while I'm at it so I know what's in there and will have a completely refreshed setup?

Rear suspension:
1) What other service items should I consider when removing the rear sub-frame?
2) I changed the diff fluid in July when the rear shocks were replaced.

Here are my main questions and wondering if anyone can chime in:
1) Can Bilstein Touring shocks be used with an H&R spring? The alternative, and the best option, would be to sell my Bilstein shocks on here (they have less than 8K miles on them) and bite the bullet and go Koni all around or just use an XJR OE replacement spring.
2) Do XJR bushings differ from regular XJ/VDP bushings? Would the difference in price and availability be worth it?
3) Am I wrong about polyurethane bushings on this car? Does anyone have these and swear by them?
4) What is my entire list of parts, assuming I don't want to unbutton the rear again or go back in for things I missed, things like sub-frame bushings and coil spring insulator pads.

Sorry for the long post...

 

Hi SD96XJ6L,

I can't answer all of your questions, but I've done all this work on our '93 XJ40 and can confirm that it makes a huge difference in the handling, steering, stability and overall enjoyment of the car. Your '97 will be a little different in certain details (e.g. how the rear shocks mount, certain bushings, etc.), but overall it will be very similar.


Front Spring Compressor fabrication & use:

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Front Subframe:

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Engine Mount comparison:

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Front Wheel Bearings:

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Lower Ball Joints:

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Independent Rear Suspension & Diff:

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Differential Output Shaft Bearings:

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Driveshaft Center Bearing:

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Flexible Coupling / Jurid / Giubo:

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Rear Wheel Bearings:

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Welcome to Jag-lovers - Members Photo Viewing Page


You can view parts diagrams at jaguarclassicparts.com or download the Jaguar Electronic Parts Catalog (EPC) from this forum at this thread:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...uctions-48194/


You will also want to have the Workshop Manual for your model, which is available on DVD from the Jaguar Heritage Daimler Trust, jaguarheritage.com (look under Technical Publications).


I'm sure others will have more information to offer regarding your specific model.

Cheers,


Don

 

OMG you hit the mother load thank you. I talked to my Bilstein distributor and I can lower the car within spec on the the Touring Class shocks.

 

Some do and some don't.

The X308 XJR bushings at the rear of the front subframe and at the main mounting point of the rear a-frame plate
are the stiffest of all X300/X308 variants. They will fit.

The X308 also uses a single piece birdcage affair to replace the two dogbone struts at the rear of the
differential. This eliminates some of the movement. It will fit. Some very late X300 already have this
arrangement. Easy to find cheap on ebay because it is not a high demand item. That may change
because I've mentioned it a few times now.

The notes above apply only if you buy genuine Jaguar or Lemforder units of the X308 XJR part numbers.
The aftermarket copies are more generic.

For suspension rubber, the aftermarket copies are not your best bet for fit, quality or longevity.

Be very careful at some of the online sites. They list a part number, but very carefully hide the
fine print that says it is a aftermarket copy. If they don't specifically confirm that it is genuine
OEM, let it go and buy somewhere else.

++

 

You might try to get a ride in a xjr. It's a stiff crappy ride. I just think it's too stiff for a luxury car. Looking at what you purpose to do...you will be driving a brick.

 

I definitely don't want to lose much in ride quality, especially with stiff bushings. I will lean the XJ6 factory way, I just want good response, reduced chassis vibration and increased joy factor, as well as piece of mind that the wear parts are all refreshed. What do you guys think of the Uro parts kits and bushings? Like the one listed here:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/jag...termarket-jag9

 

I noticed that one of the parts is listed as "economy" It's a factory/retailer admission that it is sub-par. I try not to purchase economy parts as I don't like to do the job over again with good parts.

 

I have all of the pieces mentioned above installed already as I am in a X308 XJR
which has them as standard. The pieces not mentioned are the sport springs
and shocks.

My experience is that it is not the suspension package as a whole that can
be unpleasant. I blame the low profile tires on 18 inch rims.

Unfortunately, asteroids only come in one size and more sidewall is not really
an option with the existing wheel well clearance at the front.

 

I would definitely go for a genuine set or an OEM set, especially when it comes to lower arm bushings and ball joints.
To change the lower arm bushings is a real PITA and you will never want to do it again.
If you have someone do the job, you have to pay twice eventually if the bushings go bad so soon.
From that point of view, I would avoid poly bushes for the lower arms as well.


Ref the ball joints, the OEM is Lemforder. Their ball joints are actually more expensive than aftermarket ones, but they last far more than aftermarket ones and in the long run it will be cheaper to choose Lemforder.


Just FYI, the upper arm bushings you can use poly bushes for XJS. The dimensions are exactly the same. You will also need to buy a set of washers for early XJ40 though. If you want to go for poly bushes please let me know and I will post further info.

 

Can you do the uppers without removing the spring? Only the lower arm removal needs to have spring removed in order to do it correct? Maybe I'll tackle this in pieces..

 

That's correct - you can do the upper control arm bushings without removing the spring, but it's advisable to support the spring pan with a jack to prevent the lower control arms from falling so far that the spring explodes from its mounts, which has happened to a couple of guys who were, thankfully, not injured.

Cheers,

Don

 

BTW, poly in the upper front is said to be a great help in controlling tramlining.

Don't know because the X308 uses different arms in the front and is not known
to be as sensitive to tramlining. At least not with 255-45/18 tires.

 

You could also look into XJREngineer's bronze upper front wishbone bushings if you want the "ultimate" in stiff bushings.

.

 

Hello everyone,

I would like to replace the old sagging coil springs on my XJR too.

I have searched online and have come across several replacements and they vary in specs slightly. For example both these coil springs are being sold as direct replacements for the XJR:

https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/mor...nid=408&jpid=3

https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/mor...nid=408&jpid=1

I would like to replace the coil springs with an exact spec spring. Can anyone please help me with the specs? or does anyone know how I can take the specs on the XJR myself? maybe know the OEM supplier?

Kind regards

 

I have recently replaced all the front bushes on my XJR with polyurathane but have not had chance to try it out due to spring spec issues, see my post on spring packers. The XJR is heavier than the NA versions, probably due to the GM Gearbox and supercharger and associated bits and the springs are not interchangeable. For example, I learnt the hard way that the springs off a 3.2 Sport are far too weak for an XJR. Hence you could expect XJR springs would be far too strong for your XJ6L.
It might be worth going for springs and dampers for a sport model on your XJ6L. These could be complemented by geting the sport front and rear swaybars and mounting brackets from a scrapyard. I used to have a 3.2 sport and it drove realy well on 16" wheels and 225 55 tyres. My XJR drives nice too but at 170K it was getting tired and I do the odd trackday with it so was hoping for more stability under hard braking.
Low profile tyres and big wheels can look good but tend to spoil cars. My wifes MX5 is so much better to drive on standard 15" wheels than the 17" aftermarket ones which it came with.