Hi guys I have a clunk in the front suspension of my 2002 XJ8 with 108,000 miles. So far my mechanic (who is a Ford mechanic) has changed:

Front wheel bearings (whinning sound not clunking)
Replaced the lower ball joints
Replaced the sway bar links
Replaced the shock absorbers (leaking)

He has had the car up on a 2 post lift and used a pry bar on all the ball joints, tie rod ends, suspension bushings and can't find any play anywhere.

The car drives straight without any vibration or wander but when on slow turns and over speed bumps there is a clonk sometimes.

Any sugestions on where to look next would be much appreciated.

Andy

 

If he's definitely eliminated Wishbone Bushes, Ball Joints and Wheel Bearings, the metalastic Vee Mounts could be suspect.

Graham

 

Try the top and bottom nuts on the engine mounts.

 

just had the same clonk but mine was bad lower ball joint on passenger side. There was nothing left at the bottom so it just bounced and clonked, also had to replace the bushings in the sway bar links and all the balljoints and front shocks. Rides smooth and steering is TIGHT! Somoene also mentioned to replace the actual bushings on the sway bar itself as they can appear to be tight but really not be.

 

my cat had ALL of them bad. I dont know why, but we had to replace all of them. The gummy parts in it was worn or broken in them all. The previous owner let it stay for long and was driving quite fast over sidewalk which probably made it. We had to replace the front shock absorbers too. They weren't able to tell which all of them are broken in advance because car is so heavy that normal method of checking it failed somehow.

 

Everyone thank you very much for your suggestions. I'll pass them along to my mechanic and see if we can find out what's causing the clonking.

Andy

 

After several months of clonking I took the XJ8 into the local independent Jag shop. He put "chassis ears" on the frame connected to a computer to isolate where the noise was coming from. He found one engine mounting bolt was missing and one was loose. He fixed the problem and now I have a clonk free car to enjoy again, sometimes you need to get expert help and it's worth it.

Andy