After reading a few post, I thought I would ask about front end bushing. My 2002 XJ8VD has 96,000 miles on it. I had the front end checked at a local tire store which said things were fine. When I run over bumps though I do hear a funny noise.Can the bushing be bad, yet test good?

I noticed that air suspension was mentioned. Do I have that on my vehicle?

Thanks in advance!

 

Shocks maybe need replacing...Or struts..whatever that car is set up with...take it to a JAG specialist.

 

As Dennis said, the people at the tire store wont really know what they are
looking at.
The bushings can split. No real test. If they are split we replace them.
the shocks can make noise. Look at the upper chock mounts. There should be
a nice round orange bushing in the black plate on top of wheel well. If that is gone
could be causing your noise. They crumble.
I advise again doing front shocks yourself due the high tension of the spring.

 

Also the stabiliser bar bushings being misalingned or outward movement of them on the bar can cause knocking noises over bumps etc

Mark in Ga

 

My input 10 days later...I had noisy sloppy front end when I took possession of car. Jag Service found bushings or lack of them. Car is much tighter now but I still have a rear noise to tend to. Getting there slowly...

Tom

 

Hey Ray,
Youshould ask your buddy to look at your car. The bushings weren't very expensive even at the dealer when I had my replaced, so if he could fix it for you then it would be that much more inexpensive. It made a big difference in noise reduction on my car. It doesn't sound so "ghetto" any more.

Tom

 

Front swaybar bushings misaligned/worn is one possiblity of noise in "front" of car as well as the above already mentioned
Also lower steering column shaft is another possiblity of noise over bumps and during slow speed braking as in a parking lot

 

agree with ibjags.. the front swaybar bushings.. make a hollow sounds in the floor.. and there easy to replace and there only like $9 each fro the dealer and take 5 min to replace.. i wud throw those in.

 

Can these bushings be replaced without causing issue with the shock?

I think I may need the shocks anyway, but the bushings are powder, and I get a lot of squeak noise right now from this area.

 

Great info. my own 03 XJ8 is quiet and smooth at interstate speeds, but crossing town at 35 - 40 mph, there's a clunk in front left every time i hit an expansion joint in the road. sounds like a bushing. i HOPE it's a bushing.

 

I'm going to slowly replace bushings and maybe shocks, starting with the front. If it doesn't fix anything, at least I had fun bonding with my car! I'm sure it'll tighten up the front end a bit -- seems a little sloppy to me. The rear has the infamous creaking noise (driver's side) when getting in and out of the car -- again, busings are probably the culprit, so I'll get to that when I get to that! LOL

 

Bushings make a HUGE difference on this car. I had clunking in my rear and it turned out to be bad sway bar links. I bought new Moog units but didnt like the bushing design so I used some spare poly bushings I had and used them on the top and bottom half of the LCA mount and worked like a charm.

Lots of front end noise too which turned out to be many things. Lower ball joints were shot so I got new ball joints (Jag lies, they are replaceable without the whole LCA), sway lenks were shot, lower shock mounts were almost gone (just replaced the whole shock) and my upper shock mounts were a fine orange powder. Gonna have at it on Tuesday.