I am trying out a mechanic because my reg. guy is recuperating from surgery and I have several questions:

1. Do these cars have shocks and struts? I thought cars have one or the other not both. XJ8s have only shocks, correct?
2. You can purchase the ball joint between the upper and lower control arms separately, I believe, you do not have to replace the upper and lower control arms, correct? They are made of steel and show no signs of fatigue or rust or age. Anyone know about ball joint parts being available separately. I believe World Pack sells them for like $60 vs $300 for an upper control arm, and $250 for a lower, etc.
3 When replacing front wheel bearings, isn't the add'l labor pretty minimal to replace a shock and a ball joint? Granted there are mounts to deal with but most seems to be right there in the open.
4. Any guidance on how many hours wheel bearings, including ABS insert donut, ball joints and shocks on both sides of the front should take?
Any manual to mention?

All help welcome!

LA

Thanks.

 

both shocks and the mount 1 hour

ball joints depends on your setup, uppers are like 30-40 minutes each real time but 1.5 by the book.

lower depends sometimes the air hammer blows it out and life is good other times you’re grinding a slot to get the cups to fit..

wheel bearing is 3 hours each

 

Thanks, and do these cars have shocks and struts?? Make any sense?

 

Yes coil overs' on all 4 corners. Bilstein are the oem.

 

My 1999 Daimler Super V8 does not have struts (or coil-overs) but separate springs and shocks. The rear shocks are positioned inside the springs but not as a coil-over arrangement.

 

Got it. Thanks, so I should question sep charge for new shocks and a sep charge for new "struts" and two different labor charges, right?.

 

they may be generically calling the front shocks as struts, since struts are common for modern cars.

That said, if the control arms are coming off, the shock replacement is literally a 15 min affair.

 

If for some reason the lower and upper control arms need replacement, which i doubt, how much time should be charged? Thank for your great help.