This is my first time posting so first off I want to say thanks to the posters on this forum. Almost every problem I've had with my Jaguars someone had already posted and solved with the input of others. I have recently purchased a 1999 XJR with 67K miles and mostly in great condition. Unfortunately it was in the hands of an incompetent mechanic shortly before I bought it. I went behind and corrected most mistakes but I'm still getting a creaking noise from the right rear when I accelerate from a standstill. It is not the active suspension by the way, standard shocks with no electronics. This has been there since day 1. It almost sounds like it is inside the car but I have taken the door card and rear seat out when I upgraded the stereo and speakers and made sure there was no play or missing clips or screws.

Upon inspection of the suspension I discovered the goofy mechanic had put the coil spring in upside down when he changed the shocks. I flipped the spring and replaced the shock (which came with new shock bushings) for good measure. I have replaced rear shocks on three other XJ8s so I'm pretty sure I did it correctly. I even replaced the large foam donut on top of the coil spring. Luckily the rubber seat for the spring was still on it, pressed against the top of shock tower. I also checked the other side to make sure he wasn't consistently dyslexic.

The stabilizer bar links look solid, no play or frayed bushings. ditto with the bushings for the rear suspension assembly and no sign of the rear having been dropped or accident damage that may have warped or bent anything (and clear CARFAX).

Should I replace the stabilizer links to be sure? Can the coil wear out and creak? I really don't want to go to a mechanic and pay hundreds if not thousands for some thing I could do myself much cheaper.

 

Creaking does sound more spring or mount related, but you've checked those pretty decently it sounds. The sway links are usually more a rattle, but there's really no reason to not look, those are easy enough to look at. You could even just remove the link and drive a bit to see if it goes away if you're unsure. Because the geometry of the suspension as a whole gets stressed under load, you're basically in the boat of checking every bushing, which sometimes requires a pry bar and a close eye - as well as things like the U-joints on the halfshaft. Those do have grease fittings (someone just posted pictures doing that in the "What did you do" thread the other day), so that might be worth a top off too while you're at it. I've found that suspension noises in mine are pretty tricky most of the time, short of replacing every component at once.

 

Thank you for the tips. I was afraid this might be a total bushing replacement. I haven't checked the u joint though so topping that off couldn't hurt. It drives fine I just hope the botch job by the previous mechanic didn't cause some kind of permanent damage.

 

I had similar creaking sound on my Triumph Stag. It was caused by "dry" UJ-s on the half shafts.

 

Hi,

Once I had a similar squeaking noise with my '00 XJR from time to time. E.g. when driving over a huge "obstacle" like a speed bump etc. I narrowed it down to the springs as well. When I replaced the rear upper shock mounts and doughnut rings it went away. I never got an exact idea what caused that squeaky noise, as everything looked fine. But I strongly suspected the missing packer which is located between the spring and the spring pan as the culprit. As the packer is responsibility for the ride height (there are two different thicknesses available) it also doubles as an isolator to avoid metal-to-metal contact of the spring with the spring pan.
The same role as an isolator plays the pigtail spring seat at the bottom end of the spring.

Do you have both parts installed? I could reproduce the squeaky noise with a second person standing and bouncing on the trunk sill - can you?

Cheers, Alexander

 

I did replace the donut isolator with the correct spec when I fixed the upside down spring, new shock and shock bushings as well. At this point the u joints might be the likely culprit as bumps don't cause the noise.

 

I did get that, but I wasn't talking about the donut spring isolator, I'm talking about the packer and the spring seat (see part no 2 and 4: https://www.jaguarclassicparts.com/u...-fittings-rear)

Cheers, Alexander