Has anyone replaced their lower wishbones LH/RH on their xkr and can you notice the difference, new bushings can't be fitted so the whole arm has to be purchased.

 

Yes, just had the n/s rear done as some play had been reported at last MOT and I don't think it would have just been an advisory this time. I will admit to being a little ticked off to have to do this at just over 55k but there you go.

The shop did a good job, they checked the o/s rear and it was fine. I do believe she does feel more controlled at the back end even allowing for 'expectation improvement'. A nasty little skittishness she had when turning in sharply to the left under power has now disappeared.

 

Why did you not replace the 2 just to have an even rear, my car has 95,000miles on it and this is its 3rd test since i've had it, i allways got 2 years MOT here in Ireland but as it is 10 Years now the MOT cert only lasts for 1 year. This is the first suspension parts i have had to put in since having the car , good for the mileage.

 

You can replace the bushes on their own mate.

But if you're intent on replacing the entire wishbone, get the ones from the 2008 XKR-S, they correct the rear camber for cars that are a little lower than stock.

C2P17986 9W8Y5B530AA Rear Wishbone Lower LH - C2P17986 - VIN REQUIRED TO ORDER

C2P17987 9W8Y5B531AA Rear Wishbone Lower RH - C2P17987 - VIN REQUIRED TO ORDER

You will need a VIN from a 2008 XKR-S to order them.

 

I was going to ask the question , why not just replace the bushings. It doesn't look like a problem to do and I'm sure someone sells replacements.

 

The only bush that's not available as an official spare part is the outer spherical joint, the two bushes on the inner part of the lower wishbone can be purchased from ZF / Lemförder

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/w...0-x350-101725/

Racing Green was selling the outer bushes if you needed them.

 

I rebuilt mine with poly bushings from PowerFlex. The ride isn't much harsher, but is a lot louder. And damn the car handles like it is on rails now.

Those six bushings (3 on each side) were $240. I think one warm was listed at $768. The biggest factor for me though was that the poly bushings should outlast the car, if I had gone back stock I would be doing this again in 50k miles.

 

I will never put polybushes in a street car ever again, the creaking/squeaking is unbearable, pretty much ruins the car.

 

I agree with you, Cambo. I put poly bushings on both of my XKRs, and the "moan." Drives me batty!

 

So are they longer or shorter, do they increase or decrease camber? I have the Spires/Eibach springs and the rear is still at factory spec for camber, would like to see a little more negative and have been exploring machining/modifying the uppers to help with this.

 

i have found a very unique solution.... radio!!

 

As you know there is no rear camber adjustment on these cars.

And when you lower them, the camber goes even more negative.

If we look at just the rear camber spec, vs. the ride height spec (at curb weight) for the 2006.5 to 2009 MY cars;

The naturally aspirated XK is 396mm rear ride height, rear camber is specified as –0.53° ± 0.75°

The standard XKR is 393mm rear ride height, rear camber is specified as –0.63° ± 0.75°

The XKR-S is 379mm rear ride height, rear camber is specified as –0.99° ± 0.75°

Just for clarity, the rear lower wishbones on the XK and the XKR are the same, it's only the XKR-S which has different ones. Another wildcard here is the Portfolios, which have a different rear subframe to the XK and XKR, but standard wishbones. I'm yet to work out what the difference is in the subframe.

Now, quite a few people on the forum complained about big negative camber on the rear when the cars were lowered. Like more than 3° negative.

But you can see the specified camber differences vs. the specified ride heights above, for a "big" drop of ~14mm from the XKR to the XKR-S, it's not that big a difference in camber, compared to change in camber for the XK vs. XKR.

Another thing is that some forum members checked the the rear camber on their cars and it was already less than -1.25° (more negative than spec) even with stock springs, so these specified values are really fluid, but it shows (to me) that the XKR-S rear wishbones reduce the camber (make it less negative) on a lowered car.

From my point of view, too much negative camber is not good, it reduces the contact patch of the tyre on the road, which is bad news if you're trying to nail a launch at the drag strip.

Short of making up shims to go between the hub and the hub carrier, I don't see any other way of adjusting the rear camber, apart from these wishbones.

As I have a set of XKR-S springs & shocks here, I intend to take some ride height and camber measurements with the stock XKR springs, and later on with the XKR-S ones, and if it comes out too negative, then it'll have to be a pair of XKR-S wishbones as well...

 

I'm struggling to see how replacing just one would cause any imbalance. If you meant even wear, the bushes are fine on the other side and if they wear in another 20/30k or whatever it'll get done then so in my mind no real justification. Won't be a problem after that! It did occur to me to wonder why one side only wore out so mush more quickly than the other.

In regard of other posts relating to bush replacement, I looked at going this route when I had an arm done on the XK8 and took the view that the overall cost of decent bushes plus the time and hassle factor of pressing old out, new in, etc. and the potential for arm damage wasn't different enough from a refurbished arm so I did the whole thing. I wasn't keen to go down that route again even if you can get refurbished XK arms (I don't even know if you can) so as I got the arm for a reasonable price it seemed more practical than just doing the bushes.

All is good now!

 

I had all the bushes replaced in my XJR (same wishbones as the X150) and it was a hell of a lot cheaper than complete refurbished wishbones....

Maybe (probably) refurbished wishbones are cheaper in Euroland, but the bushes were very cheap to buy from ZF in comparison...

 

So got my car back yesterday after a complete inspection and MOT pass. If you read my past post i had a bust coolant pipe which sits in the V of the engine, which in turn led to the supercharger to come off to be fixed. This was a great opportunity to get rid of the duck bill pipe which was easy to access when the supercharger was off. So all older models such as mine be weary of this as the pipe and there are 2 in total may be in need of changing, you might not be lucky like me and see it in time, hence you'll have a cooked engine. It has had an extensive service from all filters to oil change , diff, transmission, supercharger service which included the new upgraded belt, pulley and idler wheel, engine pipes, thermostat any bushes and even i replaced all exhaust rubbers. Had to replace the 2 lower wishbones, i know some people said the bushes could be got, but i just went ahead and had 2 new ones fitted. I always felt the car a bit looses and soft on the rear and put that down to the GT ride nature but now I Never felt the car as good on the rear end, it feels so planted out of corners and is nice and firm, totally different car to drive.

 

Glad you're happy with it powerhouse. In the end (no pun intended), that's what matters.

 

Just for completeness, I paid the equivalent of just under $190 for a complete new sealed factory lower arm. The $70 saving (granted original bushes might be a little cheaper) wouldn't tempt me to try changing the bushes even had I the right tools to do it but that's just my take - YMMV. Looks like the OP also found that a tighter back end results from a renewal so a win all around

 

Lower arms cost me €258 each

 

At those prices it might be worth swapping factory arms every 50k miles vs new bushings with a longer life. I guess I should have looked harder for a deal.

 

Just replacing my lower rear arms due to give, looking at the part numbers above (C2P17986 + 87) is this for the 2008 model and later or do they also fit the 2006 and 2007 models too?

I've also found part numbers C2P16878 and C2P16879. Same description 2006 xk onwards but not the R version...