Found a few spots of fairly thin, dark, oily substance on my garage floor the past few days, turns out it's coming from around the front mounting bush on the rear subframe on the right-hand side. I guess this is a hydro bushing and is now leaking. The workshop manual seems to suggest that most of the rear end has to come off to change this - exhaust, driveshafts, petrol filler hose, shocks and a load of smaller stuff.

Is all that really necessary to just change the front bushes in turn?

 

I have not changed them on Jaguars but have done on several AMG Mercedes. Sometimes you can get lucky and not have to totally drop the sub-frame, I am not sure on Jaguars. Usually you do have to get in pretty deep to get the bushing removal tool in there to press them out. One thing is for sure, once they start leaking, the cars ride and handling is affected badly and they only get worse fast. The other front bushing wont live long with a weak and leaking bushing as it has to do twice the work it was designed to do. Not much help I know but I would get them done asap.

 

 

Thanks for that, will get it booked in ASAP.

 

Well, the first place I tried (following several recommendations) said they're not prepared to attempt to remove the subframe due to the rust on that and on the bolts - tales of bolts snapped and stuck in the body of the car etc. etc. He did concede that the rust on the subframe did appear just to be surface rust. This is a garage that deal with a lot of classic and older cars so if they're not keen then not sure who is...