My front shock mounts are faling apart. They have the red rubber so I assume they are OEM. Looking at the threads it seems that the choice is URO, Eurospare, OEM or Welsh. If anyone has had a good experience with any one of these please let me know. From the forum history it seems that some of these mounts fell apart in a pretty short time.

 

Durability issues have been reported with the most recent version of Welsh Enterprises' product. That was not the case a few years ago. Wayne (cjd777) and I installed the Welsh mounts on my wife's 2006 XK8 back in early January 2016 and they continue to look like new and perform as specified....

My experience with various URO components over the years has not been positive. I would not risk installing URO shock mounts on any of my vehicles....

 

If I had to replace my Welsh mounts today, I would call Welsh and ask if they still have any remaining inventory from five years ago. Of course, if they said yes I would still have to decide whether or not they were being truthful with me....

 

If I had to replace my Welsh mounts today, tomorrow or ever again, I would either make new ones myself or purchase oem.
There are several long threads referencing the welsh mounts and their (Welsh's) response...read and decide if you want to roll the dice.

wj

 

My experience with this has left me bitter. Just sell your first son, a left ********, or a kidney to pay for the OEM mounts.

 

I'm a little confused here. Is it the son and the leftie, or a kidney, or is it the son or the leftie, or the kidney? Because, really, what has he done for me lately?

 

son or leftie


Sorry, I am ESL and had not noticed the ambiguity in my joke.

 

A while ago, I posted that Coventry Jaguar uses Eurospare shock mounts and is very pleased with them. They offer a lifetime warranty on their parts which makes me feel far more secure than with the Welsh choice. Welsh seems to have an issue and yet, they do do address it. Eurospare to me is the way to go!

 

Since I've had a vasectomy I'd sell my left ******** because I don't use it anymore but I didn't know that was an option.

I am waiting for my shock mounts to arrive from Welsh. Delivery scheduled on Tuesday. We'll see how it goes.

 

I have ordered parts from Eurospare before and they have all been really high quality. I hope their shock mounts are the same.

 

Good choice. I would have went that way too...

The mounts are not terrible to replace. Cool weather is a blessing... You

Jack up the car and remove wheels (one or two wheels at a time) and place stands.

-Take the time to remove the plastic liners in the fender well. Makes life lots easier. Actually, makes this possible.

-Remove lower shock bolt.
-Remove ABS sensor plug and the zips that hold the cables to the control arms...
-Remove upper ball joint nutt and separate ball joint shaft from upper control arm. Sounds bad but it's not. And be ready - the upright will want to tip OUT putting stress on the caliper brake line. You can either remove the caliper or hang it from somewhere OR take a stake of bricks or a few blocks of wood and place them under the lowest 2 lug bolts to keep the upright from tipping.
-I don't know if you have SHOCK sensors - remove if so.
-Take a look around to make sure everything is going right and check to see if I've/You've MISSED a step (I always always do).
-Loosen upper 3 bolts in the top of the shock tower and keep an eye out for what's happening. Watch the shock and spring. Remove the inner most of the three and then one of the outer most leaving threads on at least one of the bolts. Remove last nutt supporting shock and spring - while holding and supporting the spring/shock.

Now, the fun part. Lean the TOP of the shock while in the fender well towards the back of the fender well and carefully manipulate the position of the triangular control arm up and down a bit while feeding the shock and spring OUT of the triangle and it should come free... Be careful here as making a mistake will raise a DENT in the outside of the fender. There will be 3 sturdy bolts sticking out of the top of the shock mount that WILL leave a mark. That's it.

Put the shock and spring assembly INTO a running car and bring them to a shop,,, lol... For 20 or 30bucks they will compress the springs, use an impact to remove the shock top bolt and place the new mounts. That's what I would do.

That, or rent/purchase a spring compressor and do em up yourself. The top shock bolt can be a great pain and the compressed spring VERY precarious...

Then everything in reverse.

 

Jay, you make it almost sound like fun.
I must admit, I do like to get the A arm off and replace the bushings and put anti seize on everything. That saves taking the ball joint off. Not a bad idea to check that ball joint, could be 20 years old.
Now we are talking fun to replace that sucker. LOL

 

It is kinda fun tho, isn't it?
Compared to many of the other things one has to DO in life, to manage one's life... Strange times out here...

I'm hoping someone will jump in and correct my mistakes or add in something I left out...

The upper control arms and that pin. Omgoodness it has left me swearing and performing strange dance, lol... I hate it and it has never gone smoothly for me. Now, today (as soon as possible), I have to replace my subframe on the 2002 xk8. Unsolvable knocking due to the pin having worn out the sleeves of the aluminum subframe mounting point. No no no fun. But, I love the car, specially top down in early spring and early fall. Nothing like these critter cars.

 

my ‘02 XKR shocks and shock mounts were replaced 5 years and approximately 50,000 miles ago (& two owners ago) with genuine Jaguar parts.

Using visual examination, ride quality, and ride height as indicators, all of the shock components appear to be in good working condition. I can’t say if this makes me just plain lucky, or if that’s an average experience.

In any case I’m following these discussions in hopes the improved quality of more affordable mount parts is forthcoming.

Otherwise buying the genuine Jaguar parts seems to be the best alternative

Z

 

OK, just watched this UTube and find it hard to believe I have been doing it wrong all these years, well, a few times for friends.
If it was that easy, why are we making it a issue. Just dropping the sway bar link and it (front A arms, top and bottom) drop right out of the way with a little help.


Thoughts????

 

my thoughts are, I could do it without breaking a sweat.....until the spring compressor comes into play. Then I always say a prayer first.


Z

 

I saw that and it will be my first pass at it plan "A:. IF it failed the workshop manual talks about disconneting the top of the A arm and then removing the strut, plan "B". If that fails then Plan "C" have a cold beer and think it over.

 

David, one thing I did forget to mention.
The new plates (if included) generally come powder coated. Clean the studs with a wire brush before adding the nuts at the top of the tower. The threads are full of paint and will lock up the nut and break the stud. Not grade 8 by any means.

 

That video was indeed impressive. And what I liked best about it was how filthy that guy was. So many of these Youtubers seem to stay impossibly clean through the jobs they video. Always good to see a guy who looks like I do during and after just about every job I have to do....

 

Amen! The video made me cringe a bit - particularly when the top mount was pointing at the camera.

He's also going to be back in there in short order to replace the lower shock bushings - particularly the driver's side..