i had all shocks and mounts replaced yesterday on my 98 xk8.
Coming home in the quiet of the night, i heard some knocking seemingly coming from driver's side / upper.
This morning I took the plastic caps off the nuts that secure the mount and put a open end wrench to them.
On 2 of them, I was able to get almost a full turn.
Also on the shock itself, I was able to put a ratchet and give it a 1/2 turn.

Should I have been able to turn that at all?
Or should they be super tight?

 

they should not be loose - below torques are from workshop manual which is available for free download here - check the DIY & How To threads


Torques
CAUTION:
Replacement of nuts and bolts: Various thread-locking devices are used on nuts and bolts throughout the
vehicle. These devices restrict the number of times a nut or bolt can be used. See section <<100-00>> for
information.
Component Nm
Nut - ball joint-upper 60-80
Nut - ball joint-lower 60-80
Bolt - brake disc shield 9-11
Bolt - crossbeam front mounting bracket to body 77-103
Bolt - crossbeam rear mounting to body 77-103
Bolt - crossbeam to rear mounting 26-34
Bolt - crossbeam to engine mounting 34-46
Nut - hub rotor nut 270-330
Nut - shock absorber lower pivot 60-80
Nut - shock absorber upper stud (non-adaptive damping) 30-40
Nut - shock absorber upper stud (adaptive damping) 16-18
Nut - spring and shock absorber upper-mounting to body 26-34
Bolt - stabilizer bar bracket to crossbeam 22-28
Nut - stabilizer bar to link 60-80
Nut - stabilizer bar link to lower wishbone 39-55
Bolt - wishbone lower front arm to rear arm 128-172
Nut - wishbone upper fulcrum 98-132
Bolt - wishbone lower front-fulcrum 113-153
Bolt - wishbone lower rear-fulcrum 113-153

 

I tightened one of the nuts on the mount that's attached to a small cross beam to body.
Went for a bumpy ride and heard nothing.

Looks like we're ok

Thanks

 

The Shock nut is usually driven home with an air gun and it hits a hard stop on the shoulder of the rod. Any looseness there is guaranteed to make noise.

 

Just a cautionary note for this. My replacement shocks had paint on the bolts (corrosion protection I guess) but, I failed to remove the paint before torque was applied and snapped one of the three bolts. It kept creeping and the wrench readings were off the mark.

 

I put a ratchet on all the upper mount nuts and the center shock nut.
Tightened then as much as i could by hand.
Spent the day driving, and didn't hear any noise whatsoever.