Had a little time on a cold afternoon and was doing some cleaning in the garage. I ran across two pair of front shocks for the XK8’s that I had taken off for friends. As noted when I took them off the lower bushing was trash on the right side and not so much on the driver side.The driver’s side could have been used for another 20 or so thousand miles, as they were firm. All shocks seemed to be functioning, I’m sure not to new standards. Are we throwing away good shocks because the price for a bushing in the US precludes us from just doing that?
OK, I know we don’t have the economically mind set when we buy one of these beauties, but not getting the use out of a pristine shock because of weak rubber parts just garbs my *****. If you check out a new set right out of the box, they give cause for concern. Maybe the soft ride is figured into it??
So, a few minutes at the press with a hand full of bearing installers and sockets and I had the two bad ones out. Now what? The 12 MM bolt sleeve with the knot on it makes it a no go for installing the normal performance two sided bushing. I will have to look for some other way to get this done, or not. I do know there are some places on Ebay that have them in England for around $40 fora pair, just trying to find a way to make it worth doing. Now getting it done like replacing the rear in place, as some members have done, might be something that would make It feasible and worth the effort. It is very exposed in the front when dropping the bottom suspension off the shock tower.
Don’t you just hate cold days when it snows all morning?

Wayne

 

Wayne - if I had know you were bored, I would have had you come down and assist with the drivers side sway bar bushing - what a pain in the ***!!!!

 

That might be the best idea of the day.
Thanks.


Wayne

 

I have the "thump" on my front end '99 with 167k on the odometer. I went to the repair shop and the bushing for the shock were quote at $75 each plus labor or a new shock for $125, seems like the new shock is a better solution due to the labor. In doing the follow up research seems best to replace the bushings on shock, sway bar, upper control arm and upper shock mounting all at one time. Poly bushing kit is $400 if I recall correctly. I think I will do the kit as a future project as shocks seem fine.

 

LaRue, go with the new shock with that many miles and if you are paying someone else to do it. The $400 for front bushings, if that is for all you were talking about, not bad.


Wayne

 

I'm guessing that one pair of those front shocks that Wayne found was the set that we took off of my wife's XK8 just over two weeks ago. But with her car right at 99,000 miles when we did the front shocks / shock mounts / upper control arm bushings replacement job, would you really feel comfortable replacing just the lower shock bushings and then re-installing the shocks? That's a bunch of work for a pair of shocks pushing 11 years old with a lot of miles on them, even with brand-new lower bushings pressed into them. I'm all for re-using and recycling whenever it makes sense, but in this case I was glad to pay the extra bucks and have the peace of mind of new front shocks in place. Especially after we had to replace the rear shocks back in October 2014 because one of the internal valves broke off (as they are prone to do) and the constant rattling heard in the cabin was driving my wife nuts, causing her to drive me nuts about fixing it....

 

Jon, You are right of course. I just thinking of individuals like myself with 65K miles that could refresh "a" shock, maybe just the passenger side until both needed replacement. I really see how doing this on the car could prolong the big job for someone on a budget. This is all on contingent the top bushings were still serviceable. We both know if you have to go that far into it, new shocks are a must.
Just looking at stuff I was going to give to Melvin, (my scrap man) and thought I would give it a try.


Wayne

 

If you indeed decide to press new lower shock bushings into them, I'm sure someone would be willing to buy them off you. And as long as you advise them to "install at your own risk", I'd call it a fair deal at whatever you decide you have to charge. Those new lower shock bushings won't be cheap!

 

Jon, not thinking of a refurbishing shock business. As putting in a used shock would be a bad idea, unless you are doing your own work and money is critical. In which case they have the wrong car.
What I was just more curious was if the possibility of replacing the bushing made sense. I notice they sale them all over the UK Ebay and all of the big parts houses have them in stock. So, someone is putting them in, just never seen it discussed on this forum, other than the rear ones. It would be easy enough with the ball joint tool and the right sockets or bearing install kit.
You and I would never remove all we did and not replace the shocks, but someone could disconnect the ball joint, pull the whole shock tower out and replace the bushing on a press quicker than messing with it in the wheel well. I think I could do both sides in under a hour.
The guys with the self adjusting ones would certainly be a candidate for this.
The XJ8 bushing are under $20 and look just like ours, sure would like for someone to mic one. I bet the bolt size is different.
Just thinking, better go put some mulch out. LOL


Wayne

 

No sure if you can do this on an xk8 but this is how I did my stype.

Link.http://www.jagrepair.com/AlignmentRideImprovements.htm

Gus
www.jagrepair.com

 

Thanks Gus, that's what I'm talking about. I see the fronts were more effort and you had to take them out. I think I can do it on the XK8 on the car, but no biggy if not.
You guys with those $350 apiece shocks might want to check the condition of that lower bushing before replacing the whole thing, give this a thought.
If you are around here, bring it over with a couple of bushings and we will give it our best shot.


Wayne


Wayne

 

I pressed a new bushing in 3 years ago on a adaptive set of shocks, pulled tower like you would for upper mount and used a clamp press and sleeves to get it done. SNG has them for $39

 

I'm halfway through rebuilding my front suspension. from what I've read, it's common practice to replace the lower shock bush, and can be done easily with a C-clamp type press.
I'd question why you would replace the damper simply because the bush has gone, especially if they are adaptive dampers.
I'm in the UK so perhaps we have it better over here, but SNG are in the US as noted above. My two damper bushes were £14 each. (or £40 each to buy the special order part, presumably OEM)

 

Thanks guys, this gives all of us a different mind set and the price at SNG makes it a good choice. Thank you very much.
Where the complete replacement has been the direction taken because most of US bushings were priced in $60 and over range and the new shock with bushing in was in the $110 area. With mileage getting toward 100K is just makes sense, but the lower mileage cars, not so much, specially now, to me anyway.


Wayne

 

I think the driving factor is if you have Standard vs Adaptive shocks as replacement cost is 1 X 3 for the shock. Since you need to pull the tower with Standard depending your miles you might as well replace them, with Adaptive it's depends on how deep your pockets are.