The following is just my opinion, and we all know what that's worth...

Upper Bushings:

A few months ago I ordered 4 upper bushings and 4 lower bushings for the front suspension on my XK8. The problems I had with the upper bushings are documented in my video on replacing the upper bushings. All 4 bushings were of different thicknesses, and that caused me some hellacious problems in installing the upper wishbone back into the car. I ended up having to use my disk sander to sand the bushings down until they would fit, but I still don't know if I'll be able to get the alignment correct. There are 4 shims which adjust the caster of each wheel. The shims are moved from one side of the wishbone to the other in order to adjust the caster. My sanding job couldn't have been very precise, and a couple of the shims are only 0.5 millimeters thick. If I was off by more than a millimeter or two, it's possible that the caster will never be correct until I replace the bushings again. I haven't had an alignment yet because I was waiting to get the lower bushings completed, which is part two of why I'll never order from britishparts.co.uk again.

Lower Bushings:

The lower bushings are more complicated than the upper bushings. They are essentially a metal tube with a flange on one end. Inside the tube is a rubber bushing, and then inside the bushing is another metal tube. It's built like three concentric circles. The bushings are supposed to be pressed into the lower control arms. I've read on here and on other places online that a 6 ton press is sufficient. Someone said they used a 20 ton press. I bought myself a 12 ton press to do the job.

Matt (h20boy) sent me the lower control arms from his car because last week he replaced his altogether, bushings and everything. I was able to easily use my press to push the old bushings out of Matt's arms. It took almost no effort at all. After I got done I tried to press the first new bushing into one of Matt's control arms. I greased it up, put it in the press, and started pumping. It went in about 30% and then just stopped. I kept pumping, but it wouldn't budge. I kept pumping and pumping, and it was getting incredibly hard to pump the press. Eventually, the cast iron plate upon which the control arm was resting shattered. It sounded like a bomb had gone off in the garage and my wife came running because she though the car had fallen on me or something.

After an hour or so I was finally able to press out the bushing and I quit for the night. I had an idea, though, and I put all 4 bushings into the freezer to cool overnight. Today I put the control arms in the oven and turned it on to 250 degrees. After an hour or so I pulled out the first control arm while holding it with an oven mitt. I quickly took it to the garage and placed it in the press with a freshly greased and frozen bushing. I started pumping as quickly as I could because I didn't want the two parts to equalize in temperature before I could get the bushing fully inserted. The pumping got harder and harder, but I kept going. the bushing got about 50% inserted and stopped moving. I put a cheater bar on the hydraulic jack to give me more leverage. I kept pumping. A few pumps later the outer piece of the bushing suddenly bent, and then the I-beam on which the whole assembly was resting suddenly collapsed. Clearly the bushing is too large to fit into the control arm.

Summary: It's my opinion that the products I purchased from britishparts.co.uk are of very poor quality. They don't meet Jaguar specs and if you try to use them you are likely to end up wishing you had just purchased OEM parts.

There is no way I'll be able to press that bushing out of the control arm now. The temps have equalized and the bush is now permanently attached to the arm. Fortunately I was able to practice on Matt's control arms. My car is still in one piece. If I had done this on my own control arms I'd have an undriveable car right now. I would have to by a whole new control arm. I guess I'll buy some OEM bushings and try again later.

 

I'm surprised you were even able to purchase anything from that website, my credit card company denied my purchase to go through with them. Sorry to hear about your problems with that company, but maybe you saved others from the same headaches.

By the way, was it the "bushing kit" they sell that you purchased?

 

You could try to drill it out, and when you have the inner part out, you can put a blade of a handsaw (you probably know what I mean) in and cut the outer shell.

I have similar experiences with BP, in that I thought I would buy the OEM parts form them as they listed the original OEM Partno, but instead I got inferior pattern ones. It even altered my alignment as they sell the lower ones in sets of 4, whereas you need 2 different ones. So for bushings (and probably some more) it’s better to stick with OEM imho.

 

I have never really had any probs with Brit Part but then again I rarely buy there bushes as 9/10 I fit poly, might be an idea to clarify with them first if the parts you are buying are OE, as the XK shares quite a few parts with XJs which have been about for a while you do find pattern parts have crept into the XK bin, particularly ball joints.
People being people always like to save a few £$£ so often opt for the cheaper parts but if you are planing on keeping the XK for a while it is a false economy.

I am not saying everything Brit Part does is not OE because that is not true, the majority of parts I have bought from them have come in genuine Jaguar bags and labels but some are obviously ...... not.

 

YES! That's another point that I forgot to mention. The JTIS specifically says to make sure you use the correct bushings between the front and the back of the control arms. They are of different lengths. But the ones britishparts.co.uk sells are the same length for front and back. I didn't realize that until I read the JTIS, AFTER I had already purchased the bushings.

Unfortunately I bought 4 ball joints from them, too. I'm not sure if I want to install them now.

 

Well sad to say I have had a similar experience as I also bought upper and lower bushings from the same place. After reading about Sam's experience with the upper bushes I checked the ones that I had received and indeed they were of the same poor quality. Whereupon, I ordered upper poly bushes from PowerFlex and there is just no comparison. The Powerflex bushes are exceptionally well made. Then, Sam's follow up on the lower bushes was a real siren call for me.

After, reading about H20 Boy's experience with the lower control arms I also decided that this was a job for a Jag Tech. So, I bit the bullet and ordered new lower control arms from Gaudin Jaguar and the job will be done tomorrow at All Jaguar in Orlando, Florida. I am also having the strut bushes redone at the same time and will provide a follow up on how things go.

Just a short note to say that the purchase experience with Gaudin Jaguar was excellent...very helpful people.

I would like to thank both Sam and H20 Boy for sharing there honest and candid experience in this regard as I know it will have saved me a lot of time, grief and $$$.

Thank You Gentlemen!

 

goldlion, you are very welcome...candid it appears, is all that the Reverend and I can convey. Did Gaudin give you the bad news that the price for the rears were actually much higher than their website indicated? Though I purchased my front arms w/ bushings installed, when the price for the rears went up to $450 each, I chose to do the ball joints and bushing R&R separately, and saved myself probably $200 each arm by going that route. It was economically justified when they were $250 each, but not at the new price. Thankfully, the front arms were still at the lower price.

Rev Sam, Regarding the ball joints, I ordered mine from britishparts.uk also, pretty sure they didn't have any jaguar labeling (can't remember)...yet they pressed into the new rear arm w/o any trouble, it was the removal of the original ones that gave my shop so much difficulty. You should be ok with those.

 

Uh why are ya'll replacing rear front lower control arms. For ball joints? New arms should come with new bushings already installed. And yes the xk takes a differant front bushing. But yrs ago when those were being replaced like hotcakes, the correct front wrent avail and rears were put in. They align fine without issues and the rear are even alittle stiffer and i really have yet to see one fail from cracking. Matter of fact the xk uses all 4 bushings the same, werent that way originally. They used a differant one then again when b/o rear put in, and then low and behold jaguar decided "hey these are pretty good and dont crack so lets use these in the fronts too" the rears have a rubber ridge in the center of the rubber bushing amke it less likely to crack and break. Also do not ever tighten the eccentric or any a arm bolt till the weight of the car is on the ground otherwise you preload the bushing and it twists and breaks when you put it down.
Also any of you with presses, if its gets as tight as Rev was describing, never ever keep going, what youre pressing in never should ever ever get hard or stop after starting. I can even tell when bushings/bearing are seated by feel and watching the pressure guage on the press(unless you have a cheaper one w/o a guage) you WILL destroy your press and parts

 

Ok, I'm a bit nervous after reading this.

So what should I do? Should I purchase the arms with bushings pre-installed or should I get the bushings... A paid mechanic will probably be doing this for me, so there will be additional costs.

And if I'm going with just getting the bushings I need for my 97, where should I get them from?

 

I have to say my choice on the bushings or the entire control arm would be Gaudin Jaguar. They have authentic Jag parts and they are very helpful. Opinions and advice on the Forum regarding a whole new lower control arm with bushings or re-bush and re-ball joint the old really varies from person-to-person. I have been told that replacing the bushes and the ball joints on the lower arms are really a PITA and you better have the right equipment. However, when I arrived at All Jaguar in Orlando, Fl today to have new lower arms installed I was told that they regularly press out and in lower ball joints and bushes and it is no big deal. Of course this is a second generation Jag repair shop. So, it sounds like it boils down to the experience and skill level of who is doing the job and as XKRacer would say: "As it so often happens". And, I have to agree with the cogent advice often given by the seasoned JagTechs on this Forum. If you are going to keep the car then you need to get off your wallet and do it right...almost always cheaper in the long run.

I will post picks and further advice when the work is done on my 2005 XKR Coupe: upper and lower bushings/control arms, strut tower bushings, TR ends and Nameless high flow cats. There goes my entertainment budget for the next few months.

 

Hi brutal, in my case, I had to replace the driver side ball joint because the boot was torn, and it was starting to groan. The passenger side lower arms were actually replaced with some another car's arms (had a big part number scrolled on it), the previous mechanic (not the dealer) decided it wasn't worth the time/effort to do the bushings right when I paid him to do it a year ago, they tore a bushing, I brought it back, they said they would replace it, and they ended up installing salvage parts. Then that power steering fluid leak (not just once, but twice leakage) absolutely ate my front bushing turning it into mush...and after 123,000 miles, it was time do freshen up the shocks, end links and tie rod ends, which were still all original (upper mount taken care of by the dealer a couple years ago). I wasn't about to just do one or the other, and not spend a little more time and money for the rest while it was apart. That just didn't seem right.

Xeno, you can feel good about ordering from either Gaudin (JPAM) or Nalley Jaguar, both are forum sponsors. Pricing is very comparable, Gaudin sometimes will hit you with a little larger shipping rate, where anything over $25 from Nalley is shipped UPS free. You can't go wrong from either source.

As goldlion mentioned, its a matter of how much experience they have, and what you expect to pay a shop to do the work. The indy shop (british cars are the staple) that I intended to do this work never charges me less than $330 for any one item of work (shock replacement - labor only, oil line, power steering line...all in that same $300 'neighborhood' each one), and for that amount per side, I felt it more advantageous to buy the front arm with the bushing installed.