I am disappointed in the lifespan the Welsh Urethane Shock Mounts I installed on my XKR had. These have been touted as the best solution for our Jags. Either they have had a drop in quality or I am just unlucky.

Urethane Welsh shock mounts bought on November 19, 2018

• Part Number: MJA2170BD
• Installed on December 22, 2018, Mileage 67,231
• Failure detected on April, 25, 2020: Mileage: 74,575

They lasted 7,344 miles during a span of 1 year and 4 months. In fact, the driver’s side lasted less because they exchanged it under warranty on July 12, 2019 when the Jag had 70,055 miles on it.

If you ask me, that is **** poor performance. I can’t speak to them today because it’s Saturday, but I will be calling on Monday to see if they are willing to work with me on this.

I am disappointed to say the least. I expected at least five years from these. The rest of my suspension is also polyurethane from Powerflex and has held up remarkably well.

If anyone knows of a longer lasting part, I am willing to consider it. These pictures should do the talking for me now.



Driver’s side



Passenger Side

 

I notice the driver side shock is off centre, is this the result of the failure or was it installed that way?

 

obviously the failure

 

Daniel your failure looks to be similar to mine where the inner donut is the one that gave up.

I attributed my failure to me hitting a deep hole in the road. Wondering if you did something like that too?

Regardless the inner donuts are too easily damaged. Its an issue they need to fix.

On the "other" OE mounts the outer donut seemed to be the early failure. Perhaps a blend of poly outer foam inner would be a winner.

I complained to Welsh when I ordered my 2nd set of theirs. Got zero sympathy.

 

The roads here are f'ed up. It is within the real of possibility that I did hit a pothole.

 

Fairly good roads here and we avoid potholes like the plague. This car is rarely driven at night so pothole avoidance is much easier for us. Our Welsh components were installed in early January 2016 and they continue to look and function perfectly....

 

I have Uro-parts units waiting to go in. I'm working on the front suspension now and will change them before putting the struts back on and I'll let ya know how it works out. These are the one with yellow cushion rings, Rockauto.

 

Changing these top mounts and redoing my front suspension is high on my priority list.I could use new tires but, decided to do my suspension first so I don't ruin a new tire/tires if something is out of whack when completed.Have to say though that failure is unacceptable for a replacement and it has me thinking I should wait it out a bit longer. Other than some height loss (3/4") the car tracks and handles perfectly with good even tire wear.

Thanks, Giandaniel for the update and post. I wouldn't be happy either.

 

Andrew, not a bad job, are you doing the lower shock mount or replacing the whole thing?.
Start spraying your top inside bushing with WD40 or what ever you use now. That salt air could have the long bolt locked on the outer barrel of the bushing. Also those little shims, keep them in order and that washer needs to slide out of the way, so keep it free.
The lower arms can get more serious, painful comes to mind, if doing ball joints.
Wayne

 

Hey Wayne

Well I am at some point going to do top mounts, shocks, A frame bushings and ball joints. Don't worry when I get closer to doing it I will be hitting you and Jon up for some guidance. Believe it or not my car is very clean underneath as far as I know it has been garaged by all previous owners. It's also a was in North Carolina (Raleigh area) most of it's life and I live about a 5-7 minutes from the ocean so no corrosion issues. That said I will start hitting all areas with PB Blaster everyday for a week before jumping in. Hope all is well looking forward to getting together at some point in the fall. Hope all is well

Cheers!

Andrew.

 

No suggestion this is the case here but it's not necessarily so obvious. I have seen a few off centre assemblies of that top mount as fitted.
The small donut can hang up without a little lube on assembly. Seems to be just with the poly.

 

In my case, when I had installed them, neither mount was off-centered. If you look closely at the passenger side mount, you will notice that the urethane is lacerated at the edge at the 11 o'clock position. You may need to zoom to see it well.

 

Can I highjack this thread for a second?? How does everyone get the old control arm bushings OUT?? I'm puzzled as to how to push them out with a press.
The tops are a piece of cake. Also I had to torch the hell out of one lower ball joint/steering hub to get it out. now I'm painting things too.
For the life of me I can't seem to search up the pics of some members posts on how the did it. Thanks, TM

 

Upper just pop out. Lower require brute force. There are several writeups on the forum. Just search lower control arm .

 

this might help..

 

Oh the brute force I'm aware of, it's the fixturing/mandrel/tool for pressing them out is what I was looking for. I thinkI give the chisel trick a try first. This is not a particularly difficult job, depending on your skill/experience/ facilities. It's getting the GD thing apart that is the tough part. Of course that is without destroying the parts you want to reuse. LOL.
I took the knuckle and lower control arm to a friends machine shop and we had to torch the devil out of it to get the ball joint to pop. Looks like I'm painting all the parts now.

Also thanks for the link the the article about removal. TM

 

I spoke to Amy from Welsh today regarding the shock mounts. I gave her the original invoice as well as pictures of both shock mounts and evidence of the mileage on them. She was sympathetic to my situation, however, because it is past the 1 year mark, she said she would have to get her boss, Dave Welsh, to make the final decision. Due to the coronavirus situation, she was the only person in the facilities today. She forwarded all the information and my email to Mr. Welsh. I am awaiting his final decision.

Until I hear back from Welsh, I don't know if I'll be buying a new part, getting a replacement from them, or attempting to fabricate my own. I want to give their polyurethane mounts another try. I really do think a couple bad potholes that I couldn't avoid are what broke them. The roads here are terrible. It's like driving on the surface of the moon.

On a positive note, although their mounts have failed, my ride height has not been affected and thus my tires are not being worn on the inner edge. That alone is one reason why I still recommend them. I would rather pay for new mounts than pay for new mounts and tires.

 

I got no sympathy from Welsh. They said that it was past the 1 year warranty.

Should I bite the bullet and buy a new pair of shock mounts from them?

 

I wouldnt

 

The OEM mounts last several years and may be better suited to your road conditions.