Hmmm...Interesting you are both in Texas.
Wondering if it is something about Texas that makes them last longer ?

 

certainly you know that everthing is bigger and better in Texas?

wj

 

I know that pride is bigger in Texas than anywhere.

 

touche

 

Rothwell,

Pride is not the only thing that's BIG in Texas!! Apparently there's a BIG Pothole somewhere near Austin ….I checked with my Jaguar Dealer and they have Part # MJA2170BD the Left Upper Mount for $205.56 Each.....Thank Heaven I've not had to buy one yet! How much is the one from Welch? Wonder how it holds up in Texas? Has anyone other than the Boy's from Texas ever put more than 110,000 miles on a Upper Mount? HEE - HEE!

Billy Clyde

 

Perhaps Texans are just better at driving and avoiding them.

I think a pair of Welch's were about $150.

Also think that if I was not the DIY repair type then I would strongly consider using OEM mounts due to potential long term labor savings.

 

Rothwell, Since you are so sold on Welch's Upper Shock Mounts....I decided to go there and price them out! I mean after-all I'm going to need a set soon according to everyone....Well! What I found was actually (2) things! They offer (2) types of Shock Mounts:
1. Upper Shock Mounts (pair) MJA-2170-BD for $149.95
2. Upper Stock Mount MJA-2170-BD (Urethane) $133.95 each
I assume you have been talking about the Urethane Mount that Welch offers rather than the Cheaper one's included above....The Urethane ones are around $55.00 Cheaper or $110.00 per pair than Jaguar....That is an eye opener....if as you say, "They are at least equal in quality." Jaguar doesn't state what their product is made of; although you would assume (Urethane) but it could be anything.....

Thanks for all the fun and additional knowledge!
I enjoyed it!

Billy Clyde in Houston

 

Actually, Welsh no longer offers the foam mounts. Only urethane. The bush material is colored black. For some odd reason, the price for the single mount is almost the same as for the pair. Last time, I bought the pair via their Ebay page at $135 using a discount coupon and with free shipping. Otherwise, the price would have been the $149.95.

At those prices, I don’t know why anyone would buy the single mount, but two years ago the single mount was at about $85 each. I don’t know why the price for it increased.

To be clear, the $149.95 pair is urethane. If you read the description, they state it as an “upgrade” shock mount. So in fact, the savings are greater.

Don’t buy two of the $133.95 part unless you want to give away money.

 

The Texas situation begs the question; does the deteriorations have more to do with environmental conditions than road conditions? Maybe even how often you drive in wet conditions might greatly effect the life of these mounts. I have a 116K miles on my 2006 XK8 and I drove it to the shop just an hour ago to have the front shocks and and upper front shock mounts replaced. I have a great technician here on the island where I live. He is charging me 3 hours labor at $90 an hour. So, $420 in parts and $270 in labor for a total of $690. The Jag dealer in Ft Myers wanted $1620 to replace the mounts and shocks.

You can do it yourself, but you are going to need a spring clamp. You can get one of those from O'Reilly's. Just give them a tool deposit. Of course they want you to buy something from them. I bought my shocks and mounts online.

 

Just another bit of data regarding Uro mounts. I installed mine in December of 2017 and they went bad sometime earlier this year so they lasted around 3-3.5 years and 30k miles. Just in the last week they really went south and clunk pretty badly. Time to do this job again :-( It was doable back then but somewhat of a pain to get the spring compressed. Definitely going with the Welsh mounts this time around.

Quick question for everyone, I have 110k now on the XKR so would you guys recommend I also replace the springs? The ride height is definitely a little low even after I refreshed the shock mounts three years ago. Also, any other obvious front suspension items I should replace/refresh while doing the job?

Also, I think I might be better off by replacing the shocks as there is a slight creak in them. Has anyone had any luck putting non-adaptive shocks in the XKR? I tried to find some posts dedicated to this topic but to no avail.

Thanks!

Corey

 

Really???????
read this if you have the time
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...mounts-233892/


wj

 

I have a 1990 Jaguar XJS,,, and for a list of reasons which started in the doggone 70s,,, (lots to do with the US automotive industry,,, fuddy duddy 'patriotic' mechanics in the USA,,, politicians screaming about a foreign car (and other products) invasion,,, putting Americans out of work etc +++++) the XJS (Jaguars generally) were frowned on, neglected, abused and COMPLETELY demonized. Mechanics still refuse to work on them - and can't.... A huge and haunting set of misconceptions and false ideas grew and remain to this day. It's a shame.

My XJS is a PLEASURE to work on.

To this day Jaguars are undervalued near across the board for just this reason.

Talk today about URO parts (and others) reminds me of this process around a product.

There is a GREAT and knowledgeable guy that I deal with for my 928... He deals in Uro parts for the 928 and often will put them side by side with an OE part from Porsche or from some "reputable" producer on his site. The Uro parts come in at a fraction of the cost, and are fine...he knows this. Many do.

I am always amazed at what drives these kinds of ideas about,,,, products...

 

.... And yet many folks here have had significant poor-quality issues with various URO parts, including me. Count yourself fortunate....

 

Having had to replace URO hoses and bushes months after installation did it for me. Not worth the risk.

 

Oh and just to update everyone on the Welsh mounts that I used to replace my failed URO mounts the Welsh mounts failed within maybe 3-5 months. It is ridiculous. The good news is that Welsh is standing behind them and replacing them but that is little consolation considering we will have to do this all over again.

 

Recent URO's on the 03. They are already starting to fail. Not a good solution. Contact Wayne Tate (cjd777) if you want a high quality custom made set that will last.

 

I have been following these upper shock mount discussions for some time now since this is something I really need to get around doing. The car is about to turn 60,000 miles and it has been low in the front for some time, presumably due largely to the foam disintegrating in the original mounts. But I don't have any noticeable clunks or other noises--just problems with the underside of the front bumper scraping the road at dips (roads in LA area are like a third world country). What gets me is that as engineer, this hardly seems like rocket science. We are talking about a hunk of some material to go between two pieces of metal. How difficult can it be to design something cheap and reliable that only serves this simple purpose???

Doug

 

It can be built.
IMO, it is all about the profit margin.Since the material ages and is affected by its working environment, compromises are made.

The oem material was probably the best solution but given that you cannot be assured of the manufacture date of the elastomer material even oem has become a crap shoot.

I’ll go with Wayne or Baxtor when I pull my welsh mounts.


wj

 

Being in NYC I can SO relate to the 3rd world country idea... I could go on and on about how we are not investing in our infrastructure in the USA, and seem satisfied with this for some reason. It's coast to coast... It's getting bad on several levels. Anyways.

Yeah, NYC roads. Recently changed my front 02 XK shocks (they were bad) and reused the upper URO mounts. I looked at them on and off the car. The LH was a little off center on car, the RH fine. Ride height was fine. As to be expected the mounts were a bit squished. Popped them back in with new shocks, both sides centered on install and still are. This was 3, 4 months ago.

I did the job with the help of a friend who has a BRANICK 7600 (I NEED one of these things, omgoodness) who races XJS's Porsches etc and builds them in his garage. Anyways, he looked at them and said not to worry or bother. That the amount of travel at the BOTTOM of the shock can easily take the top of the shock OUT of center - no big deal. Some crazy physics equation, lol. Nah, not me.

Anyways. I ain't married to URO,,, or any parts producers parts, but I'm wondering what a "failed" 2 or 3 month old mount looks like or is considered failed, and on what basis? Maybe I have failed mounts and just don't know it???

I also put a set of URO mounts on the lake diving XKR... So yeah,,, what is a mount failure?

​​​​​

 

Different brands of upper shock mounts fail in different ways. The OEM ones crumble to dust. The aftermarket ones break apart or squish down to nearly nothing. I can live with a certain amount of ride harshness in these cars but when the alignment geometry changes enough to begin causing uneven tire wear due to failing shock mounts, that is the primary issue with me. Your opinion may be different....