I discovered after driving the new to me '03 ST that the upper ball joint dust boots on both sides are now torn up. I suspect exposure to the cold weather took them over the edge as this was formerly a Florida car. I did a little research and found someone here had measured the ball joint and found a what looks like a very close match to the OEM boots on ebay:

2 x High Quality Rubber 15 30 23 Dust Cover and Ball Joint Boots | eBay

So I have ordered a set and will test fit them and report back. I can secure them using zip ties in place of the metal clamps on the old ones. My ball joints are fine as are the upper control arm bushings so to have to replace the entire upper control arm for torn up boots seems wasteful. Torn boots on the ball joints are considered a fail for state safety inspection here so something has to be done. If this is successful I will let everyone know.

Has anyone else run across a replacement for the boots?

 

Good luck on this. I replaced both upper control arms on my '03 kitty. Cost about $480 in parts. 1aauto.com sells some aftermarket control arms for dirt cheap, but you may get what you pay for there (but it is an option if the eBay and zip-tie method doesn't work out for you)

 

I have seen various aftermarket suspension parts for these cars and based upon my observations it looks like Lemforder may be the OEM supplier to Jaguar as the parts from them appear identical to the OE parts. I recently replaced a tie rod end with a Lemforder part which was indistinguishable from the original except for the price. If the boot replacement proves to be a problem I would probably order Lemforder replacement arms at around $140 each and replace them but like I said, the rest of the arms and ball joint are fine. If they made the arms easier to replace I probably would just do it but it looks like the struts have to come out in order to get those control arm bolts out so making it such a big job has gotten me to consider alternatives.

The key to securing the boots is to not clamp them too tightly to the grooves and put a little grease under them so they can twist a little without tearing. My car was a Florida car so the rubber is probably a little more brittle and dry rotted than it would be from around here. I had this same issue with a Mercedes SL a few years ago but Mercedes was kind enough to supply the boots separately so replacing them was not an issue. Those replacement boots actually came with zip ties to secure them as I recall.

 

Indeed, unless someone knows of a better way, I had to drop the struts to get the control arms out -- probably the "hardest" part of a well-less-than-an-hour job.

 

If you can replace the upper control arms on one of these cars in "well under an hour" I envy you. It seems that every "simple" job I try takes me half a day, at least!

In any event I will report back on the boot replacement either way.

 

As an update to this post I finally got to replace the torn up boots on my S-T and the replacement boots fit fine. I basically removed the old boots and their retainers, cleaned up the exposed ball joint and applied some fresh grease and stretched the new boot up over the ring. The metal retaining rings on the top and bottom of the old boot that can be re-used, just remove them carefully and the top one might have to be clipped a little to get it to fit back in. All in all it saved me from having to replace the upper arm for what was only a torn rubber boot. So far so good.

The bad news is upon close inspection of the rear suspension it appears that not only are the same boots bad back there but every bit of rubber looks to be perished! That means bushings, stabilizer and control arms all would need replacement (unless the bushings and boots can be sourced separately). The rest of the rubber in the front end seems OK but the rear rubber is shot! OUCH!

 

Yes I see this all the time. Our cars are all 10+ years old and the rubber boots are split.

Still hoping to see individual lower ball joints for the 2003+ cars get released!

We had a guy who got some but that turned out to be an inside deal not available to the public.
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You don't think these will fit?
2 Front Lower Ball Joint Jaguar s Type Stype 04 09 | eBay

Or these?
Welsh Enterprises, Inc - Jaguar S-Type Front Suspension Parts - Front Ball Joint - XJ8 04-06 S-Type 02-06

 

Well they have a few errors in the listing so I am a bit unsure?

The Ebay listing should have started at 2003 but it starts at 2004?
The Welsh ones say 2002-2006 but for the S Type it should read 2003-2008?

The Welsh listing only goes up to N52047 so are they saying after that SN the ball joint changed again? Maybe that's why they stop at 2006?

I hope those are right. Has anyone installed them?

But what a great price!! Only $30-$35 each compared to the entire lower arm price.
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There was mid model year change from older design to the new design so eBay seller took the safe route and listed for 2004 on wards. This is my guess.

Welsh probably looked at global design release and saw that Jaguar released the new design beginning in 2002 so they took the aggressive approach and listed 2002 on wards. Again, my guess.

I studied the pictures of the knuckle where this ball joint is pressed into and I'm not sure how it will fit into a hydraulic press to press the old one out and press the new one in. There isn't good way to hold the knuckle that I can picture in my head. If I could get my hands on an old knuckle(spindle) to play with on my press I may be able to figure it out.

 

That's a good point and I have a 20T press so I would be interested in how it's done too.

Maybe a special spacer or bushing to adapt to the Jaguar arm?
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This shows it's awkward access to the ball joint. It needs to be pushed out from bottom side and I don't see how to brace it on a press.
To get a new one on, I can see using ball joint C-clamp to do that.

 

I used these 15-30-23 boots on my upper ball joints. I purchased them from the same eBay seller mentioned at the beginning of this thread. My ball joints were fine but starting to show signs of water and dirt intrusion from the torn up old boots. Good save for a total of $8, including shipping. It's hard to believe those not in the know pay $1K+ for both arms and labor for a couple of cheap boots.

Note that the seller is in Bulgaria. He shipped promptly and it took about 2-1/2 weeks for delivery in California.

 

 

Here are some poly boots of the same size:

2X Polyboots Ball Joint and Tie Rod End Dust Boots 15x30x23 mm Replacement Boots | eBay


Tom in Plano/Dallas
2005 S-Type 3.0 88k

 

I just purchased several sets of the boots. In the advertisement section below are a pair of complete arms for $75.99.
Front Upper Control Arms w Ball Joints Pair Set New for Ford Jaguar Lincoln | eBay

At this price, I don't know if it is worth the effort to swap out the boots only. I went ahead and purchase 2 pairs. We'll see if they are Lemforder or some other lesser copies.

 

The bolts in the front uppers are the worst more so the driver side lol. that back driver side bolt is a bitch...

 

Unless you have problems with the control arms- you have a job of many hours and details on the drivers side, plus you have to remove spring and struts. So a few minutes and under 10 dollars makes a huge amount of sense. I would only remove the upper control arms if I were replacing the struts at the same time and I have no problems with mine.

Tom in Dallas/Plano

 

Interesting. I've completely taken apart the front suspension on 2 of my 3 S-types. My 2000 and 2004 STR. Doesn't take more than hour per side. Might have taken 1-1/2 hours per side, first time I did it years ago.

Not much too it. Upper and lower ball joints connected to the spindle, 2 bolts each per upper and lower control arms, one bolt holding the coilover to the lower control arm, 4 bolts holding the coilover to the frame. One bolt holding the steering rod knuckle/ball joint to the spindle. 2 bolts holding the caliper to the spindle. Sway-bar mount.

Removing the suspension Pre 2003:

Take off the wheel, remove the caliper and hang it to the side, remove the rotor. Loosen/ almost remove all the ball joint nuts, then separate all of the ball joints. (Proper tools help here, otherwise a PITA and you damage all the rubber boots.) Loosen but don’t take apart yet.
Loosen the lower bolt holding the coilover to the lower A-arm. Remove the sway par mount.
Remove the nuts and bolts holding the upper A-arm to the frame. The rear bolt are sometime difficult to remove. Almost remove the bolts holding the lower A-arm.
Loosen the 4 nuts holding the coilover to the frame. (Inside the engine compartment)
You should be able to pull on the spindle and pull the upper control arm away from the frame.
Remove it from the spindle. The spindle will now drop away from the lower control arm and can be removed. The coilover will be holding up the lower control arm. In either order take off the 4 nuts holding the coilover to the frame and then the lower bolt, remove the coilover. Remove the 2 bolts holding the lower control arm.

Done! To replace the upper a-arm you still have to do about 80% of the work as removing all the suspension.

On the 03 and later almost the same , but the lower control arm is 2-pieces and the ball joint is reversed onto the spindle

 

You are gifted with those talents and I assume that you have done this before on other cars, so you have gone through the first time learning curves, have all the correct tools and presses. For us that do much work on cars and (I am sure you have been here) some jobs that should be an hour (especially when done the first time) ( I have an Alldata account and for some of what you are talking about they have you having to have tools to lift the suspension that the average person would not have)- end up being 6 hours and if you need the car to function- well you know the story.

If all he needs are the boots and nothing else is the problem, a simple 15 minute job per side is much easier than having to have the car towed to be fixed properly. I guess there are different levels of experience and ability and that has to be taken into account.

Tom in Dallas/Plano