Hi guys. I just lowered my s type r using H&R springs. I'm noticing more noise now that it's lowered. More specifically, I'm hearing some clunking like something is loose when I go over rough roads and bumps.

Today I took the wheels off and checked that all the bolts were to spec and they seem fine. I have it coming from the front and the rear of the car on the left side. I tried to make sure that I had the collars at the top of the shock/spring combination lined up correctly when I reinstalled them.

I heard sway bar bushings can make these sounds, but also that the upper shock mount rubber can as well. Anyone notice this on your s type after changing the springs?

 

man, I must have missed a spacer or something. There's way too much bouncing type sound when I'm on rough, bumpy roads. It's like my shocks are blown out, but they're not... They were fine 100 miles ago. I'm pretty sure it's just off the front left. Could I have forgotten something?

I checked the 4 bolts at the top of the shock tower. I checked the stabilizer bar and the big 20mm shock mount. Are there any spacers on the stabilizer bar that I could have missed? Arrg!!!

 

Hard to say qwik, did you unbolt the sway bar, or the end links?

Lift the car up on that corner, then place a jack stand under the lower control arm, get it loaded about 75% by lowering the jack, and then go after the suspension parts, moving them if possible. I could not hear my lower shock bushing until I did this (by hitting up on the bottom of the shock mount) that was deteriorated and rattling around on up and down travel of the shock...pretty annoying. (you can hear my video in the xk8 area) until it was loaded. When it was just hanging, it was solid.

 

so I did a little testing and took the driver's side front wheel off yesterday.

First I drove the car and tried to swerve side to side to see if I heard any swaybar noise. I didn't hear anything.

I then took off the wheel and got under the car to look at things. It looks like there was a slight misalignment of the stabilizer bar. I was cleaning my garage the other day after finishing up and I found 2 little washer/spacer looking things that are of nice material. The sizing of them is such that there is only one place where they could possibly fit in the suspension off my jag(they're about a 3/8" size hole through the middle). They're about 1/4" think, so they're thicker than a standard washer. I'd say about equivalent to 3 or 4 stacked up. I'm starting to think that I missed putting these back in. I'll post pictures later this morning.

On the lower part of the stabilizer link, next to the shock mount there is a bolt that holds everything together. There is a bushing on the lower a arm if I recall (or on the stabilizer link). I noticed that most of the other bushings have a similar colored washer in between the bushing and the metal surface of the part it's connected to. So, maybe these washers are my culprit!

With them in, the link would probably align better as well. Fortunately, these are one of the first things you remove when lowering a car!

 

installed the washer and there is no difference. The sounds are still there like my shocks are shot. Frustrating.... I'm stumped.

 

Did you try my technique from above qwik?

 

I lowered my x type with H&R springs and I too get some wierd noises sometimes. I never heard noises like this before but I guess its just part of lowering the car. If you come up with anything please let me know because we are in the same boat.

 

okay, so here's an update.

I had the front left wheel off twice this week. That's wehre the bulk of the sounds/noise/clunking is coming from. I double checked everything with the suspension unsprung and with it compressed at and above normal ride height. I didn't see anything loose at any of the times. There's no play in the suspension when just moving stuff by hand.

So, it sounds like it may either be a bushing or the actual shock. Are there any companies that make replacement bushings for our suspension or do I have to buy all Jag stuff?

I'm going to live with it for now, but man, it's annoying.

On a different note, anyone ever hear of the plastic sheild on the shock ever making noise? I'm talking about the compressible plastic thing that sheilds the sliding part of the strut from getting dirty(dust shield)?

 

this is a bit of a guess ,bit did you use the same shocks,maybe the piston in the shock is bottoming out .

come across this ,the bit about the cats damper retune

We have a new sport suspension set up for all post 2002 S-Types that we'd like to fit to some cars for final conformation. This is an XF derived tune but as most of the suspension is common only some subtle tweaking is neccessary to suit the S-Type.

The set up includes new springs (made by Eibach to our designs) which lower cars by 15mm (any lower and the ride deteriorates) and matching dampers (made by Bilstein and tuned by us in conjunction with them) to suit the springs and give a modern sporting tune.

We'd like to try V6, 2.7D and V8 (ideally well looked after cars with 17" or 18" wheels) passive set ups and we also have an S-Type R specific set up with a new CATS damper tune. All parts will carry our normal warranty.

 

The weird thing is it's really only happening on the left side of the car. Granted theres 180 more pounds on that side of the car, but I can't imagine it making that big of a difference.

What's the S type R specific CATS damper tune? So what you're saying is you have a different set of CATS compatible shocks that you sub in that are more suitable for a lowered car?