I have read around 60,000 miles the suspension bushings start to go/wear out.

With my new to me 08 xj at about 75,000 miles i am going to begin checking replacing bushings/mounts / isolaters.

Can someone prioritize the bushings as far as which ones commonly go first to the ones that are less likely or last to wear out.

understandably driving habits could influence the wear , but in general.

my goal would be to start at the top of the list and slowly but surely work down the list.

 

Hi Sownlo

Based on my own experience, the ball-type joints in the rear lower wishbones fail first and at quite low mileages, in my case at around 46k miles. Jaguar made themselves a pile of trouble with these wishbones as they bushes were not made available separately for "safety reasons". Jaguar then charged about £450 for a complete arm, so if a bush had gone each side you were looking at £900 just for the parts !! However, as always in the auto parts business, these wishbones became available on the internet at prices less than half those from Jaguar main agents. Mine cost £190 each when I had them replaced in October 2011.
My local independent workshop have told me the later wishbones as are fitted to later X350s and also the current XJ and also the XF have been improved with now only a single ball-joint and the one that commonly wore out is now a silentbloc type like the third joint always was.
The failures of the bushes in these wishbones caused a lot of aggravation mainly due to the very short life and the ey-watering price of a replacement. My term for this as "unfair wear and tear".
However this problem seems now to have been put to bed by Jaguar. The rear upper wishbone bushes are long-lived but if failed, the full wishbone has to be purchased.

The other short-life bushes are those at the bottom of the air suspension struts. These four bushes together take the full weight of the car, so a long life can never be achieved on the current design. However, the bushes are not expensive items at around £20 a pop, (on the internet). Labour to replace the rears is not a lot, but the front bushes are mounted on the lower wishbone straight arm, so the strut has to come off as must the arm to press-out the old bush and press the new one in. Not normally a time-consuming thing, except that workshops have found the bolt securing the air strut to the lower arm via the bush can seize in the bush. This means extra labour time in dismantling, and in some cases, sawing the bolt off.

As for the other bushes, they normally are fairly long lived, but the front lower trunnion joint on the lower wishbone, (called the "banana arm" as it's curved), can fail and if ignored the wheels toe out in motion wearing out the tyres on the inside shoulders. These joints are not expensive and fairly easy to replace. Better than spending money on tyres !!

When it comes to the traditional steel ball joints, there are two per side on the front suspension, one on the top wishbone and one on the hub carrier upright. This latter connects to the lower wishbone These are very long lived, but like most modern suspensions, replacing is not simple. On the top wishbone, the ball joint is not available separately so the whole arm must be purchased. The lower balljoint can be purchased but pressing the joint in and out is extremely difficult for the amateur mechanic and difficult for a shop, who need the exact kit to be available, and this is not cheap. Most people have to buy the full upright with its balljoint.
What normally causes these ball-joints to fail is failure of the protective rubber boot. This allows in water and salt, leading to early failure. It is important to check these boots regularly, as new ones can be bought for very little money.

Roll-bar bushes last a long time but will eventually fail and cause noise and vibration.

 

sounds like the four at the bottom of each airshock are a good place to start.