There is a source on ebay (US state side) that has the complete set of the rear lower arm bushings and his supplier guarantees the bushings to fit the X308 vehicles (1997 - 2003) but he does not know whether they fit the X350 and particularly the XJR version.

Anyone knows if these bushings are compatible between X350 and X308?

 

For your enjoyment. My goal is to source these things so that I can replace them.

This is the rear of the two bushings - length


This is the rear of the two bushings - outer diameter


This is the rear of the two bushings - inner diameter


This is the front bushing - It is 59mm in length as opposed to the rear one which is 54mm. Outer and inner diameters are identical to the rear one


This is the other rear bushing - it has the composition of an engine mount - much more sturdier than the other two. All three should have been like this one.

 

The key dimension is the distance between the two inner spacers on the bushes. I think it is 280mm, but check before pressing out.

The X308 rear suspension is completely different as I understand it, and bushes are not the same on each of the two model series.

 

Yeah forget about the X308...

However....

The post 2003 S-Type has identical suspension hardware (apart from the air shocks) and the X150 XK as well as the X250 XF have the same wishbones in the back.

X202, X350, X150, X250 = same wishbones

 

I'm watching your progress with great interest, Lagonia, since I'm sure I'll need to do the same work on our '04.

I've only done a little research on this subject in the past, but I believe there must be industrial suppliers who can sell bushes according to their critical dimensions. Metalastik and Novibra are two brand names of the kinds of bushes used in Jag suspensions. (note that Metalastic with a "c" is a paint product).

Here are just a few documents that came up when I googled Metalastik:

http://www.bancroftwestern.com/assets/pdfs/VP_UD.pdf

Home: Anti-Vibration Methods

Starting at page 50 of this document:

http://www2.renkulde.no/mkdokume.nsf/41323DB31D6AEE95C1257059003E76B3/$FILE/Teknisk-katalog-Novibra-Metalastik-engelsk.pdf


Some other links that may be relevant:

http://www.trelleborg.com/upload/Ind...P%20&%20UD.pdf

http://www.robush.co.uk/pdf/1519%20Robush.pdf

Vibration Isolators | Mackay Consolidated

Cheers,

Don

 

These lower rear arms have two "ball joint" type joints, and one "silentboc" type. The latter rarely if ever fails, although it will eventually need replacing, but nobody has yet found out when as far as I am aware. I would be wary of replacing the ball-jointed types with anything different. These joints are now freely available on the internet at reasonable prices. Incidentally, the XF and the XK and, I think, the later XJ also has these joints.They are made in their thousands. Use of very low profile tyres shortens their life IMHO, due to high frequency road-generated vibration not being filtered out by the tyres. The tyre walls are too stiff to do this.

 

Fraser,

That's a very interesting analysis and makes a lot of sense.

Cheers,

Don