Starting with: I am not to be held responsible, if I inspire you with this DIY Guide and it leads to damage or injury... - This is very important here, Because I did infact damage my Shock Absorber Top Mount... But now I know better and I would like to "tell" you what went wrong... - and how to do it right. You'll need a hydraulic press...

X308, XJ8 - sovereign, 3.2L, AJ27, 1998/99

I tried to find alternatives to buying complete new top mounts, just because that rubber part disintegrates. Seems to be a common problem - obviously...: Rubber and heat (heat from the engine) don't mix. I found that there is or was a kit of replacement rubber parts, which however apparently was not much cheaper than buying the complete new assembly. That's disturbing... Thus: I found those generic "Circular Rubber Damping Pad" on Aliexpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...26251802oApto3

The exact size, which is required for the X308 is not really there, but I bought a whole lot of 50x20x12 (OD x thickness x ID). They cost next to nothing.
I increased the inner hole size a little bit and I cut a slice off with a cutter knife (Don't cut your fingers off!) to make it a tad thinner - and then to perfect the cut-off-surface I went over it with a sander-angle-grinder...:


That seems to be a standard sight... - I did not appreciate that...


Before you remove all the bolts, jack up the car to the point just BEFORE the tyre would lift off. You can fine-adjust later as you need it. (Don't be confused that I start with the right top mount and I jack up the left side (the picture is from later, when I removed the left top mount...)
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I could not find a strong spanner small enough to hold the shock in position (so I took a big adjustable spanner, while I removed the nut with a size 17 spanner (I applied WD40 or similar before). Nothing will happen, when you remove that nut with the jack underneath as described.


Next I removed the 5 bolts: Lift-off! The rubber underneath does actually not look that bad at all - that is because it is/was heat-protected...


Now that does not work: I used a small socket and an hydraulic press - it looked like that core in there could be moved. But I figured soon, that this would not be possible from the underside, because the inner core is one part with the outer core - well: It is one and the same part.


But that worked: I used that same small socket from the upper side and pushed that core thru to the effect that the huge top washer came loose.


Left: OE part from underneath - Middle: Modified new part with a slice cut off - right: new part, as it arrived.


That's what it looks like - the 2 big washers and the core. Note the "curb" at the end of the core, which faces upwards: This curb hold the upper ring in position.


NOW THIS IS CRITICAL and difficult...: To get it right (refitting that huge washer back on, that is) it needs a lot of patience...: The trick is to make 100% sure that the washer is absolutely centered when it touches the "core". And this is very difficult, because the core is about 5mm below the top surface of the rubber. In preparation I took the assy above the other way round (without the washer) and pressed carefully until everything was a bit neater together. Then as you see it above, I pressed it carefully, lifted the press up again to double check, if I would have hit the centre, and down again, up again, down again, etc. until I had the feel for it and was very sure that I would hit the centre of the core with the big washer... It worked alright the SECOND time (left side). However, sadly, I smashed the core of the right top mount completely. But I was kind of lucky, that there was 1 single affordable complete RHS assy. available on ebay from the US. I can drive the X308 though, until the part arrives.


Yes, this worked. New rubber on top.


I could have also put a new rubber underneath, but that one still looked alright, so I left it.


Assembled... It kind of looks better than before...

 

Neat. How's the ride quality with them? Any differences, esp in the cold?

Forever ago you could buy poly bushing kits as replacements for those foam pieces, for peanuts. They tend to harden up and squeak+rattle in cold weather, so I replaced them with the foam ones and I think gave the rebuilt ones to another forum member.
Back then I didn't have a press, so I think I knocked out the hollow shaft with a socket and a drilled piece of wood as the backing plate (to break it loose from the upper washer), then used a DIY socket press to squeeze all the new parts back together.

 

Maybe, if I did not have had a press, I might have gotten a better feel for the task at hand first (to press the parts back together). I am not sure if I would have managed to actually put the assy back together again without press (I might have tried a vice), but then I may have bought a press (had I failed with a vice - assuming I had not have had a press) with a better idea of what to do - so that I had not destroyed the "core" part. (I hope, these sentences are now correct grammatically with all the "woulds" and tenses...

The "ride" is as before. All good - even though I am driving currently with the right top mount (with new rubber parts) not being pressed together (since the core is buggered). Waiting for the new part to arrive from the US.

I would not and never will know, if I would encounter any noises in the cold. We never have any "cold" here, ...except the occasional "runny nose"...
It never gets below 0°C here, and only very rarely below 10°C.

 

Thank you for this. My '02 XJ8 looks exactly like your before picture. I'm not going to attempt to do it myself but it's good to be educated when I take it to the shop.

 

@ Roxy: If you intention is do bring it to a shop...: Will you tell them to replace the rubber bits only or the complete assy?
Cause it is a consideration: Cost versus swapping rubber parts in shop only and cost of DIY replacing the complete assys (=top mounts)?
Shop for a cheap source of those complete parts. Because doing that complete assy change is no problem at all.