I had finally mounted my new tires and the dealer did a 4 wheel alignment. They said I needed the following:


both rear sway bar links
both rear toe links
both rear upper control arms
both lower control arms

Parts cost $ 2670.00
Labor cost $ 1650.00


has anyone encountered this repair before? I have less than 20k miles on the lady. thoughts?

 

I should note the car drives as new. I think this seems a bit pricey but it may be warranted?

 

Sounds like you just need the rubber booties replaced. Dang things are made from cheapy cheap rubber that dry rots and falls apart exposing the joint. Most of the joints in the back are a teflon like plastic under the booties. There are folks on eBay selling replacements but no one has compiled a list of which ones we need. I'm going to try and do it this summer when I can ride the bike to work daily instead of the car.

 

Stabilizer links $18/ea
Lower Control Arm $140/ea
Upper Control Arm $107/ea


Priced from RockAuto


You figure out if your getting ripped from there...

 

seems like the dealer places a high value on their source of parts

i don't drive the car much but i must say it drives fantastic after the tires and alignment. i think i will pass on their offer to empty my wallet to the tune of $4k+!!

 

Pete I've personally encountered and replaced rear drop links and toe links on 3 separate xk/r

Of the 3 only one showed signs of the bushes starting to crack on the lower control arms

Whenever doing suspension a wheel alignment always recommended so it looks like you'll need to get another done after the work is carried out

Any competent indie shop can do this job for you, it wouldn't hurt to get a good mechanic you can trust to take a look over it for you.

Ps Another common issue is the outer tie rod ends tend to fail prematurely.

 

I replaced the rear sway bar links and toe adjustment links on my 2007 in April 2017. As previously stated, the rubber covers deteriorate as a function of age (not odometer reading). At that time the car had logged 77K miles or so.

The toe adjustment links were $90 each, made by Lemforder and the sway bar links were $36 each, sourced on eBay. The replacement parts looked just like the originals and I was satisfied with their quality.

Yes, it is recommended to have the alignment checked after the toe adjustment links are replaced. However I did not do so, I just made sure that the new links had the same number of threads showing at the adjustment point, compared to the original parts. The car handles well and the rear tires are wearing evenly, so I consider that to be good.

 

When someone says we recommend or you should or it could be dangerous it trigger to me that this is a scam for the naive. Then again they would have to show me the "problem". Seems to be a typical business practice. I also tell my kids when they need to go to a dealer or independent for an inspection and are told you need to get something done to ask them if the car will fail without it. The answer has always been , no.

 

+1 on that. Also, never ask them what would they do if were their car because you'll probably be some form of YES. Challenging with actual potential consequence usually gets the truth out of them.

 

If the boots look like this, it's probably a good idea to replace them, regardless of if they are loose or making noise...

 

There are exceptions, as most of these failures are predominant in the lower States. You folks in the high heat areas are known for premature rubber deterioration.
We will often see the actual part fail before any signs of rubber deterioration thanks to our Pacific Northwest climate.
Glad we don't see much of that pulling dash issue up here too!

 

About a year ago I head to rebuild most of my suspension. The boots on the ball joints were failing, but also the bushings in the control arms (as well as 2 leaking shocks). At the time I couldn't find reasonably priced control arms so I opted to replace the bushings. Replacing the bushings is no fun, and if you can find reasonably priced control arms I would go that route. If not I bought new bushings from

www.powerflexusa.com

 

thank you for all the responses.

 

I would get a second opinion. I doubt all of that could be bad. Probably the most likely are the sway bar end links.

 

A very low mileage for things like that to need replacing. The parts mentioned are the same as on the X350/358 saloons and my experience is they are not long life parts, but do last a bit longer than 20k miles !!

1. Sway bar links
Cheap to buy and very easy to fit, any shop can do these as no adjustments are needed afterwards

2. Rear tracking arms (toe links)
Again cheap to buy and very easy to fit, but tracking needs checking afterwards

3. Upper and lower control arms (UK=wishbones)
Used to be mega-expensive but now half the original price, and also OEMs on the aftermarket, (not at Jaguar dealers of course)
Reasonably easy to swap out but, again, tracking needs checking afterwards

However nothing a competent independent shop can't do. If only the ball-joint boots on the upper arms are split these can be replaced at very low cost.

If the person who has told you the tale of woe is correct, it becomes them to demonstrate the worn parts on the car. If they won't then they are trying to gouge you. Also they should be able to provide a breakdown of the cost, namely cost of each part and labour to change.

Just to give some background.
On my previous X350 I had to replace both rear lower wishbones.They cost about £200 each but one of the bushes in each arm were starting to wear out after about 60k miles. I have recently been told I have slight wear on one side on the rear lower wishbones byt the local Jaguar dealership when the car was being serviced, but was told these things tend to wear a little bit and then last for a long time before finally needing replacement. This was their head technician telling me this !

I never had to replace the upper wishbones and they were the originals on the car at 115k miles. I had to replace the swaybar links fairly early on but used non-Jaguar parts and these were fitted by a local mechanic. I had to replace one tracking arm only. I really do despair of some Jaguar dealerships who seem to think we are all multimillionaires with fat wallets.

 

Take a look at my thread here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...l-arms-187168/

Many of these parts are interchangeable across other Jag models as well as some Ford models, LS & T-Bird. The rubber boots fail over time and or/environmental conditions, not mileage. The rubber itself has nothing to do with function, its sole purpose is to keep the non-serviceable bushings' grease from leaking out and impervious to dirt, water, etc. However once the rubber does begin to fail, the bushings will begin the slow process of losing their effectiveness.

I chose to buy ALL new suspension links and replace every single new bushing with race grade powerflex poly bushes. While firmer and more controlled, two benefits were immediately gained from this: these bushes will NEVER wear out and handling is vastly improved.

 

Hey Steve! What brand parts did you go with?

 

Without going through my invoices so testing the memory bank but I'm thinking Deutsche rings a bell