Hi Everyone,

So the time has come to replace my front upper shock mounts again. The Uro mounts only lasted around 3 years. This time around, I went with Welsh and hope to have more longevity.

I am also going to replace the springs when I do this in an attempt to get the ride height closer to spec. My question is, with 108k on the car, would you guys replace the shocks as well? If they were non-adaptive I would have no problems doing so but the adaptive Bilsteins are $400 each! I do not know if they were ever replaced by the PO and I have had the car since 75k. They seem to be okay to me but I would hate to go through all of this effort only to have to replace the shocks in the near future.

What do you guys think? Also, does anyone have a source for the adaptive shocks that has more competitive pricing? I am surprised at how much they are and haven't been able to find a better deal yet.

Thanks!

Corey

 

I had the same issues on my XK8 with regular shocks. The original shocks on my car were green and the shocks on my car were replacement black Billstiens and they seem fine so I left them on. If you shocks are green I will guess they are the original shocks. Twenty year old shocks, 108k on the clock but if no leaks and they seem intact your call.

 

Are the current shocks working in both modes ?

What is your ride like ?

that’s what’s I’d be asking myself if I was considering changing shocks on my ‘02 XKR.

is having the original type adaptive shocks a big deal to you ?

To many it isn’t, and it’s tempting to buy 4 XK8 shocks for the price of one XKR shock. It all comes down to what do you want out of the car ?

Z

 

I have also been thinking that when I come to change the shocks I should just downgrade to the non-adaptive Bulstein ones insteaf of getting the adaptive ones I already have. Save a bit of cash. I don't take corners hard but I also don't really want to ruin the handling.

 

I have the adaptive shocks and I like them. I do take corners hard. I have been considering having them rebuilt, and stiffened a bit. If I were to replace them instead, I would go for the R-performance shocks. Mine are not leaking yet, at 82,000 miles.

 

If you can tolerate the labor to rebuild the struts again keep the existing shocks and keep driving. If you loathe the labor required to rebuild the struts as much as I do replace the shocks now. They might last another few years but odds are that they won't make it till the next shock mount replacement. Tough call.

 

Thanks for the reply. Good point on the green shocks. Mine are black so perhaps they have already been replaced in the car's history. I am leaning towards keeping them but will certainly feel like a fool if they go bad six months from now! At this point, I think it might be worth the risk given how costly they are. Also, the job of replacing them should not be too bad, fingers crossed! I did the upper shock mounts with a buddy a few years ago and we managed to get it done with relative ease.

 

Hey Zray so the shocks seem to be just fine although I really cannot compare them to a fresh XKR. When I do an abrupt stop to test how much the front end sags there is only a slight sag IMO. The car seems to handle pretty well. At this point, I am going to roll the dice and not plunk the $800 for a pair of front adaptive shocks. Going to replace everything else though and hope that it raises my ride height a little and also tightens things up a bit.

 

Do you have any idea of how the ride might compare with the regular versus adaptive? I wish I had a newly repaired XKR to compare my ride to. I like it and it feels stiff to me but it could very well be that I am just used to it and of course it is a hell of a lot stiffer than my other car which is a 99 Lexus RX300.

 

Personally, I wouldn't bother changing the shock as its not very likely they are failing or will fail, what I would do though while you have everything stripped down is change the lower shock bushes as a precaution.

 

The lower spring mount on my shocks failed - it's not just the damping action of the shock itself you need to worry about. I got a pair of CATS and all new poly bush mounts for under £1000

 

I kept my black repacement shocks when replacing the upper mounts and so far so good. One thing I maybe should of done was replace the bottom shock bushing. I had a indy shop rebuild my struts and they said they were OK. But the rubber bushing needed to be resealed, which I did. I could not detect any "play" in the bushings.
If you have access to a good press the bushings are not expensive.

 

Hi David,

How did you seal the lower shock bushings? I just finished the job and ended up going with new shocks. There was some black stuff that peeled off of the lower bushings when attempting to install. I am wondering if this is what you are referring to and I most definitely want to reseal it if that is the case. Definitely do not want to do this job anytime soon!

Thanks!

Corey

 

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to provide an update. I ended up redoing the entire strut, shocks included, along with the upper control arm bushings and new stabilizer links. The front end is absolutely perfect now although it is sitting about 0.5-1 inch above what I would prefer. Definitely also higher than the rear-end. I am hoping that the springs and shocks settle in some but time will tell. When I finished, it was sitting with a ride height of around 17" which is very high and since this morning it has settled in to around 16.25".

Figured I would provide some info on how I did the job as well as where I sourced the parts for anyone who has to tackle this themselves. I was able to take the strut out the "easy way" without removing the upper control arm but found that I could not reinstall that way. Probably because the strut was now longer with the new shocks, springs, and upper shock mount. Disassembly was actually pretty easy and I was able to use the loaner spring compressors from Advance Auto Parts with ease. I wish reassembly was just as easy. I was not able to compress the spring enough with the loaner compressors and was close to throwing in the towel. I ended up going to Advance Auto Parts to see if they had any other compressors and I ended up purchasing the Performance Tool (PT) Limited Access spring compressor for $38 (part W80559). When combined with the loaner compressors I had exactly what I needed to compress with ease. I started with the loaners evenly spaced and evenly torqued them down some and then slid the PT compressors in between the loaners and just moved around the coil compressing each one a little at a time and keeping things even. When the upper shock bolt would start to drift from center I was able to compress one of the compressors to even things out. The second strut only took around 15 minutes to fully assemble.

The hardest part was the upper control arm fulcrum bolt which needed 30-60 minutes of hammering directly and then with socket extensions once the bolt was inside the subframe. This was a real PITA but thankfully they came out which I read was not the case for everyone on the forum. One thing that seemed to help a little was spraying WD-40 onto the bolt and in between the bushings and subframe.

One major issue, which led to me not being able to reuse the shocks, was that one of them had the bolt shear upon disassembly. This forced me to buy two new shocks but I was able to find a decent price, $315 each, on Rockauto. It seems as if every place I looked was exactly $394 for the Bilstein adaptives or even higher so it was nice to save $80 each when they are so dang expensive. This was probably a blessing in disguise as I fooled around with the old shocks trying to take the bushings out and was unsuccessful. Plus, who knows how long they would have lasted. Now I have peace of mind!

Another issue that I ran into was when everything was assembled. I took the car for a test drive and had an awful clunk in the upper shock mounts!! On top of that the suspension fault was showing and there was clearly a nasty brake shield noise. Since it was 230 in the morning I called it a night and slept on it. In the morning it occurred to me that the sensor was probably not plugged into the shock properly. I was able to test this by plugging it into the old shocks and sure enough the fault light went out. The nut on the newly installed shocks was simply not tightened fully. I think it was because I was scared to over torque the nut and break a brand new shock. I was able to tighten it fully by slipping a pliers through the spring while another pliers handle was used to spread the spring a bit to allow the other pliers enough access space. Used the pliers to grab onto the shaft and tighten the bolt above using the impact wrench. Thankfully it worked! Got rid of the clunk and suspension fault in one shot.

As for the brake shield, I took the wheel, caliper and rotor off and saw an area of the brake shield by the lower ball joint that clearly had been rubbing on something. Beat that down with a hammer as there was very little clearance so it seemed impossible to bend into place and I do not think it was out of place by more than a millimeter. I think if I had a grinder I would have ground it down a bit. Regardless, it did clear up the noise.

The car rides like new again which is such a drastic improvement. Really worth the effort although it was costly even though I saved on labor. All in all, $1200 in parts as follows:
Bilstein Adaptive Shocks from Rockauto $640.
Aftermarket Shockmounts from Welsh Enterprises $150.
OEM springs from OEM Discount Car Parts (which I think is a front for the Jaguar dealerships) $283 for both.
OEM seats for springs from eBay for $105.
Aftermarket EuroSpare bump stops from eBay for $38.
I already had upper A-arm bushings and stabilizer links bought long ago on eBay sitting in the garage. Can't remember how much but they were not that much.

I reused the spring packers and the white plastic lower spring mount piece. Also reused the gaiters as they were in really good shape and I forgot to order them in time and wanted to get started.

I hope that this will help anyone attempting to tackle this job and feel free to reach out if you have any questions on the process. Would never be able to do stuff like this if it wasn't for the immense resource and help from this forum. Thank you to everyone who contributes to this group, you guys are awesome!

Thanks,

Corey

 

Good on ya and another beautiful car riding and handling like it should. TM

 

When I removed my shocks I damaged the rubber seals on the lower bushings. I intended to replace the bushings and took the shocks to a indy Jaguar specialist to rebuild the shocks. He stated that the bottom bushing were still good. The black fluid was the lubricant for the bushes a solid black material could be part of the bushing seal. While the struts were off the car I cleaned all the area around rubber seals with rubbing alcohol to clean it up and survey the damage. Once the surface was clean I resealed the bushing with many layers or Permatex sealant/gasket maker and let them sit over night. Because the shock is in a fixed position and the internal sturcture of the bushing keeps it in place the repair should work. When putting the shocks back in the car I took care not to pinch the seals again. As a note I damaged the seal while trying to remove the assembly without removing the bolt holding the upper "A" arm.

 

Is it possible you may have tightened the arm bolts with the car not set on the ground? I had the same issue when I rebuilt the rear suspension on my XJR. I took mine to an alignment shop, that has a pit and had them release and torque with wheels on the ground. Brought the height sown to spec. Ive come to understand, pre-mature bushing failure is the result of making this mistake.

Thank you for the references, as well. A decent savings over my searches, especially the Adaptive Struts.

 

Mine has settled a little and doesn't look so odd anymore. I really did need to replace the springs as the car was leaning downhill and really nose dived on hard braking. TM

 

Wondering if the Low spring issue has to do with the supply of springs for '03 models. Seems the sagging, beyond shock mount, requiring springs is an '03 issue. Hmmmmm..... I have the same issue and all of the other components are in good order. Mine has 29,566 miles with new shock mounts and still 14.25 ish ride height in front. Definite slope from rear. Only picked up 1/4+ inch after replacing the mounts.

 

The totally worn out front suspension of my 00 is at 14.25".