Suspension bushes - upgrade or not (excuse my ignorance)

[XK8Dundee]

I'm putting my car in for 4 wheel laser alignment & wheel balance on Thursday and have been warned by the garage that I may have issues with one/some of the bushes under the car due to vehicle age, use etc etc. The car is a 2003 and done 70000 miles which for the last 8 years has really only be in summer/dry weather so hopefully underneath hasn't been exposed to much wet, salt etc. - anyway to the point. If I find that several bushes do need replacing am I advised to go for an upgrade to newer style Poly ones? If yes what is a best option and which ones how many would need doing, the whole car or just front (or back). I have to admit I know nothing about them really, last time I changed anything like that was on a Triumph Spitfire about 40 yrs ago !!! As I said car doesn't do high mileage so am I better just leaving as original and just replacing any that are worn or U/S.
Many thanks

Walter

[J44EAG]

I`ve changed a few on an XK8 for a friend recently. If doing the work yourself, then a hydraulic bench press, bush removal/replacement mandrel kit and a good range of sockets is almost a mandatory requirement. Old bushes can really stick in the various housings and can require a good heavy push to get them moving. If fitting new OE grade bushes, similar kit is required to fit new bushes to pre used wishbones. Such work is not for the faint hearted. One has to tear out the suspension in stages which is not so easy on hands and knees. A lift or ramp eases the physical toll. Having salvaged a used wishbone or other component, there is a fair amount of grunt needed to extract and replace bushes. Then you have to fit the parts and reset for suspension alignment each and every time you change a number of bushes. Be warned. The work is arduous, dirty, time consuming and on occasions frustrating.

You have a choice of bushings. OE grade or after market poly types. My experience is with Powerflex bushes fitted to my S-type. These are available in slightly uprated Purple Series which are good for normal road use or there are much resilient Black Series which give an much harder ride, precision steering, cornering and braking response. Only use Black Series if you want a competition like ride which at slow speeds can have passengers loosing their dentures. Purple Series are great for a normally used car and will not over stress mounting points on the car or require additional bracing or special mounting point lock up devices to be installed.

The most competitive prices for Powerflex poly bushes are from Upratedbushshop.co.uk. You order the parts as you wish on an individual basis. Note there is a lead time of about ten days from the moment you order. The service from Upratedbushshop is excellent. You will sometimes hear adverse reports of poly type bushes collapsing over time. Most of this bad press comes from early materials which fall far short of the types now offered. Powerflex offer a lifetime guarantee for their products. Fitting Powerflex bushes is far easier than fitting steel tubed OE bushes. Powerflex are almost hand fit using a small amount of liquid soap. Note please, I have no connection with the company other than that I have live experience of fitting their products to my own S-type. The story of my bush installation and conversion is here.http://www.jec.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=200&t=8040

In time all bushes may need replacement. What you initially need to replace should be on an as immediately required basis with later work being done as resources allow. replacing some parts is a good way to begin but the new bushes soon show up old part wear in adjacent components. In my experience, one thing leads to another. In my case, I gradually replaced four anti-roll bar bushes, ten bushes on the rear suspension, two rear tie rods, eight front suspension bushes, two front ball joints, two front wheel bearings, four ARB links, four gas dampers and one complete new upper rear wishbone. That little lot set me back a couple of thousand pounds. My labour amounted to about 130 hours.

Mike K

[mike020150]

Do you like your car the way Jaguar designed it or do you want it to have a more sporting bias? That's probably the starting point for any decisions about using standard or polybush replacements. There are reasons that Jaguar didn't polybush everything in the first place. Those reasons centre on noise and vibration transmission. It's unlikely you would notice much difference in these factors by using a polybush here and there on the suspension but change them all and carry out a back to back comparison with a standard car and I'm sure you would hear and feel the difference. You might like the better sharpness of response but there again, you might regret the loss of smoothness. To a point, it's all a matter of taste. However, you should also bear in mind that some bushes are there to allow compliance for suspension components which move in slightly conflicting arcs. Possibly the best example is on the rear suspension of the series XJ/XJSs/Es etc. polybushing both ends of the radius arm carries a strong risk of tearing the front mounting from the body. Hence, use a little common sense and engineering knowhow before deciding to polybush everything in sight. Standard bushes on any Jaguar lead a hard life and will need replacing regularly to maintain that Jaguar feel. Intelligent use of polybushes would enable you to tailor the car's behaviour to suit your own tastes. Mike.

[XK8Dundee]

Hi guys, thanks for the informative and interesting replies. I am perfectly happy with the way car is at present but was curious as to whether upgrading the bushes was a good investment and future proofing for the car. I don't have the tools, facilities etc to do it myself so it could be a bank manager scaring task !!. It would all depend as to what the garage tell me, if all appears fine I don't think I would bother changing things just for the sake of it based on your helpful advice. If only a couple need replacing is it possible to mix and match with poly Bushes? I'm guessing it all depends on where they are on the car.
I'll update on Thursday with what they say and I can take it from there. Thanks very much again for the very informative replies.
Cheers
Walter

[Zennan101]

Hi Walter,

If it helps I gave just had all the front bushes on my XK8 changed @ 37k. There was nothing that could be seen as 'needing changing' but I decided to change them all as 11 year old bushes would not last forever. I looked into poly bushes but decided to replace with Jaguar parts to maintain the original ride and handling characteristics.
The ride has been transformed and I am glad I took the plunge. The state of the bushes removed....those that were not visibly in need of changing .......had to be seen to believed. They hide their faults well.
Clearly it costs a lot more to do everything at one go but at least you reset the clock for a few years.
I used a Jaguar main dealer after negotiating a good price.....

Rod

[XK8Dundee]

I haven't been ignoring everyone, I did post last week but it hasn't appeared. Anyway all 4 wheels successfully aligned and no problems from any of the bushes so my concerns were not necessary. Three of the wheels were a bit out of alignment but apparently the rear near side one was way out so glad I got it done.

Thanks again for the useful and informative postings I received.

Cheers

Walter

[J44EAG]

If I may add another reply on the subject.

Yes, you can mix and match which will always slightly alter characteristics. My bush changing took place over a three or four month period as I bought bushes in wishbone sets as funds allowed. As previously said, installing new OE or poly alternative tends to show up faults or wear on other weaker and worn bushes. Generally I found as I replaced one component set, this lead me to want to do the remainer to the same standard and zero time the whole suspension.

I would certainly fit poly anti-roll bar bushes if I found they needed replacing. I fitted harder poly units because the job is a nasty one to have to do and you won`t want to do it again for many a year because of the effort involved. So my decision was to do the job once only and fit a product that in my opinion would give longer service than an original OE type. I describe ARB fitting certainly on an S-type as being nasty because the rear subframe has to be dropped down to get working space and then the frame has to be carefully reset to avoid upsetting rear subframe total thrust angles and geometry. SNG Barrett saw the problem with the original OE parts and began to sell alternative uprated parts. Worth every penny in my own recent experience.

Mike K