Leaderboard

A proper leaper, like it!

I fitted Polybush front anti-roll bar bushes to my S-type recently and have no complaints. Apparently the standard Jaguar ones are notoriously short lived, mine were completely shot at 100k and I reckon they had been for a while. I've fitted polyurethane bushes to various cars and have never had any squeaks and although I have heard that they can I've never witnessed it myself. In my opinion poly suits some bushes but not others. For example the front wishbones on VW A2 and A3 platform cars (Mk2/Mk3 Golf, Corrado etc.) swing around a horizontal fore-and-aft pin at the front with a bush that looks like a cotton reel but at the back have a vertical one and a bush that is shaped more like a donut. I believe the front one is fine in poly as there's only rotational motion around the pin, the bush is purely an isolator. However the forces on the vertical back pin are trying to twist it side to side and so the bush is being severely deformed with every suspension movement. I have seen poly bushes fitted on these arms and the rear ones last no time at all, I don't think the load they're being put under suit poly at all. The material around the pin deforms permanently and quite quickly ends up allowing more unwanted movement than a standard void bush like the one in the picture. (Personally I use a poly on the front and a standard VW solid rubber (Golf R32 spec) one on the back whenever I rebuild these arms and they last.) This is why I would happily put polyurethane all over the front of my S-type (my early type suspension anyway) where there is one motion (rotational) but am going with the original "pillowball" type on the lower rear arms because with normal use they have to flex around the pin.