A just in time story – by member Brian Spencer

 

This article has been written by Brian Spencer, who lives in Tasmania, during the early stages of Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. Brian wrote this article to detail the preventative maintenance he’s had undertaken on his XJS Convertible.
 
 

 

We had known for a little while that the front suspension bushes on the XJ-S were in need of replacing but had decided to delay the change for as long as we could, instead sorting things with a higher importance.
 
That was all well and good until at the last service in September 2019 Garreth, our expert on all things Jaguar, detected some movement in the left front wheel bearing. A quick investigation of the outer bearing showed that the bearing and stub axle were well past their use by date and were now a priority to be fixed. Fortunately they were not in imminent danger of collapse so we arranged for the work to be done just after Christmas 2019. We decided to go the full hog and replace all the suspension bushes, the front disc rotors and pads, the stub axles and wheel bearings and the front and rear shock absorbers.
 
While Garreth could get all the parts the only things that were a bit of a problem were the shocks. We discussed our options and his recommendation was to get Konis, being considered the best available. So armed with that information I started to investigate what was available and also visit a number of forum sites to try and get a feel for what other owners had used. This proved to be inconclusive as some had used the standard Borge others Koni, the odd Bilstein but no real pattern or preference, very confusing. A number of parts supplier’s sites were also visited to check out the prices and availability.
 
It was at this stage that I found on the British Parts UK site they were offering Bilstein shocks at what appeared to be a good price and were in stock. A comparison with what was on offer here in Australia confirmed that the British Parts price was indeed very competitive. After a quick discussion with Garreth it was decided to place the order with British Parts UK and from the day of ordering the 6 shocks were sitting at our front door 6 days later at a price, including freight from England, 40% of the price of what was available locally! I would have no hesitation in recommending British Parts UK as they provided an excellent service to us.

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Article Published : 12th September 2021
Article written by : Brian Spencer
www.xjs-soft-tops.com