Daughter just bought an '01 XJ (first car!), and it has pronounced squaek when you incur some rear suspension travel (speed bump, etc..)

At first I assumed rear bushings, but have only only one thread on this and it mentioned the actual leaf-springs themselves rubbing, and refered to some sort of insert?

One guy apparently built his own out of cut up milk jugs.

Is this a common problem? If there's an official factory fix, and pointers to where I might find it? (Or are other components prone to squeaking?)

Thanks.

-sc

 

Mine is lifted, but I get a small squeak coming from the small metal pins going from the bottom up through the leaf springs near the bushings on both ends. I soak it with WD-40 and it's good for a couple weeks.

 

i had the same problems on my rear leafs, i pulled mine off, took them apart, and cleaned them up real good. while i was in there, replaced the front bushing on each spring with a poly unit (best decision i made on them) and replaced the center pin with a grade 8 bolt. put them back together with lithium grease on each layer, and bolted the packs down on the axle to 220ft lbs, since then i have had no squeaks for the past 6 months. even driving through water,dirt, mud, and snow. but i doesnt hurt to hit them up with some WD40 as stated above every couple weeks or so. i just did it the hard way cause i broke a centering pin on one of the leaf packs

 

Thanks for the replies...

Trans_am - how hard of a job was that? I helped a buddy add an extra leaf to his older 4Runner, and it wasn't too bad there.

Also, do you have a receommedation on the bushig you used? Might as well replace the 10-yr old ones that are there...

Thanks again.

-sc

 

any poly one will do, it is an easy job, took me 1 hour to rebuild both from start to finish

 

I'd recommend spraying that front leaf bushing bolt with some pb blaster or wd-40 now if your thinking of replacing that bushing. Just did mine and had a ton of trouble getting that bolt out.

 

Thanks for the reply, I'll start looking at some parts houses.

And good idea on hte PB Blaster now... I've arelady made iberal use of it a few other places on the rig, and they weren't even underneath!

-sc