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Rattle from rear of Jaguar S-Type Diesel

There's an annoying rattle from rear underside of my 2006 S-Type(52,000 miles) on bumpy roads.

Local Jag specialist thought it was rear suspension bushes which cost £190 to replace and was ineffective.

Kwik Fit thought is was heat shield fouling the exhaust and applied a broom handle to give it clearance from the exhaust. This seemed to cure the problem for a few days after which it returned.

Asked same local Jag specialist to check that heat shield was not the cause of the rattle and they advised me it was secure and problem was more likely to be rear shock absorbers (which doesn't make sense to me!).

Replacing rear shock absorbers sounds expensive and with no guarantee of a cure what do you recommend as the best way of sorting this exasperating problem?

Asked on 8 February 2012 by geoffpuma

Answered by Honest John
They might mean the dampers themselves or the bushes of the dampers. But with an older car and multilink suspension it is very difficult to isolate a rattle. Before you go to further expense, it might be the suspension hitting part of the exhaust under compression. Sometimes the clearance is very small and a weak exhaust hanger can be enough to allow this to happen.

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