Steering Wheel Shimmering, Balancing. What to do next?
 

I purchased about a year and a half ago out of the Miami area a 2008 XJ with only 19K miles on it. In order to improve the ride quality and look, I removed the stock 19" rims & put on new 18" Lexani chrome 8.5" width rims. I also added new Michelin Primacy MXM4 (245/50/18) tires. In my opinion, the car looks great; but, I cannot seem to get a perfect balance & the shimmering within the steering wheel (left-to-right with no bouncing) will not subside. Most of the issues occur between 30 MPH and 50 MPH. I have taken the vehicle to 3 different tire installers for balancing. Each place has told me the tires were out of balance, balanced them, and yet I feel no difference after their adjustments.

I have had the following done: 4 wheel alignment, replaced both front outer tie rod ends, replaced both front and rear sway bar link ends. Upon receiving the car, I also replaced the brake disks and pads since the previous owner must have rode their brakes in the city. Plus, I replaced the front air struts due to a bag leaking probably due to the Florida humidity eroding the seal.

My wife owns a 2004 XJ with 18" steel (8" width) rims with Michelin's same tires. It rides smooth and true. Would the 1/2 inch width rim size make a difference?

My next plan is to go to the dealership. Any advice or assistance would be appreciated. I don't get it.

Barry,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to X350 forum. You need input from members with the same model on this one.

Graham

Sounds like you've balanced the he** out of it.


Before we all chime in, consider swapping your wife's wheels on to your car and eliminate the tires/ wheels as the source.

Mine randomly does this. It's infuriating. My GTO did too. It went away on the GTO after many tire rotations.

I'd first check the wheels for trueness. An easy way to do this is to either swap front for back, or re-install the original wheels/tires to see if that either fixes it or changes the severity.

If the wheels are straight, then you have a tire problem. If the tires are balanced by several DIFFERENT machines, but still retain the wobble, then one may have an internal delamination. This is where the plies separate, and there is no outside sign. As speed increases, the centrifigul force spreads the delamination and causes the wobble.

For wobbles that seem to come and go...normally that is because both front tires have balance or trueness issues. As the orientation of the wheels change while you are driving, sometimes the 2 issues cancel each other at the steering wheel...and other times they reinforce each other.

aftermarket wheels

do they match the OEM for offset? if not, you just changed the scrub radius.

are the x350 hub centric? if so, are the new wheels hub centric?

For mine I didn't think about offset. I put Coventry wheels on my car and the offset is 6 mm lower.

I chased the problem forever on my GTO. I replaced the tie rods and rebalanced them more times than I can count. It seemed to go away after a few rotations that I did myself, but every time I took the car to a shop and the wheels had to be removed, the wobble would come back. I always equated it to improperly torqued lug nuts. It was known that the hub metal material is considered soft on those cars and was extra sensitive to lug torque, but I don't know where that info came from. I've replaced both front hubs on my VDP though. The wheels have only been torqued on once with an air gun and it was when the suspension was swapped. I'll be rotating the wheels myself in the next month when I change the oil.

Thank you for the advice. A very good idea so as to determine which direction to pursue. My guess is it's not the car because I did not encounter this with the OEM wheels + rims.

You described pretty much what it seems to me the vehicle appears to be experiencing. I will likely go this route first especially since I do recall the Discount Tire representative informing me when I purchased the Michelin tires that they were a new design just released although the name is exactly the same as my wife's tires. They will obviously think the tires are fine; but, maybe someone there will have knowledge pertaining to what you described.
Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for the reply. I do know the offset is correct. I am not very mechanically inclined thus I will admit I do not know what hub centric refers to; but, I am going to print out this reply & all the others so as to have on hand when I return to Discount Tire to complain again.

When I find shimmy or wobble problems, because of the IRS I always get some speed, then pull the parking brake with the release button held down. If the problem is in the rear you can feel it through the hand break. Incorrect rear alignment causes lots of shake that might seem to be from the front. Correct diagnoses saves time and money.

Check and make sure that thrust arm bushings are tight

Wheel shimmy (and brake shimmy) can be tough to fix with worn bushings

Mine did that also and I had to have the wheels road forced balanced. Problem solved.

I recently had my front wheels removed to replace the bushings and the shuddering started again. So i'll be doing the road force balance again.

Find a garage that has a Hunter GSP Road Force tire balancer. From what I have read this machine applies force to the wheel as it is rotated and can tell if a wheel or tire is out of balance or not true. Since no tire or wheel is perfect it will tell you where to mount the tire on the rim so the imperfections in the tire and rim cancel each other out.

Solved Bouncing & Shimmering by going OEM
 

Too late for me to try the GSP Road Force Tire balancer. I sold the new Lexani rims & found some re-chromed OEM Jaguar rims on eBay which instantly made the issues go away. The Lexani rims were supposed to work; I am surprised I had the issue. In the end, all worked out to the better because I like the appearance of these Jaguar rims even better and they are very similar to the Lexani rims I removed. I ended up only paying a little more for the OEM since I recouped nearly all the dollars I had spent on the Lexani. Later, I will attach a picture of the vehicle and current chromed rims.

Triple check lug nuts
 

The flat washer Jaguar studs seems to create shimmy issues. Retorque and see if this helps.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...fe6423eeae.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...85327e591a.jpg
2008 xj on 22

The steering column was locked, complete with amber message center light and "STEERING COLUMN LOCKED" displayed on the message board. The column lock solenoid is not making a sound when I insert the key. There is also a flashing red LED on the top center of the dashboard (the alarm status light) and the radio will not power up.

The model is 2001 Jaguar 3.0L V6

How do I fix this?

Ramzi

P A T S
Passive anti theft system would be my guess.

Please start your own thread, and in the correct forum too. As you haven't said what model you have, I can't say what forum to post in, except that it is not this one which is for the XJ saloons made of aluminium and on sale from 2003.