Do all XK8's ride rough, or just mine (2006)?
Feels every crack in the road but ok on very smooth pavement.

First XK and just getting used to the car.

 

What size wheels?
What are the tyre pressures?
What are you doing driving on the pavement?, surely you should be on the road.

 

How many miles? If the car has anything over 80k, the bushings are going.

 

19" wheels, 56,700 miles, 32 lbs. tire pressure, pavement is the road.

 

If the shock bushings/foam are bad, the shocks can clunk very loudly and make it seem like the ride is rough or the car is bottoming, but if you are talking about feeling bumps through the steering wheel, that is the 19" wheels and 32 psi in the tires.

 

My 2005 with 50K also have the same size wheels and tire pressure...I also wonder how a proper XK8 would ride...I always feel that maybe it's time do all the bushings now.

 

Yes

 

all the work I have done on the front of mine I still do not like the feedback through the steering wheel at times. I wonder what a strut brace would do for it.

 

All I can say is I had 20inch wheels without strut brace a few years back now back on 18s with strut brace and I find the car to have a much smoother ride

 

My 2005 xkr with 60k miles and really bad tires(19"), rides endlessly better than my 2001 xk8 that has 100k and brand new continentals(18").

The 2001 doesn't squeak or rattle, even has new shocks/tower bushings up front.... BUT, it still rides terrible compared to the XKR. I would need to change ALL the bushings on the 2001 xk8 to get it in the same league.

Bottom line, if you're suspension is not clunky---it still doesn't mean everything is OK. It's more about the miles than anything else. The bushings on these cars should 'all' be changed every 60k-70k

 

My 03 96K miles with all new front suspension, 18" rims running 29 psi front and 26 psi rear. Very, very smooth on all roads however I'm still not happy with the steering wheel feed back sometimes. On the right bump the wheel still wobbles a little.

 

Tire age has a lot to do with ride along with size. My 04 xkr with 20" bbs Detroit wheels had 14K miles when I bought. Having 14K miles it still had the original Pirelli tires. As tires age they get less pliable and start riding hard. Changing out the tires with new Continentals did the trick.


If you are running old tires, you will certainly feel every crack in the pavement. Clunks are another thing, that can come from worn lower shock bushings, Upper Shock Mounts or Wishbone bushings.

 

My 1998 with pirelli zeros runs best with 32pounds front, 34 pounds rear (as recommended by in car sticker for best handling). They are the 17 inch. Would never call it a rough ride, 87,000 miles. I have replaced front shocks spring and most bushings.