I have been trying to find the cause of a vibration in my 2002 X-Type 2.5L automatic with 35000 miles on it. The vibration occurs between about 40-50 mph, but only when I am accelerating. It is kind of a shuddering that feels like something is binding. I feel it mainly through the steering wheel. At first I thought that the transmission was slipping, so I took it to AAMCO, and they said that there was nothing wrong with the transmission. So then replaced one wheel that had a rim ding, and had all the wheels balanced (Road Force Balance) and rotated front-to-back. That improved the ride, but did nothing for the one vibration that I have been concerned about. So then I had a four-wheel alignment done. No change to the vibration. The guy that did the alignment said that he thought it was in the drive train, but that he could not diagnose it. It is not in the engine, because it is not RPM dependent. I tried shifting it manually into 4th gear and then 3rd, and the vibration still occurred in the same speed range, so I think that confirmed what AAMCO said, that it is not in the transmission. So, what is left? Transfer case, half-shafts, CV joints... anything else? I have had CV joints fail on another car, and they caused the steering to wander and they made noise when turning sharply. I don't have those symptoms. Does anyone know how to tell if the transfer case has a problem? What are the symptoms if the viscous coupling fails? Oh, yeah, also... when I bought the car last year, with 30000 miles on it, I changed the transmission fluid right away. Last weekend, I used one of Wild Bill's kits to change the transfer case oil. The oil level was somewhat low, but it was not dry - maybe 50-100 ml came out when I opened the drain.

 

Knight, get yourself a grease gun with a needle attachment. Using some termaline grease or other suitable grease, grease the centering bearing that is located in the middle of the rear driveshaft. See if that helps out your situation. This bearing is known for going dry over time, resulting in the vibration that you are experiencing. If the vibration goes away, then you know that is your problem. Over time, you will probably need to replace the centering bearing, but for now, the greasing will take care of your issue.

 

You hit on the CV joint test. Put the car into a hard turn (empty parking lots work good) and give it some power. Bad CV joints will get noisey.

 

Thermo - I didn't think it would be that driveshaft centering bearing, since I feel the vibration mostly through the steering wheel. But I will give it a try. Should I use Lithium grease or Sodium grease? I know that the two are not compatible, but I don't know which one Jaguar uses.

Glendoramike - As I said, I don't have the usual CV joint symptoms. There is no unusual noise on sharp turns. However, I will try a full-lock turn and see if that does anything.

Thanks, guys.

 

Knight, of the two, I would go with Lithium grease. Most of the members have gone with Termalene when greasing the bearing and haven't had any issues.

 

Thermo - I could not find Termalene, but I got some Valvoline lithium grease, and used that. I did not have any trouble greasing the bearing. Then I took it for a test drive. At first, I thought the problem was solved. But after about 3-5 minutes, the vibration was back. I think it only happens when something heats up. I seem to recall reading something about the transfer case, that the viscous coupling (this is a 2002 X-type) locks when it heats up. Does anyone know if that is right, and how it would behave if it were failing?

Glendoramike - I also did some slow full-lock turns to check the CV joints. No noise, or anything unusual.

I am thinking of taking it to the dealer next week for a diagnosis. Maybe their technician has seen this before. It is frustrating, because the car is running great except for that &%$#@ vibration!

 

Knight, just to ask a silly question, when you feel the vibration, can you make the vibration go away/subside when you make a turn in 1 direction but will remain unchanged when you turn the other way? A good spot to check for this is coming in/out of the HRBT at the very ends of the bridge. This is a high speed turn. If you can feel the vibrations change, then you are looking at a bad hub assembly (aka, wheel bearing). If this is the case, the direction that you turn that makes the vibration go away is the side that the bad hub assembly is on.

Another thing to check is the wear of your front tires. I recently had a similar situation (granted, mine was a wobble in the steering wheel that started about 50 mph and continued on up) and what that ended up being was a bad alignment on the car. In my case, it chewed up the inside of a front wheel and got the tire down to the cord. So, you may want to give the tires a once over too.

Hope this helps.

 

Thermo - I don't usually take the HRBT. My commute from Smithfield to Hampton takes me over the JRB. But I do get on and off of 64, which is another high speed turn. I have not noticed any difference on the turn in either direction, but I am not usually accelerating through the turn. I can try that tomorrow, if I can manage to time everything right to be at 40 mph and accelerating while in the turns. The tires don't show much of any wear. I have only had the car for 5000 miles, and they were pretty new when I bought it. Besides, if I had had any uneven wear, I would have expected that either the guy who balanced and rotated the wheels or the guy who aligned them would have said something. Or maybe not. But the guy who did the alignment drove it and said that he did not think it was wheel bearings or CV joints. He said it was something in the driveline, but that he could not diagnose it.

While the vibration is happening, it feels like something is binding. The car doesn't want to accelerate as well while it is happening, and a shuddering vibration is felt in the steering wheel. The vibration seems to have a frequency of one cycle per wheel revolution. When I tell people about it in person, I tense up my arm muscles until my arm shakes, and that is about the frequency and magnitude of the vibration.

The vibration only happens while accelerating. It starts at somewhere between 35-40 mph, is strongest between 40-45 mph, and by 50 mph it is gone. It stops if I decelerate or hold the speed constant. It is the same whether I shift manually to 3rd or 4th gear, or just let it shift automatically. And it does not happen during the first 5 minutes or so of when I first start driving the car. I did not notice that until yesterday, because on my normal commute route, I don't get to drive over 30 mph for the first couple of miles. But yesterday, when I took it for a test drive after greasing the carrier bearing, I went a different way, and got up to speed right away. There was no vibration at first. But I kept accelerating and decelerating through the range where it happens, and within a few minutes it came back. So that makes me think that something heats up and causes the problem.

I am thinking that it could be the viscous coupler in the transfer case, but I have not seen anything written on the forum about what symptoms that would produce. When I added oil to the transfer case a couple of weeks ago (using one of Wild Bill's kits), about 50-100 ml of oil came out when I opened the drain, so it was not dry. However, the oil that came out was dark and, now that I think about it, it was kind of smelly, like burned oil. There was no change in the vibration after adding the oil to the transfer case. If it were simple and inexpensive to replace the transfer case, I would just do it. But that is too expensive to do unless I am sure that it will solve the problem. But I am going to do whatever it takes to fix this, because the car is running great except for this, and it only has 35000 miles, so I think it is worth getting it right.

 

Knight, not questioning the shop that you went to, but I have had bad experiences with a few shops down in your neck of the woods. The one tried to say that I needed tons of brake work done on my truck due to a fluid leak. What they didn't bother to even look at was the fact that I had just done the brakes the week before. So, just be aware.

As for bad wheel bearings, they can be hard to diagnose. I know on my truck I can't really tell until I get the feeling in the steering wheel or they are so shot, that the wheel is about to fall off of the truck.

As for the viscous coupling, I would expect it to act up under a hard acceleration (regardless of vehicle speed) or something like that. Because you are looking at a constant speed range that is not affected by the gear the tranny is in, it is something with the drivetrain down stream of the transfer case.

Not to send you on a wild goose chase, but having you looked at the upper mounts of the front struts. These can come loose and cause a loose feeling in the front end. I would also check the tie rod ends. See if something is loose there. Could be something as silly as under acceleration you are shifting the weight off of the front end enough to allow the joint to wobble some. Much beyond that, I am at a loss.

 

Hi Thermo - This morning, I tried accelerating through the turns getting onto I-64. The vibration did not seem to be affected by the turns.

One of the reasons I have been suspecting the viscous coupler is that the vibration does not happen until I have been driving for a while, as if something is heating up. However, it also occurred to me that the problem could be excited by the viscous coupler changing characteristics as it heats up even if the problem is downstream of the transfer case.

Another thing that might point to the transfer case is that when I drained it last weekend, the oil that came out was dark and smelled burnt. But it was not dry, about 50-100 ml came out through the drain plug, so there must have been at least 250 ml in it.

As for the front end, I have not looked at it, but the steering feels fine while I am driving, nice and tight, no wander, stays straight if I let go of the wheel. But it is still a possibility. When I go over a bump in the road, there is a loud bang and it jars my bones. But I am not sure how stiff the suspension should feel, so that could be normal.

I know what you mean about shops. Often, if I can't figure out what is wrong with my car, neither can a lot of mechanics. So I am skeptical. But I need help with this, so I am going to take it to the local dealer, even though they charge about 40% more than other dealers out of the area. If their diagnosis doesn't seem reasonable, I will try to get another opinion. I just called them for an appointment - the earliest available is next Monday. So, unless I figure it out before then, I will take it there on Sunday.

 

Jaguarknight have you checked your brakes I have seen brake calipers stick and when they get hot they cause a vibration. I have done a few output pinion bearings on the transfer case for noise the bearings and races were pited bad and had lergr chunks out of them if those bearings were going they could cause a vibration under a load when hot. One more thing jaguar had problems with the prop shafts causing vibrations as well.

 

Dana - Thanks for your ideas. I did a test this afternoon to see if the brakes could be chattering. While accelerating through the 40-45 mph range, I gently applied the brakes with my left foot, while continuing to press the accelerator with my right. There was no change in the vibration, so it is probably not the brakes. It could be that pinion bearing, but I can't think of a way to test that. And I have heard that some of the driveshafts were out of balance, but I think this problem is very gradually getting worse, which I would not expect to happen with an out-of-balance driveshaft. I am still planning to drop it off at the dealer on Sunday for a Monday service appointment. Maybe they can find the problem.

 

I have a quick question: How in the heck do you have an X-Type from 2002 with only 35,000miles???? LOL

 

I bought the car in August of last year with just under 30,000 miles, and have put on another 5,000. The story I was told was that the original owner was an elderly woman who had an accident with the car, and after it was fixed she was afraid to drive very much. So it pretty much sat around for a few years. Then another woman bought it, and not long after that, gave it to her daughter. The daughter could not afford the expensive Jaguar maintenance, so she sold it to me. I was skeptical of the mileage, but it was confirmed by CarFax.

 

Over the weekend, I received two e-mails from the dealer, reminding me of my 6:00 AM Monday Early Bird appointment. So, on Sunday afternoon, I dropped off the car, and left the keys and a very complete description of the problem in the drop-off slot. When I didn't hear from them by 2:00 PM Monday, I gave them a call. They told me that they have not had a chance to look at it yet, and probably won't have time to look at it for a few days! So why did I have to get it there by 6:00 AM today? I was tempted to go get the car and tell them I don't want to deal with them. So far, I have not done that, but I am still considering it.

 

Jaguar, I only had to deal with the dealership in question one time and needless to say, for it being a jaguar dealer, I was not impressed. I'm sure my dress wasn't what they were expecting (jeans and a t-shirt), but the general attitude I got there was not at all what I was expecting. I get better treatment at a Ford dealership. So, hearing you say that is not a surprise to me. But, at the same time, they are the only dealership for quite a ways, so, you are somewhat stuck with them unless you can find a quality European shop in the area. For that, I can't help you. I was fortunate enough that all the problems I had I could deal with myself in the driveway.

 

Well, I have my car back. After only nine days in the Jaguar dealer's shop, they told me that the tech was unable to diagnose the vibration. He was able to feel it, but could not tell for sure where it was coming from. He suggested beginning the process of elimination by replacing the motor mounts, at a cost of $1400. I told the service manager that if they were sure that the motor mounts were the problem, I would be happy to pay the $1400 to fix it, but that is a lot of money to spend to just eliminate one possible cause. So I paid $119 plus tax for the tech's time, and took the car home. The tech did say that he didn't think the vibration was doing any damage, so I am still driving the car. I am skeptical of the idea that it could be the motor mounts, because there is little or no vibration until I have driven the car for 5-10 minutes. It seems like something has to heat up before it starts. I don't know anything about the motor mounts in the X-Type, but it seems strange that they would be affected by heating up. Does anyone know any reason why they might be affected by temperature? So far, my guess is that there is something wrong in the transfer case. But that is really too expensive to replace just to eliminate it. So I have not figured out what to do next.

 

I worked at a few Jaguar dealers and we did not do many motor mounts and that seems like alot to replace motor mounts, usally if a motor mount goes you would feel a vibraton when the car is at idle and not moving. How old are the tires? tires that are 6 years or older can be dry rotted and cause vibrations. Also do you feel it in the steering wheel or the seat? If you feel it in the steering wheel that would be caused by the front, and if it is in the seat then it would be in the rear. A bad wheel bearing could cause it as well as a bad transfer case also a bad cv joint could also case it but I never replaced a front axle. Vibrations can be hard to diagnose and some times the process of eliminaton is the only way to fix them.

 

Dana - thanks for your comments. I don't know how old the tires are, since I bought the car last August. However, they look in good condition, and I had them road force balanced and rotated front to back. After that, the car rode more smoothly, but the vibration in question was unchanged. I would think that if it were a tire problem, it should be different after rotating the tires. I feel the vibration much more through the steering wheel than in the seat, so I think it is something in the front. The guy who did the alignment said he did not think it was a wheel bearing or CV joint. I am pretty sure it is not a CV joint because I had that once on a Honda, and it made a clicking noise in sharp turns. I have tried full-lock turns in both directions, and there is no noise. Dana, you are right that it may not be possible to diagnose it except by the process of elimination, but $1400 is a lot to spend eliminating something that I don't think is likely to be the cause anyway. The vibration does not happen when I rev up the engine in Park, and it does not change with engine RPM if I downshift into 4th or 3rd gear when it is happening. It is only related to speed not RPM, so I don't think it is the motor mounts. My gut tells me that it could be the transfer case, especially since the oil in the case smelled burnt when I drained and added some. But that is another pretty expensive thing to eliminate unless I can confirm that that is the most likely cause. For now, I am just driving it and trying to figure out what it could be.

 

All tires have a date code it is the last 4 numbers after the DOT number the first 2 numbers are the week they were made and the last 2 are the last 2 numbers of the year it is only on one side of the tire. That will give you a idea of how old the tires are.