I bought an 2005 VDP X-type recently (63k km's), got a good price on it, but the front end was an issue. No accidents. I have had some work done to it as follows:

New Tires
New Wheels (after market)
New Front Wheel Bearings (jaguar)
New suspension bar (NON jaguar)
New brakes (NON jaguar)

and..it still feels a bit rough at 90k/hr and up. The tires are mud/ice all seasons, could it be the tires? What am I missing here? The used car came from an area that uses alot of salt on the road it that means anything.

Bit worried - it's been checked twice by Jaguar and I got the work done the suggested. (see above)

Any ideas?

Thanks!!!

 

Rrmmm, I would try putting a set of standard street tires on the car when you can (have a friend with a Jag? Could swap for a few minutes). Then you can eliminate the tires. It is possible to develop bumps and whatnot with an aggressive tire tread like that would be found on dedicated snow tires. If you still have the issue with the street tires, then it is something with the suspension.

By chance, does your steering wheel wobble as you start feeling this problem come on? If so, it may be possible you have a wheel that is out of balance. This can be eliminated by rotating the tires front to back. If the problem goes away, then you have a wheel that is out of balance or bent. You can then rotate only 1 side of the car to narrow it down to a single tire (ie, problem returns after the second rotation, problem is on that sides front corner, if not, on the other sides rear corner).

Hope this helps you fix your issue.

 

Thanks Thermo, your suspicions are probably right - the tires have a quite aggressive tread, but in winter here in Canada it's a better choice.They have recently been balanced so I don't think that's my issue unless it was done badly.

I plan to get standard street tires after the snow threat is over, but I have one more question for you - could it be the after-market suspension bar? It was done by the dealer I bought it from after the 1st jaguar check and they are'nt a jaguar dealership but a 2nd hand car dealer. ??

 

Rrmmmm, the swaybar really is only "engaged" on your car when the body is leaning or the wheels are not at the same height. So, normally driving down the road, the sway bar is simply there, not serving a function. So, I would eliminate that. now, if one of your tires is off balance and is bouncing up and down, then that will cause the feeling in both tires as now the tires are not staying at the same height and the sway bar will now be trying to do something and push the unbalance tire back down on to the road when it tries to leave and will lift up on the other tire to get that force. So, it can make it feel like the whole front of the car is bouncing up and down.

I say rotate the tires and see what happens to your problem. That is a quick and easy thing to do and can tell you a lot about whether it is simply the tread pattern or a wheel that has lost its balance. Ironically, you are most likely to loose the balance of a tire right after a service. If the tech doesn't install the weights properly, after a very short drive, the weight can fly off. Normally, once the weight is on and lasts for a few days, it is on there good and loosing it later hardly ever happens.

 

you need to have the tires/wheels ROAD FORCE balance checked. this verifys the ROUNDNESS of the assembly. you can balance tires all day long. But if theyre shaped like an egg they will exhibit what youre feeling. aftermarket wheels(in my experiance) are just not that great for quality like OEM. and just cause tires are new doesnt meen their roundness is in spec. You want a 27 or less on roadforce, the higher roadforce tire/wheel combo need to go on the rear further from the driver and the tires may need to be spun on the rim to comeup with a TRUER roundness. i g. high spot of tire matched up with the lowest spot on the wheel

 

Rrmmm5- I second what Brutal says and add that I had my wheels road force ballanced with no improvement. I went back to the tire shop and asked them to redo it all. They put their best guy on the bal. machine who redid the bal. and rotated one of the tires on the wheel. He said that too much weight required to bal. a particular tire was a bad thing. He paid particular attention to seeing that the wheels were straight as bent wheels out of the box is not unknown, particullary with after mkt. rims.

Anyway that did the trick and demonstrated to me that in road force ballancing, a well trained tech is key. A good relationship with the tire shop doesn't hurt either.

 

Thanks everyone, all of this is very, very helpful! I'll be talking to my tire guy about this. Thx!

 

One other thing I don't see mentioned. A good wheel alignment can do wonders as well. Mine was out a little and when done the car, along with new tires (all weather) my car rides so nice now I can't get in it without thinking how much I love to drive it.