I am getting a strange vibration in my steering wheel I notice when I'm at about 60mph my wheel starts to vibrate and when I get to 65 it goes away and then when I get to 70mph it comes back..there's no vibration when I'm driving on the street as normal..only on the highway. Could this be out of balance tires? Or maybe bent rims?

 

Ours was doing that. I couldn't ever figure out what was causing it. My wife did find a unique solution. She crashed it. But I don't necessarily recommend that fix.

 

I'd suspect the tires first, and if new tires don't fix it, it's probably warped front brake rotors. You would be amazed at the number of unusual noises, creaks, and vibrations you can get when your rotors and pads are shot.

Bent rims won't usually cause intermittent vibrations.

 

It may be just a matter of re-tracking the front end , or having the wheels rebalanced.

 

Noxparadise, I have this same wobble that you are talking about (granted, mine is constant from about 65-75 mph, no going away in the middle). In the past, mine has gone away with simply getting an alignment done on the car. But, it returned within a year. But, another alignment and the wobble went away.

With all this being said, others have found that they had a bent rim and once the new rim was installed, the wobble went away. So, you may want to spend the extra $100 and have all 4 wheels removed and have what is called a "runout check" done on the rims. This pretty much sees how much wobble side to side the wheel has. We are talking on the scale of 0.005" or so. The other recent thing I have noticed that seems to be fixing this issue is a new wheel bearing. It may be possible that there is just a little bit of play in the wheel bearing and that is developing an oscillation at speed. But, you can check the wheel bearing by simply getting the front wheels off of the ground and putting your hands at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and trying to turn the wheel from the outside (like you were turning the steering wheel). If you get any movement, you have either a bad tie rod end or a bad wheel bearing. Having a second person may help in narrowing down where the movement is occurring.

 

I have no Jag experience, or very little, but in other vehicles over 50+ years of driving, steering wheel wobble that comes and goes as speed changes has usually been resolved by tire balance.

That is not to say you don't have a more serious mechanical issue, bearings, tie rod ends, etc., but I tend to go with easy/least expensive fixes first.

And you may even take a look on the inner side of the rims for an accumulation of road debris that could cause a balance problem. Actually had that occur in the past; discovered it when I removed a front wheel to inspect linkages.

 

Thanks I'll check out the wheel bearing, the rotors are pretty brand new only a few months old Callahan slotted/drilled rotors, with ceramic breaks. As for tires we did have brutal winter and lot if pot holes, what I do notice is when I am slowing down (lower speeds like under 20mph down to 0) I feel like one side of the car becomes lopsided or like it's a little bumpy and uneven, I'm thinking this May be a rim issue..anyone know what the lopsided stopping issue may be?

 

With just 130k miles on mine lot's of stuff on the front suspension was worn out including wheel bearings, and the lower control arms/ball joints (and my car spent it's entire life in rust free FL). Either one of those could cause the problems your having.

With nearly new rotors and pads, I guess you can rule them out as the problem until you check that everything else is good.

You may want to rotate the tires to the rear of the car first just to see if it's a bad tire causing all your grief, but if not you probably are looking at something related to worn/sloppy ball joints, control arm bushings, and/or wheel bearings.

For me, it was well worth the few hundred bucks to get new wheel bearings and lower control arms replaced as it drives nice and smoothly now and should be trouble free for another decade or so.

The good news is nothing on the suspension is expensive and lot's of affordable quality parts are for sale out there.

Good luck

 

Is there any noticible wear on the tires? You can tell a lot from "reading" your tires.

Make sure your air pressure is good.

Jack it up and try to wiggle your front wheels back and forth. (non jaguar specific) is there any play?

Get your wheels balanced, most high speed vibrations end up being tire air pressure, or wheel balance.

If those basic things are done And the vibration continues, then I would move onto other options, but do the basics first.

Heck make sure your wheel lug nuts are tight too!

 

Yes there is a little bit of wear on the inside tire, so that probably means my lower control arm is needing to be replaced? I notice on both tires, had anyone done this? I replaced my rear control arms, is front any more difficult?

 

Pretty easy job, just a few bolts on lower ball joint, tie rod end, sway bar end link, and then take out the 4 bolts to lower sub-frame on the side of the car you're working on. Use a jack under the loosened tie rod end nut to lift up on it and then give it a tap with a hammer and it will pop apart.

After that pry up on the lower ball joint connection and the control arm will come right out. You have to take the sub-frame bolts loose and use a pry bar to push it down enough to get the lower control arm bushing bolts all the way out.

New one goes in without too much trouble and no alignment necessary when you're finished.

On the passenger side, I also took the brake caliper off and the three bolts at the top of the strut removing the entire assembly for a little extra room.

Total time was about 3 hours start to finish. E-Bay control arms were about $80 each.

 

If there is excessive wear on the inside that indicates wheel alignment. Take it in for an alignment and ask them to try and diagnose the problem. If its not the alignment and its another front end issue they will tell u. If you want to do it yourself, tell them. They may charge for the diagnosis but tell them you will bring it back to be aligned after you do the work.


I would rather pay 60 bucks for a diagnosis then hundreds on parts I don't need. You will need an alignment no matter what you do so avoiding the shop is unlikely.

 

I have new front tires and it's slight wear on the inside so I'll try alignment first, thanks max for info in changing front control arms I'll start looking into that as well.