Hi, I just got my x-type recently, its 2002, its good that my engine run great, the rims have been changed to 17" by the previous owner, it has the wheel center hub on it and 225/45/17 tires on it and I assume everything is right over there. The only problem that bother me is the tires, I'm not sure. I did almost 200kph when I drove it back home and it runs without a problem. I decided to got my tires changed. After that, I have steering wheel vibration when I do more than 90kph. The vibration is kinda like what you get when your tires arent balanced. I took them into shop and balanced them twice and didnt solve my problem. One more problem I have is, when there are more than 4 people in the car, the tire (rear driver side) crashes with my cars "body". Are all these problem has to do with my tires, suspension? Please kindly advise. Thank you in advance.

Jaguar x-type 2002 2.5 V6 manual and I believe is the very base model.

 

tzh, as for your imbalance issue. Take the car to a different shop and have them perform 2 checks. First is a trueness check of the rim (make sure it rolls in a straight line, not wobbling side to side). If the rim is not true, it will still balance. If the rim is not true, I would be questioning how the rim got bent. Normally this occurs from hitting a curb pretty good. If all the tires are true, then have them do what is called a "road force balance". This is slightly different than a standard balancing job and it tends to take out vibrations like you are talking about.

Something else that you can try is rotating the tires front to rear (keeping the tires on the same side of the car). If the vibration goes away, then you know you have a problem with the rim/tire that is now on the rear of the car. If the problem remains, then you have a suspension issue. If this is the case, then you will need to check the tie rod ends, the lower ball joint, and the strut for any looseness. if you need help on how to do this, let me know. It is pretty easy to do, but having a second person with you makes the job easier.

Now, for the rear tire striking the body, it sounds like to me that the person that had the new rims put on the car did not know what they were getting and they got a rim with too little backspacing/too little positive offset. What is happening is the rim is sitting too far out to the side of the car. While this gives a nice presentation to the car (ie, tires sit flush with the body of the car), it can lead to problems when you have a lot of weight inside the car (ie, 4 people). Unfortunately, the only fix to this is to get rims with more backspacing/more positive offset. Your other option is to step down 1 size in the tread width (ie, go from the current 225 tires to 215 tires). This will pull the tire back about 1/4" which may give you the needed clearance. It all depends on how bad the tires are rubbing the body.

 

thanks thermo, i might go to another shop to check on my rims and get the force balance done since i already done rotating my wheel the other day. you mention check the tie rod ends, the lower ball joint, and the strut for any looseness, how do i know if these parts are loose? is it possible that this parts are toasted?

p/s: I tried to pressing four of my suspension with hand "i have seen people done that, and my suspension seems allright, it doesnt bounce like a spring, does this help my case abit? im just a student, im so worry if the fixing cost a lot, would you let me know is all these a major problem?

 

TZH, ok, stick a jack under a front wheel of the car and lift the tire off of the ground. Now, place your hands at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions and attempt to turn the wheel from side to side (like you were going to make the car turn). Can any movement between the tie rod and the spindle be seen? If yes, the tie rod is shot and needs to be replaced. Also, when looking at the lower ball joint and the strut shaft, can you see movement as you attempt to move the tire? If yes, the part that is moving is shot and needs to be replaced.

Now, with the tire still in the air, using a 2x4 or other prybar (DO NOT USE YOUR HANDS!!!!!!! Bodily damage can occur!!!!!!!!), stick the prybar under the tire and attempt to push the bottom edge of the tire towards the center of the car. As you are pushing on the tire, can you see the lower ball joint or strut moving? If yes, the part that is moving needs to be replaced.

Remove the pry bar and repeat on the other front tire. Normally an imbalanced tire will not be too evident on the rear of the car unless something serious is wrong. So, if rotating the tires doesn't change anything, the rear of the car is fine. If there is something bad back there, normally a sweeping curve and playing with the gas will make that problem evident as you will feel the rear of the car want to slide to the side as you are getting on and off of the gas. If you do feel this, let me know and I will give you the checks for the rear of the car.

I wish you lived closer to me. I would tell you to come on over and we would do a once over of your car. Then all you would have to pay for is parts. I do almost all of my own work.

 

Hi thermo, so this time i bring to another shop and have a check on my wheels, he show it to me and my wheels did really bend, then i was about to check on what kinds of wheel should i put on, when i try to get into the photo gallery section, i got this message

tzhyang, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

Can you tell me what can I do to get in there? And one more question, when I choose a rim, I need to be aware or the 17x7 thing only? what is et40?et42 or there are other stuff I need to worry about? Its like I saw this 17x7 rims on the tirerack website, try call for the price, when he ask me whats my car and i tell him, he said that wont fit in my car??

Again, thanks.

 

tzhyang, as for your inability to post pictures, that is part of our rules for the site. You need a minimum post count before you are allowed to download pics and whatnot. If you look in the "New Members Section", there is a topic there that is dedicated to these rules. This was done to help minimize the amount of spam that was coming into the site. It isn't hard to get the minimum post count.

As for the rims, the "ET40" is an abbreviation for offset, or the spacing of the hub in relation to parts of the rim. In this case, ET40 stands for +40MM of spacing between the back side of the hub (where you bolt the wheel to the car) and the center of the rim side to side. For your car, you want the +40MM of offset if you are looking at 7" wide wheels. Granted, you may find out that 7" wide wheels may be a little bit on the narrow side as the factory rims are 7.5" wide. Also keep in mind that offset is a function of the rim width (remember, it is based on the center of the rim side to side, wider rim means this center point is in a different location as you relate it to the back side of the rim lip). Another value that you may find of interest is one called "backspacing". This is much easier to understand as it is simply the measurement from the back edge of the rim to the hub (where you bolt the tire down). For our cars, you are after something in the 5" range.

Other than the offset/backspacing number, the bolt pattern is key as there are many options and if you don't get the right one, you can get rims that will either not bolt up to the car or put undo stress on the studs that hold the rim to the car and cause them to fail suddenly (I would hate to see you get passed going down the highway by one of the wheels on your car, not good).

After that, keep in mind that you need to run atleast a 16" rim. You will also find out that getting rims larger than 19" will normally lead to problems with the tires hitting the body unless you do lots of work. Also, the overall tire diameter needs to be kept in check. The tires just clear using the stock tires size. If you go to an overall larger diameter tire, you are likely to run into rubbing issues.

If you need any issues resolved, let me know.

 

wow, now okay, i figure out my rubbing issue is due to my strut and shocks, i might replace them, if they works allright, it shouldnt be a problem if i put a rim with measurement of 18x8, the offset 45mm should be fine right? and bolt size for our car believe to be 5x108.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/New-1...s#ht_499wt_987

this one should work with 225/18/40 tires?

One more thing, about the backspacing, I still don't really understand, can you explain to me in a more simple way? Like what would happen if the spacing is less than or more than 5"? I apologize my broken english, its like my second year learning English.

 

or do you have anything recommendation? Again thanks.

 

As for the tires you are looking at, yes, those would be the best choice to go with. As for the width of rim, the 8" rims may be a little too wide. I was going off of memory and the factory 17" rims are only 7" wide (not 7.5" wide like I was thinking). Going with an 8" rim, can lead to rubbing issues with the outside edge of the wheel well (top center specifically). So, if you can find 7.5" wide rims, that would be what you want. Granted, 7" wide rims will also work.

As for backspacing. The easiest way I can explain it, take a tire off of your car. Lay the side of the rim that you normally see down on to the ground. You are now looking at the back of the rim. Take a ruler and put it across the back of the tire. Now, in the center of the tire, use a second ruler to measure straight down. This is your back spacing (from the bottom of the first ruler to the back of the rim).

 

Hi thermo, my car got this sound like a diesel car when i accelerate in first and second gear, only during accelerate, after like 2 seconds accelerating in both gears, the noise go away. Also when i slow down in second gear and then if i go full throttle suddenly, the same noise came in. is it because of the trans fluid? or a chipped tooth in gear? ive just got my differential fluid replace recently, not sure if it has anything to do with this.

 

TZH, first question is where the noise is coming from. Is it the engine or is it the tranny/transfer case. Based on how you describe the noise, it is sounding like the engine. If this is the case, the replacement of fluids has nothing to do with the noise other than if the tech was looking to create a bit more business (not questioning their integrity, but in these hard times.....).

As a general rule, if the fluid in the tranny was messed up, the tranny would not shift into gear. So, since you don't talk about slippage or not going into gear like it should. I'm ruling out the tranny. If the rear differential was messed up and got bad lube or something like that, you would be getting whine all the time, not just part of the time. Also, if you were to drive the car and then stop, lift the car up a little bit, putting your hand near the differential would result in your pulling your hand back quickly due to the heat. The differential will normally be a little warm, but you should still be able to rest your hand on it for a short period of time.

The "diesel" noise that you talk about I have seen normally created 3 ways. The most likely is a low octane problem (ie, using 87 octane gas when the car requires 93). This can be corrected by ensuring you are using the correct grade gas from a reputable dealer. The second way is having a cracked exhaust manifold. This causes the back pressure on a cylinder to be too low, resulting in valve bounce, therefore the dieseling sound. The final way is with a lifter inside the head sticking, not providing the necessary pressure on the rocker, leading to the rocker bouncing around, causing the rattling. Since our engines don't have rockers (ie, the camshaft pushes directly on the valves), it is possible that the valve is sticking slightly, leading to the tapping sound you are hearing. But, that should also be associated with a loss of power and a check engine light (emissions fault).

Hopefully this gives you a little bit to think about.

 

thanks, i will give octane 93 a shot next week when i fill up my tank, i alway thought they are all the same.

 

TZH, the basic components of gasoline are the same except for the octane in the gas. Octane is essentially a combustion preventer. I know this sounds oximoronic, but that is why it is in there. It is meant to prevent what is called spontaneous combustion/pre-detonation/pinging. Essentially, you have a hot cylinder that you are dumping fresh fuel and air into. Get the fuel hot enough, it will burn without a spark. Just to make things worse, as you are compressing the air/fuel mixture, the rising cylinder pressure also causes the temperature to go up (think about an air compressor, the discharged air is very warm). This is normally where the pre-detonation/pinging occurs. By adding octane, you are raising the temperature that needs to be acheived to cause the fuel to burn. Since your spark plug creates a spark that is extremely hot, it easily exceeds this temperature needed due to the octane, allowing the fuel to burn at a desired time.

 

Hi thermo, I put on new wheels and new tires and the vibration was taken off. I fill up the more expensive gas and got rid of the diesel noise. Replace leaking struts and shocks, and get rid of the rubbing tires on the wall. Broken transmission mount was replaced so do the rear bushings. The car feel much smoother now. I got it for 6k and put 3k on all the works, its more than what I've expected but i guess it is worth it and im very happy. I want to thank you for all the advises, it certainly does not help me with working on my car since i send them to workshop all the time but it does certainly made me a much more knowledgeable driver. Again, thank you so much.