Hey guys, i posted this in the suspension section and didnt get to many replies. Ill try and give as much info as possible....
Took it to Jaguar for an alignment in turn they called me into the garage. Said my car was in an accident and an alignment will not fix the lean. I asked what needs to be replaced and he would not give me a direct answer. Said he would hate tell me the wrong part. LOL. Anywho, it looks to have had the trailing arm replaced but the upper and lower bushings for the arms look worn. Its wearing the tire down fast on the inside. Nothing looks bent or out of place as far as i can see. Compared to the other side. Would replacing the upper and lower arms/bushing put me back on track??? Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

Come on people!!! LOL. Someone has to have or had a leaning wheel!!!!!

 

I, based on what you are describing, I would first start with getting the upper control arm replaced. That should have a significant effect on getting the rear tire to be more straight up and down. Next, if that doesn't fix it completely, the dealership will have to get under the car and adjust the rear suspension points (surprised they didn't tell you about that when you were in there). The rear suspension is on its own set of mounts. They are adjustable to some degree. Based on the fact that you are being told the car was in an accident, it is very possible that these mounts have been moved some, leading to a condition that can't be corrected with an alignment (not to mention that there is no adjustment for your camber issue anyways unless you are replacing parts).

If you want a more detailed explaination, let me know. I will go into as much detail as you can stand. You may want to go back to the dealership and ask them about having the rear frame adjusted and see what the guy says. I will admit that it is a royal PITA unless you have the correct tools, but being the dealership, they should have those tools on hand. Atleast one would think.

 

Thanks a lot THERMO, ive learned quite a bit off this forum. At the dealer the mech said the cam bolt was maxed and couldnt do much. Which it isnt, i looked. Second he said he couldnt see anything bent or out of place really other than the lower conrol arm bushings were bad and the uppers dont look to hot either. I found a website, well a few, that sell the lower and upper for 200 for both. Was thinking of replacing both. Also have a brand new set of bilstien sport shocks to go in to. Hopefully all this will bring me back into spec to be properly aligned!! Im just a little sketchy as it does lean quite a bit. So any advise that would make an impact of straightening her out, im all ears

Thanks!!!

 

Ok guys i just got my upper and lower control arms and shocks in. I put everything in today. Installed a new upper control arm and new lower front control arm with on the driverside wheel that was leaning inward. REALLY NO CHANGE!!!!!!!!!????????????? WTF!!!! What do i do now? Shims?

Please help with this one as i would like to get it fixed before winter.

Thanks
DAve

 

I hate to say the dreaded D word but sounds to me like I would start with a Dealership, they have seen a million X Types and would be able to advise you best what's not in spec. Any chance the frame is bent?

 

Yea i had it at the dealer and they couldnt give me a direct answer. The frame looks straight to me. The passenger side looks good too. Dont see anything bent as far as the frame work for the suspension. I mean i guess i could take it back to the Dealer but i feel my wallet getting skinnier already.

 

I'd tell the dealer what has been replaced, and ask why is the wheel of caster or camber or whatever. Tell them you'll give them an hours labor charge to look at it.

 

Figure out how to get your other wheels to roll with some camber.. Throw on some wider wheels, lower it and rock it!

 

You know, I didn't give this too much thought until I looked at my 2003. The rear tires lean in some on mine too. I also started looking at other cars as I drive down the road. I noticed that other x types also lean in. I also noticed that a great many cars and SUV on the road have rear tires that lean in relative to the front.

I looked at my x type on the rack. It has the cam bolts, and I thought I would just be able to adjust them. No. The suspension is a multi-point system, and when you change the cam on the botton link, the toe would change. The upper rear control arms are fixed and in good condition. Never wrecked.

I have to assume that a certain amount of camber that is normal for the car....although I don't know why. It has to wear the tires on the inside. I just replaced a set of tires that had the inside worn down to the cords. I didn't even see it from the outside of the car (and I look.)

I just bought a set of Michelins (VERY nice) and I am keenly aware of how the tires are going to wear. This is not a toe-in/out issue. This is the camber on the rear wheels. I have to think this is a normal thing for the Xtype as there is no waty to really change the camber on the rear.....unless I'm missing something.......

 

I definately agree that it has some slight inward camber. They are suppose to for handling purposes. But not so much that it just wears the inside down to fast. The passenger side looks perfect with just a slight bend inward. So i know mine is jacked. Not sure where as ive changed almost everything. THERMO seems to think it may be a whole assembly out of adjustment. Where that is im not sure. But anywho...as im about to post...i have much bigger problems now. Blown engine!!!!!!!! FML

 

Hey THERMO or anyone knowledgable in suspension...was wondering if a wheel hub bearing would cause a tilt in the wheel? Ive replaced everything guys. New Bilstein shocks, upper control arm, new lower outer control arm, and the lower control that holds the spring was replaced after the accident. What else would cause such a lean??!! I wanna tackle everything when i get my baby back. Now that i have to replace the engine!!! ahhhhhhhh!

 

Not sure if the x is similar to my xk8, but a worn bearing on my rear did give a little movement to the 12-6 o'clock position if you have it up on a jack. If it doesn't move with a little tuggin, its not the bearing. I can't say camber was 'noticeably' improved though, sorry.

 

H20boy.....Yea ive tried to wiggle the damn thing and havnt got any movement out of it. Im at a stand still. I highly doubt the frames bent, everything matches up nicely. None of the bushing angles look to crazy, i mean granted the wheel is inward causing some distortion but nothing way out of the norm. Im already gettin down to the wires on the tire and will throw a decent used one on until i get it figured out. Just sucks.

Thanks tho

 

If you have too much negative camber on left(driver) side then you need to shift the subframe towards right(passenger) side. Loosen the subframe bolts to snug. Mark the position with a scribe or a marker then hit from left to nudge the subframe to right. Verify by checking against the marks you made earlier.

I'm going with the dealership that yours may have been in a minor fender bender, perhaps ran into curb on right side pushing the rear subframe to the left. Or bent things in the process.

 

You may be on to something. THERMO suggested something like that but wanted to know more. He hasnt gooten back yet.

But my LEFT REAR DRIVER SIDE wheel tilts inward. Correct me if im wrong, with your method wouldnt i shift the sub frame to the left to bring the top of the tire back out? Or am i not on the right area? Is the subframe on bottom or top? Bottom portion would shift right to bring top out? Top portion shift left to bring top out?

Please elaborate more as this makes sense and im just not sure what exactly your talking about.

THANKS!

Dave

 

I 3, because you are talking about the car having been in an accident, I take it that the car was hit in such a way to cause it be see large forces to the side of the car (ie, car sliding ways and hitting a curb that way, car being hit from the side, etc). This type of force can move things.

Taking a look at the way that the rear suspension is inside of the car, I would be looking at the lower arm at the front of the driver's rear wheel (the side that is leaning in) or the squareness of the rear frame assembly. If the driver's wheel caught something and pulled on the bottom of the tire (more than simply the car sliding sideways), it could bend that mount, which would then cause that tire to be toed out (pointing to the left). The fix for this (assuming the alignment guy didn't notice the mount being bent) would be to adjust the driver's side lower arm. The combination of these two things would cause the tire to lean inwards like you are talking about. The other option is that the front of the passenger rear tire took the brunt of the force as the car was hit on the passenger side. This could cause the front mounts to shift to the left while the rear mounts remained stationary. This would result in the rear subframe being twisted. This would again result in the driver's side front lower arm being pushed to the left, being compensated as mentioned above. This would also cause the passenger tire to be adjusted, causing this tire to ride very upright, if not leaning outwards at the top.

You can prove the squareness of the rear subframe by using a tape measure and finding all 4 of the mounts for the rear subframe. You want to measure from the front driver's side mount to the rear passenger side mount and then a second measurement from the front passenger side mount to the driver's side rear mount. Pick a spot on the front mounts that is easily accessible that is at the same point on each of these mounts and the same for the rear. Don't use the center of the bolts as this may not be the true position of the rear frame. Both of these measurements should be the same (give or take a 1/4" or so due to measuring inaccuracies). But, if this is bent like you say, you will probably find the measurements off by like 1/2" or more.

 

Well guys this is where im at with the wheel. Again ive replaced the upper control arm, lower control arm and shocks. Still the wheel leans at an almost 3 degree. That is a lot!! So while its been on the rack at the shop for the engine swap i was looking at it and noticed the arm that holds the spring is cocked a little and the bushings seem blown out. Would this cause the problem? Also while its in the air the wheel sits nice and straight, up and down.

As far as the sub-frame there are 4 bolts that hold it in. NOTHING looks to be out of the ordinary. Everything lines up too. Im not sure if there is an adjustment with the 4 bolts or not. But as far as I can see no, not at all.

 

The rear rear lower control arm, that the coil spring rests on has an adjustment built in.

I was worried that both of my rear tires were leaning inwards. I also knew my front rear control arms had trashed bushings. So I replaced them and the rear rear control arms, then had an alignment done. They said the only thing out of spec was rear toe. The inward tilt is as designed, and toe is adjusted to compensate for tire wear.

Anyway back to your point, my rear rear control arms didn't seem worn once I replaced them. The Bushings seem OK, and I haven't tossed them out yet if you wanted a free one to try. They are fairly easy to change.

 

I would say if you've got a blown bushing at the very least it's worth your time to replace it. If your alignment comes back into spec then you've killed two birds with one stone.