Back in the spring I had my tires rotated, front to back. I have the 17 inch wheels with low profile Continental Pro contact tires. Since I had the rotation done I have noticed when I first go out and the tires are cold there is a slight vibration in the tires and or suspension. The tires by the way are almost new and have about 3K miles on them and are almost two years old. When I drive for about 10 min to 15 min the vibration goes away and the car is nice a smooth, except of course when you hit a bump with these cars, you don't feel it as much as hear it. I did have the front and rear swaybar bushings replaced over a year ago and this made the suspension much quieter and the car handled better. Any opinions on what is going on with the tires. I check the pressure regularly, I have nitrogen in my tires. The wheels are not bent and there seems to be no flat spots on the tires. As I wrote as soon as they warm up the ride smooths out. Since I bought the car in June of 2010 I have only put a little over 3K miles on it.

I went down to Hartford yesterday and it is all interstate. From where I live you have to take a interstate connector I291 to I91. The off ramp to I 91 is a long left hand sweeping turn that is designed to keep you at highway speed upon entrance to 91. As I was going off the connector and turning slightly left I noticed the car felt like it was going to lift off its left wheels, I slowed down from 60MPH to 55 MPH and the lifting feeling stopped. I have noticed this several times but only on left hand sweeping turns. Any ideas about it, or am I just going to fast for the turn, the posted speed limit is 50MPH. No other car I've had did this at this turn off at 65mph and higher. Thank!

 

Quote "When I drive for about 10 min to 15 min the vibration goes away and the car is nice and smooth."

That describes a cold tire with a flat spot, slowly warming, becoming round again. In most cases, you will not see the flat spot, just feel it.
I have actually seen bad cases of flat spots, too bad to drive on.

As for the suspension, not much experience with X-Types as yet.

Cold temps makes the air molecules in your tire contract, reducing the the air pressure thus causing "flat spots". Once the air molecules warm up your tires should be fine. One more reason to check your tire pressure before driving. Cold weather also causes other problems with rubber compounds, do a search to find out more.

 

>I noticed the car felt like it was going to lift off its left wheels, I slowed down from 60MPH to 55 MPH and the lifting feeling stopped.

Heh, that's because your car handles like a performance car and unweights the inside wheel while holding its line. The alternative was to either over or under(probably) steer and slide to the right.

So, have you never owned a fast car before or was it only fast in a straight line...
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Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

That's odd as before I had the tires rotated this wasn't a issue. I wonder why it became an issue after the rotation? But I'm not going to worry about it as I said it is nice an smooth after 10 min or so. Thanks!

Whell Center Caps. I bought 4 new center caps for my wheels as they were crappy. Now the question is I think I am going to have to take off the wheels to put them on. I tried to pry them off, but no dice. I might try prying again, this time with a knife as the blade is thinner and might be able to get under the cap. On the Benz I had I was able to pry them off with damaging the wheel. But these seem to fit very snugly against the wheel.

 

[quote=pab;453394]>I noticed the car felt like it was going to lift off its left wheels, I slowed down from 60MPH to 55 MPH and the lifting feeling stopped.

Heh, that's because your car handles like a performance car and unweights the inside wheel while holding its line. The alternative was to either over or under(probably) steer and slide to the right.

So, have you never owned a fast car before or was it only fast in a straight line...

I have owned several performance cars with performance suspension in my life and I had a SCCA license for for many years, raced historical races in NY, CT and several other states, back in the 90's I had a Audi A4 spec RS which I drove during the week and raced on weekends. I had a roll bar added to SCCA specs by a friend who was a welder, and a set of racing tires and wheels, I used the stock seats up from but took out the rear seat cushion. I bolstered the front seats with thick form rubber using Velcro to hold it on, no problem with the inspectors. Even had a small pit crew of a bunch of friends. Never did better then 5th place but it was fun, and I did it for fun and not so much to win. I never felt this coming off the pavement feel before in any car I have owned. But no all performance suspension are built the same, an understeering did bring it back in line. I stopped in the late 90's as I was driving my MG in a historical race, the steering failed and I ended up head on in a tree. Didn't get hurt, but I ruined a nice car. So I decided it was stopping time. Thanks for the information.

The reason I went to Hartford was to the Jaguar dealer to pick up new center caps for the wheels and a new defroster vent cover for the drivers side. The parts person told me Jaguar redesigned the button that holds one side down and this one should stay on. No problem yet with the passenger side. I also came in the color of my dash, usually these type of parts you need to get painted, but for $48 they should paint it. The center caps for the wheels by the way are $24.95 a piece. Now as I posted earlier I have to either take off each wheel or find something very thin to pray off the old ones without damaging the wheel PS: It snowed about a inch last night and another inch of freezing rain, kinda sloppy out.

 

>>So, have you never owned a fast car before or was it only fast in a straight line...

>I have owned several performancecars with performance suspension in my life and I had a SCCA license for for many years

Sorry, no insult intended, I should have added a smiley face...

But I wonder if you might have triggered the stability control. I've only done that a couple of times and found it very disconcerting. The car started to behave in a way that wasn't related to steering input or the expected reaction. Very strange if you're not expecting it.
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Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

There is something else I found since my original post, when I make a right hand sweeping turn at the same speed I don't get the lifting off the ground feeling as I do on a left hand sweeping turn. There is a very narrow zone this happens, between 50 mph and 60 mph after that it seems to go away and the car feels planted to the road. I am wondering if it is over or under steer under certain condition as the angle of turn or road conditions? My mechanic checked my suspension and found it OK. I even went to Jaguar, as I had to pick up some parts, some SOB smashed the housing of my left outside rear view mirror. Did you all know the out mirrors are three pieces, the glass, the black surround and mounting point is 2 and the cover behind the mirror can be taken off, is 3 All I needed was the black surround as whoever did this broke that, the glass is OK and so is the back of the mirror. $174.00 with my discount for the surround and the mounting piece. That is with my discount. While I was there I asked if they could check my suspension. I had to wait a hour but they did, no charge and they found nothing, except I had the bushings on the front and rear swaybar replaced. The service manager asked me who changed them? I said a local shop in my area, and then he asked how much did it cost? I said $200 with parts included. I continued and said this is a lot better then the $800 you wanted. He just said I got a good deal and walked away. When he came back I said where the bushings put in correctly? He responded that's what I checked and they are.