Is it just my amazing driving skills or will the X-Type just NOT slide in the rain?

Torrential downpour and I can floor it off the line without a hiccup..

This guy got mad at me because my car was outperforming his in the rain, so when he took a deep turn his entire car slide into the curb (embarrassing). I can't get the X-Type to slide at all..

Thoughts?

 

Since you're in the USA I assume your car is AWD, hence the traction. This also means that "flooring it off the line" without any wheelspin puts an immense amount of stress on the well-known weak link of the X-Type; the transfer case.

That being said, racing on public roads with someone who apparently doesn't know his car very well doesn't seem too wise to me. Go on a track, or if you want to slide about, drive in snow. You can probably get any car to slide if you drive at truly idiotically unsuitable speeds, but that is unlikely to make you live long nor prosper.

 

Sorry dad, it won't happen again.

 

Lavaman, liek was mentioned, in rainy conditions where the overall traction is limited, the transfer case spreads the power out and allows you to keep traction. You get a high power 2wd car and have all that power going to one set of tires and well, you'll exceed what the road surface can handle rather quickly.

A quick tidbit about tires that most do not realize is that tires actually improve their grip when they slip a little bit (less than 10% slippage on dry roads, about 3% when it is wet). So, you can get more grip than normal with a little slipping. But, you get above the 10%(3%) slip and the amount of traction that you get falls to almost zero. Hence why a little bit of screech is good, lots is bad.

As for the cornering, that is sheer tire performance. If you are running an all-season tire and he is running a summer tire, that in itself will make a world of difference. This is also a time when running a narrower tire will be more helpful in that the tire will tend to "dig" through the rain vice floating (hydro-planing). You get the tire to leave the road and well, I think the results are pretty obvious. Sport cars tend to run wider tires to help with traction during dry conditions.

So, without knowing a few variables, yes, I can see where you car would outperform a much more powerful car when the whether conditions are not ideal.

 

:icon_naugh ty:
I did the same with my Wife's X-Type...the other driver had to slow-down. That is when I decided that I would get my own X-Type but ended up with a VDP instead...

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. The tires are brand new, all-weather, so you are correct

 

All racing aside you are correct the X-Type handles wonderfully in the rain especially in these California 'rains'. They did not engineer these highways for good drainage so there is constant sitting water when it rains even a little bit here and my X takes it like a champ

 

Well, noblesse oblige at least here Jaguar drivers are considered the most polite there are, and the road-racing is almost exclusively the domain of old BMWs.
On a serious note, it's not really a drifter. You can't smoke the tires nor slide much anyway, too much grip and too little power. Thus if you want to drive in a sporty racey fashion, do this (see the 2 videos):
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...sunday-104567/

The AWD is rear-bias, so in slippery (winter really) conditions the back steps out fairly easily, so easily that you should consider it RWD to avoid surprises. I've spun it at 15-20mph on studded tires and I drive as befits my advanced age.
If you haven't already, have a read:
The cars : Jaguar X-TYPE - AROnline

I recall hearing that a quick X-Type, like a 3.0l manual, could outrun an XKR on a bendy road in the wet?

As Thermo said the tires make a world of difference. A racey sports car fellow who perhaps likes to do smoking starts might have their back tires with less-than-ideal tread, and poor back tires with acceptable front tires is a dangerous combination in the wet.

 

I found this thread while desperately searching for handling problems with the x-type. Forgive the quasi-highjack, but it sounds like you folks may be the ones to help me.

We live in beautiful Pennsylvania, the 1/2 with Pittsburgh in it, and the car is a 2004 2.5 liter, standard trans, AWD... I *cannot* control this car on wet or icy roads on curves. It slides very easily in these conditions, especially if other cars are passing nearby. Just so you know, I don't claim to be an expert driver, but I have been driving for 34 years, and have driven in all types of situations. My first car was a rear-wheel driveo--not a big problem in L.A., where I grew up--and my Jag feels like a rear-wheel drive car, big time.

Yes, it accelerates nicely in a straight line, but, after nearly spinning a la NASCAR on several occasions, I've become afraid to drive the thing unless the weather is bone dry...which it seldom is, here in PA. I'm absolutely petrified that I'm going to crash...I've been driving quite s-l-o-w-l-y in the right lane with flashers on, in the hopes that I can retain control when the road curves.

My last car, I admit, was a Subaru Impreza, which never batted an eyelash at icy/wet curvy roads. Even considering that, I think there's something wrong with this X-Type of mine, still. I say "still" because, about 6 weeks ago, while it was cold and snowy, I was sliding all over the place, and my husband replaced the rear tires, which helped...at first.

Now it's back to its old tricks, and I don't like it. I need to be able to trust my car to at least keep pace with the other traffic on the highway in bad weather. Please, please, PLEASE, respond with any advice. I'd really appreciate it! I'm about ready to sell this thing, and we've only had it for 6 months.

 

cellojag, there are a few things that could be leading to what you are experiencing. Lets start with more of the obvious thing: are you running a performance tire or an all-season tire? The performance tire is meant to really only be driven on dry roads and to put it into something other than that will show really bad traction. You may hear these tires referred to as "summer tires". In a lot of cases, these have directional tread (you will see a note on the side of the tire stating that it must be mounted so the tire rotation is in a given direction).

If you have all-season tires, then look in the driver's door jam and find the build date. is it on/after March 2014? The second part of this question is "do you have the DSC button on the center console"? If you have a car that is built on/after March 2014 and no DSC button, you effectively have a 1 wheel drive car. What I mean by this is that the tire that is spinning the fastest will get all the power. So, if you loose traction with one tire, the other 3 tires are just going to sit there. This is why you will find in 2005, all the car pretty much came from the factory with DSC installed. The 2003 and earlier cars don't have this issue due to the viscous coupler in the transfer case.

If you are not sure what kind of tires you have, send me the make and model tire you have and I will tell you all sorts of stuff about the tire. One of the other little known things is that when you buy these higher mileage tires (ie, the ones rated for 60K or 80K miles for example), they get that by running a harder rubber in the tire. What this means to you is that the tire will not have as much traction as the rubber can not flex as much in adverse weather to maintain effective contact with the road.

 

I don't know man....I don't have many problems power sliding in the rain...on dry roads though, it's damn near impossible to loose traction. Oh, and that crap about the transfer case....whooooooooo cares !!!, if it breaks fix it ...lol

 

>there are a few things that could be leading to what you are experiencing

Perhaps the rear control arm bushings are a problem. Loose rear suspension can be "surprising"...

OBTW, there was a lot of chat on this list about rear control arm problems a couple of years ago. Was originally a very expensive problem, since then replacement parts have become available at a much more reasonable cost.
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Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

I live in FL, it rains often here, I've gotten my X to slide a bit a few times in the rain but my tires were pretty worn. On dry roads, I hardly ever get it to slip, even before all my suspension work. The funny thing is even after all the suspension work I did my car almost has no understeer at all now but its still pretty hard to get it to slide. It just grips and goes. Although, having 255s helps a lot too.


I don't want to be the guy that encourages people to beat on their cars but I've been "abusing" my car pretty much since I got it a year and a half ago and I still don't have any problems with my TC. I don't really "launch" my car off the line though.

 

Hi,
I am Cellojags husband. The tires are all season. I don't remember the model, but they are the same as we ran on the Subaru. The car had alignment issues before we changed the tires. We replaced the front rear control arms with the volvo parts that Thermo recommended, but couldn't get into spec due to bad eccentric adjusting bolts. I got some new bolts (thanks Justink), but haven't had them installed and realigned yet. But the setting was much closer to spec with the new arms than before. I have never driven any car that acts like this one. Any spot on the road and the rear wheels want to step out. It sounds fun, but is actually scary. The build date you referenced i am assuming you meant 04, not 14. I will check that tomorrow. I would like to get this solved, because we like the car overall, but she needs to feel safe driving it.
Thanks for any tips you may have.

 

RZMIke, yes, you are correct with the date. It should be 04, not 2014.

As for your problem, if you can make the rear end step out when the roads are dry, then you have a suspension issue and you have a mount (or two) that is elongated and allowing the suspension to move. But, if things are solid, then I would be betting your problem is stemming from the fact that you have a later production 04 X-Type that does not have the DSC feature which will result in the rear tires wanting to break loose in adverse weather. Unfortunately, there isn't much that you can do with a car with those combination of features.

 

Mine does great in rain and just as good in snow as a Subaru. The car was a great buy for me. Just got the oil changed today and putting the BBS rims on soon to put away the winter rims and snow tires. This car is a tank.

 

I took our car in today, had the eccentric adjuster bolt replaced and aligned. We found the thrust angle was out by quite a bit, .49 when it should be between -.13 to .13. This may account for the abrupt sliding we have been experiencing. We got it back to -.01. We were able to get the camber within spec, -.07, it was -1.6 on right, -2.1 on left. we got this by adjusting the volvo arms previously installed a little longer. But we could not get the toe into spec. It should be between .03 and .23, the best we could get was -1.51 on left and -1.49 on right. Does anyone have a suggestions on how we can adjust this? it drives better now, though I didn't have any wet areas to try, but it will still chew up the rear tires quickly with this toe settings. The fronts were able to be put completely into spec.We need to get a total if about 1.5 degrees of toe, which is quite a bit