Almost two months from purchase it had 14K miles and now 1000 miles more, one huge pot hole around Newark Airport, NJ, bent rim, deformed tire. Replaced tire at dealer and they "reconditioned the front 8.5 Volan.
Recently I noticed vibration in the steering wheel between 62 and 72 miles, very noticable on cruise control ie constant speed, since this is the hwy range.
Dealer checked the wheels and the tires and quickly came up with the flat spot story, I explained it does not apply, as I use the car for day to day use, and my Maserati with the same Perilli PZero tires have a flat spots due to low usage and the result is simply road noise, nothing more!
Now what?! The dealer could not source another set of rims and tires to isolate the problem from being a wheel problem, or suspension - steering issue!
I read the thread that was in 2010 by Gary, who had a similar problem and I guess he was in contact with Jaguar to resolve the issue.
Any ideas?

 

That symptom is wheel or tire imbalance. Flat spotting causes vibration at all rpm and is most noticeable at low speeds. Was the tire that hit the pothole replaced? If not I suspect the carcass of the tire may have been damaged. This can tke a few miles to show up after the initial impact. Any decent tire shop with a good quality balancer can diagnose this. You don't need a new wheel or tire to diagnose this problem.

 

Almost any time I’ve heard of speed sensitive vibration, somewhere in the 55 – 70 range, it’s a high speed balance issue.
Either the tire is not manufactured to a specific enough spec to allow for proper weight distribution and needs to be replaced, of you need to reinstall the tire. They are supposed to place the heavy spot on the wheel directly opposite the heave spot on the tire. If they don’t typically at high speeds they can’t balance the tire. There are shops that have high speed balance machines to directly address this issue.

I would ask the dealer to “break down the tire”, take it off and reset weight extremes and see if this resolves the issue. If they refuse, you can take it to any reputable tire shop and they can address. If it fixes it then, you can ask the dealer to reimburse you. If it doesn’t fix it, you wheel may be too damaged to continue to use.

That’s my 2 cents.

 

Flat spotting on these pirelli tires does happen quite often but it goes away quickly after a few miles. Ask them to "road force balance" the tires and see if it goes away. I think you can tell them the MPH it's happening at and they can balance the tires for that speed. They might not have the correct equipment to do it but there are shops that can.

 

Hmmmm, your dealer does not seem very resourceful. What I would do first is replace the damanged wheel with a good one from the back of the car. After confirming that with that wheel there is no vibration I would get a new wheel or set. If with the rear wheel you still have vibes you may have a bad tie rod or loose suspension component. You could also send in the rim to those recondintioning services that will true it on a lathe and then balance it with out a tire.

 

He can't swap wheels since the rear on the Supercharged version is wider than the front.

 

Go to an independent tire store and have them check the rim for any imperfections due to the pothole mess. A bent rim,ever so slight, might be your problem and the Jag dealership may not have caught it...get a second opinion!

 

The problem is definitely not flat spot related. Flat spot vibrations go away after 2 miles of driving, if you use the car every day. If not, it may need extra few miles, but definitely has nothing to do with your vibration.

If you mechanically inclined, i would take the rear wheels and put them on a front and go for a quick test drive. If the vibration disappears, you will need the "affected" wheel replaced.

I think the rears will fit up front, but you may not be able to cut the wheel completely left/right. Which is okay, since you are only going on a short drive.

 

Thank you for your replies, I believe this could happen to any of us since the tires profile get slimmer and roads getting worse!
I stumbled into this link;
road force balancing - what questions to ask?
Did anyone have "Road Force Balanced wheels" before? Sounds interesting!

 

I did. I told my dealer to do it when I was buying my XF (used) because I was paranoid about getting a car with a bent rim. Turns out it was flat spotting on my car not a rim. Still I'm glad they did it.

 

My tire guy uses a road force balancer. I highly recommend it. The Jaguar is sensitive to wheel balance. A road force balancer balances the wheel/tire unit as if it is actually rolling down the road.

 

Got the car back from the dealer Prestige Jaguar, NJ and:
1- Vibration is now at a wider spectrum from 58 to 82 (as fast as I went)
2- $300 paid to road force balance
3- Scratched rims during the process
Result is that the front tires are deformed (though new) and the rear ones are good, of course they can't put them in the front to test.
I find myself gazing at BMW 535 with great fondness these days....

 

You may want to check in on a BMW forum and read up on run flat tire issues with the 2011/12 5 series. Your gaze may turn to a wince.

 

Sorry to hear your problem wasn't taken care of.

I can feel your frustration but, i will be honest though, you should have never spent the money. The bent rim was your problem and it just needs to replaced.

 

One of many BMW... well... experiments, I had many BMW's in my life and though suffered from their adaptaion to immature technologies in their cars, basic issues were mostly taken care of (not including the TPMS warning that is always on)

 

I guess you are right! (Although they say the rim is perfect) Dealing with dealers these days is like a guessing game! I will check the car with another set and see if the vibration exists.
The dealers are so helpless, they are only fit to offer oil changes, if that!

 

Usually it's very hard to get a wheel back to perfect once it gets out of shape.
I would keep an eye out on ebay and just pull the trigger on a Volan wheel if you come across one. Wouldn't hurt to have an extra one laying around anyway.

Very easy to get a wheel bent these days, considering a lot of luxury cars come equipped with 19", 20" wheels standard with a rubber band wrapped around them.....one of the reasons i decided to get 18s for my LS.

 

Dealerships can't do oil changes either. The problem is in the way they manage their shops. Eventually, the good mechanics get tired of all the warranty games and start their own independent shops with a business model of pleasing the customer instead of pleasing the manufacturer.

 

Instead I purchased tire and wheel hazard insurance from the selling dealer. Most recent news is that they will replace the tires, road force balance them and we'll see!

 

Car now has two new front tires, road force blanced, vibration is like never before, the whole car now vibrates over 70mph!
The dealer asked to return the car to see to the issue, but my feel is that they have no clue.