On my gray 2011 XF, I have had what can best be described as intermittent steering wheel shake. It's been baffling. If I rotate the tires, that seems to help for a while but it comes back. If I re-balance the tires, same thing. If I change the rotors, same thing. Sometimes there's no shake at any time, other times it's a shake only when light braking, sometimes there's a slight shake when driving down the freeway and when braking.

All the suspension components seem good. And I am not buying the residue on the rotors from the brake pads. I think that's BS.

But when someone said wheel bearings, that was the only thing that made sense to me for intermittent shake.

The front wheel bearings are surprisingly easy to change. All the bolts came off easily, and even though I bought a special super-duper slide hammer to pull the bearings out of their mounts, they basically fell out when I undid the 4 bolts on each side. I didn't take any pics or videos because there is already a video from the UK on the job, although he had a bear of a time getting the bearings out because of the UK rust.

I also changed the front rotors again with new ones to make sure they weren't unevenly worn due to wheel bearing issues.

The old wheel bearings after 73K miles seemed perfect. No extra play by hand in any direction and no noises.

The one incident that made me feel like it could be the bearings is when I accidentally went over a speed bump too fast, for a while immediately afterwards, the wheel was shaking while driving, but then went away after a couple of days. I guess it's possible that the bearing inside get reoriented and cause the intermittent issues.

So we will see if this change solves the problem. it was about $400 in parts. I went with Timkin from RockAuto, which is a respected brand for the bearings, and some coated rotors from O-Reilly's. After day 1 of a lot of driving, the car is perfectly smooth at all times, which is nice. But will it last? Fingers crossed!

 

Hi, interesting, I have just purchased 2 new hubs and about to fit them, they were a great price so we will see. I get the same issues as you and I’ve also had the abs say failed when braking on a motorway as the wheels shock so much. 90000 miles on the clock, time will tell.

Done the rears and fantasticly quieter, so high hopes for the fronts

 

That's very interesting. Please do post back whether that permanently addresses the issues. I have a similar concern with my 2010 XF SC. I've had two sets of rotors wear at about 5000 miles each with severe pulsation on braking. I also get what feels like an intermittent shake at moderate speed.
Dealer did a full inspection of the brake system, says hubs are fine too. Not making an noise. But having replaced rotors, pads etc twice and had the same issue I can only guess it's hubs

Did you do all four or just one pair?

 

Just the fronts. No noise or vibrations from the rear. Car is super smooth now.

 

It's been a week now of extensive hard driving on Houston freeways and streets, and so far so good.

But we'll need more time, maybe months, before we can call it a successful fix to the problem.

 

Sounds promising. Thanks for keeping us in the loop

 

Thanks. I did read this thread. There’s nothing in it that I haven’t already tried. In another thread, it was suggested to lubricate the brake caliper pins . I appreciate your help. Mike

 

So you changed the wheel bearings and the problem came back? Your post said nothing about the wheel bearings/hubs.

"changed the rotors 2X, the pads, the sensors, the control arms and did a wheel alignment and the steering wheel continues to shake when I brake"

 

Did you have this issue too before swapping bearings?
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...vering-216195/

 

Nope.

 

Quick folllow up question if I may,

Anyone got the part number / link to the parts to swap the Wheel Bearings?

Save those who want to follow your footsteps a google search?

Thanks in advance.

 

I bought them from RockAuto.

https://www.rockauto.com/?carcode=1447867&parttype=1636

Just put in your car's info on the left, and then order the Timken version, since they have many brands. Timken gets very good reviews.

 

It's been a month and after a lot of mixed city/hwy driving, there's still no wheel shake under braking after changing the front wheel bearings and rotors.

Hope it keeps up.

 

interesting. i should get mine checked as well. ive got some shaking going on. i kept chalking it up to bent rims. maybe its worth a deeper investigation