We bought used 5 mos ago. Has been in shop for 4 months. Dealer couldn't resolve 'shimmey/vibration' when car reaches 61 mph. Vibration felt in steering wheel and is audible. Through extended warranty, drive shaft was replaced as well as motor mount & tires were traded out & still continues. Any ideas?

 

debrajchester, welcome to the Forums. Sorry to hear that you are having such trouble with your new purchase. I think you will find a lot of helpful people here and we ask that you stick around and learn some about your car (I think you will find it invaluable when fixing issues). But, we do ask a favor from you. Please stop by the New Member Section and tell us a little bit about yourself (what car, why you bought the jag, etc). This will help us get to know you and you get to learn who makes this place what it is. I think you will find that we are a different kind of car club that is enjoyable to be around.

Now, for your problem. You ask people around the Forum, I think you will find that most are going to recommend having the rim checked for trueness. I bet you will find that one of your tires (most likely a front wheel if you can feel it in the steering wheel) has hit a pot hole at some point and there is a slight flat spot or bend in the rim. That has been know to cause issues like you see. The other is simply having the car out of alignment. It will cause the steering wheel to start to vibrate. Granted, this is normally not associated with a noise, just a wobble of the steering wheel. Now, speaking of an alignment, 2 points on this. I can almost guarantee that they are doing the alignment of your car wrong as the Jaguar procedure for it says to put about 160 pounds of weight in the driver's seat and then align the car. yes, this does make a different. Slight, but it does. The second thing deals with the tires. The tires should be "Road Force Balanced". This is a slightly more involved way of balancing tires and again, doesn't make a dramatic difference, but there are some members that have had issue until they had both of these done.

If you need me to go into more detail about anything, let me know. I will break it down to the point that you can understand what is going on.

Enjoy the Forums.

 

You can balance a square wheel so that it spins smoothly, but you sure wouldn't want to drive on four of them. Find yourself the "Tire Wizard" in your area. You won't find him via Google, Yelp or Nextdoor. Go to a Cars and Coffee or similar gathering and ask around. Particularly seek out vintage car owners. You'll get a consensus pretty quickly. Such magicians can balance the entire rotating assembly while it's on the car. They can also shave tires to make them round again. Plus lots more, including Road Force and alignment tricks Chris is talking about. "Diagnosis by replacement" is a poor substitute for actual analysis; this is what your current shop seems to be doing.

 

I have always wanted to get my tires balanced on the car for that very reason but I have found any shop that can do it?
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My 2015 AWD had a slight shake in the steering wheel when the front right CV joint was failing. Some humming was heard going straight and it got louder when turning.

TJ

 

When I was in college back in the 70's I worked for a Jaguar dealer in Indianapolis. Was the service department's vehicle tester because the techs were too greedy and wanted to move on to the next broken Jaguar - and there was a steady stream in the 70s. The guy they had there was one of those balancing savants that never took the wheels off to balance any of the E or XJ models. I thinks its almost a lost art now.

Those were good times. I always got a smile when somebody would bring in their E-Type and say "It shakes a little above 100". There was a stretch of open highway...Allisonville Road...local law was willing to ignore us...yeah it was that fun. Obviously I was hooked on Jags from then on...

Back to the problem at hand.

I typically sort these wobbly issues out starting at the outermost points and work to the middle of the car. So tires, rims, rotors, hubs, sway bars, ball joints, tie rods, control arms, steering rack, drive gears/shafts. The more wear items you verify/renew/replace, the better it gets. Usually the clues start in the subtle wear patterns on the tires and you go from there.

If the current dealer hasn't sorted it in 4 months, time to find a new shop. The current techs are not up to the task and they really don't care how much of your time/money they waste. I would move on....

 

Everytime i have feeled an vibration on my steering wheel on my XJ, i have suspected front lower suspension (banana) arm inner bushes, and every time exept one, change of these arms have fixed the vibrations. (three times now, yep: I am collecting high mileage) Same constuction are in some MB models, with same issue.
I was wrong only once: Bought new set of tyres, what shop had difficulties to get reasonable balanced. Vibration in various speeds even RoadForce machine showed that they should be Ok. Changed the arms, checked everyting. Even my original 19" rims was measured for roudnes with RoadForce machine: Outcome was about 0,06mm (0.00236220472 in). In the end brand new set of GY tyres went back to factory and new set of PS4 installed, and all was Ok again. There was something wrong on tyres. (maybe handled wrong in storing or transportation?)
Aftermarket arms can last as low as 20k Miles, originals, made by Lemförder (part of ZF group), last approx 60-90k Miles. Ofcourse depending road conditions and cornering speeds.

 

whats the last 6 digits of the VIN? I wonder if you bought my old XJL, had the same issue when I traded it in.
What tires do you have? the shimmy got better when i went from Continentals to Michelin. Definitely have all 4 rims checked for bends, the car feels unsettled even with the slightest bend. Same goes for the tire presure (i kept mine an even 35psi) and have them road force balanced.

 

Looks like another hit and run?
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