I am the recent buyer of a 2004 XJR that has needed a lot of work.

I took it to the local Jaguar dealer after the car indicated an air suspension failure. The dealer repair sales rep had to get a repair for a new compressor approved by the warranty company that is warrantying the vehicle. The repair sales rep said he works with them all the time, and I was in good hands with this company. (I got the feeling there is give and take with the warranty company and the dealer so that the dealer might not be the best advocate for me.)

When I picked up the car, the repair sales manager told me that the new compressor was installed but there is a possibility of a suspension leak on the front driver side shock. I asked him if this could be confirmed by measuring the distance from the ground to the wheel well after it sat or some other manner. He said that it could not, and we would need to wait for a fault indicated by the car's computer before the warranty company would pay for a repair.

I took the car and began driving it. I have noticed that the car handles and maintains composure when I make forceful left turns. When I make forceful right turns, on the other hand, the car dives forward and to the left. It completely loses its composure. I cannot maintain a line turning right. It also feels as though the tail end is swinging around in a fish tail if I go fast enough. I have no such problems making left turns.

It also feels like the front driver side suspension unit is not doing its job so that when inertia forces the car left it cannot stabilize it.

Obviously, I am frustrated by this after over $3,000 in repairs and not going to take any B.S. from the dealer or the warranty company. The dealer is really close to work, so I want to be able to use them going forward. On the other hand, they should not give me a car that handles this poorly.

Does the above poor performance sound consistent with a leaking air shock? Thank you.

 

I would consider looking at alignment, normally a free check, you may find a rear toe to be out giving the symptoms you describe in terms of how the car feels going round corners, I had mine in for a similar feeling when going round right hand corners and the rear left toe was well out, had it done and it's spot on now.

 

No it doesn't but you could have wear in the rear suspension that is causing the problem, and maybe wear in the front bushes too. A leaking air spring will prevent the car levelling correctly at the front.

Does the car continue to sit level 30 minutes after when the engine is turned off and the car is locked ?

 

I measured after it sat overnight by measuring the distance from the ground to the bottom edge of the wheel well. Both the left front and left rear -- NOT just the left rear like I thought -- was an inch or more lower than the right side.

I just measured immediately after driving for about 20 minutes and the distance was nearly consistent on all four corners. The left rear might have been slightly taller. (Perhaps a tech adjusted it when I complained that the left rear was sagging.)

I will measure all four corners 30 minutes after I turned the car off to see if the left side is sagging again.

I thought that I read on this site that if the car sits and one side drops down that this is a sign that air is leaking out. Is this not correct? Thanks.

 

No changes after 40 minutes of sitting and locked.

 

Caldoofy, there must be a language barrier. What does "left toe" mean in English? I mean American English? Thanks.

 

Toe, in english is the term used to describe the the angle the wheel sits at in relation to the axle, eg if you were to measure the angle of the wheel against the axle as if looking down upon it, towards the front, if the angle is less than 90deg it would be toeing in, more and it would be toeing out, on the jag both front and rear axle toe are adjustable, would be interested to here what the term is in american english.
As for the handling issue, i say a suspension unit could be at fault, maybe the damping has gone, or maybe one of the units is a comfort suspension one and the other a sport this will give uneven corner weights but the car will still sit level, also check roll bar links and wishbone bushes all round.

As a note the front shocks are linked, the rears are separate.

 

The car did not sink to the left after sitting locked for 6 hours. It took closer to 15 hours to drop 1-1.5 inches on the front and back left. This is how I found it this morning.

Even with these massive 20-inch wheels I can fairly easily get the back end to swing slightly if I make a strong right turn. When I turn left I can feel the right side suspension cushioning the turn and holding up the weight of the car.

I will report back after it goes back to the dealer.

 

OK, so taking that time for the car to list over to the left tells me your handling problem is not caused by a leaking air spring, although you might have one, of course. However is the car properly level when you make these dodgy RH turns ? Maybe check out ride height whilst on a run and after making RH turns. The other thing influencing height is the height detectors array. One front, and two rear. Front wheels are controlled together, rears separately. Even whilst car is shut down the ASM will wake up every 30 minutes to check the car is level. If it isn't it will attempt to level the car but will not run the air compressor.

I think a full suspension check-out of alignment and all bushes for wear is indicated here. Check all air springs are of the correct type, and XJR will have the Sport springs, not Comfort. If a spring was replaced in the past the person who did it could have got it wrong.

If the shop know their stuff, they should be able to find the problem

 

Thanks. This all makes sense. Unfortunately, few in L.A. knows what they are doing. We allow morons to do everything while everyone else sits around. I have a feeling this will be a long slog.

 

I had a Mercedes 190E and that developed a fault which is best described as rear wheel steering ! It was due to a worn bush on one of the numerous arms in the rear suspension.

I could drive along a main road near here and hold the steering wheel completely immobile and keep the thing straight, and even follow very gentle bends by simply opening the throttle for one direction, and easing right back for the other.

The snag was that when the car was up on a hoist and the wheels hung down on the bottom stops the bush went perfectly tight; the wheels had to be jacked up to their normal position for the slackness to show up.

 

Maybe it's a worn bushing. Hopefully, I will find out soon.

The car started listing to the left again even without sitting overnight.

The dealer repair rep drove the car and felt what I felt. He said that maybe it is a leaky shock because we just replaced the compressor, and the compressor could have blown out by the demands of the leaky shock.

I have no experience how a leaky shock feels with a brand new compressor. Someone here that knows more than I posted (above?) that a leaky shock alone would not cause such poor handling with a working compressor.

This should all fall under my warranty so I will see and report back. The dealership that sold me the car after the car passed a "40 point safety inspection" by a "Certified Master Mechanic" will be hearing from me.

 

Toe is also the term used in North America. So nothing wrong with your terminology or Caldoofy's at all.

It would be my first suspect as well.

 

No word yet on the problem. I don't understand how "toe" could cause the problem. I don't think I understand what it means. I will check out an image on Google and then that might help me get it.

 

The Jaguar dealership diagnosed a leaky front left shock. They installed a re-built shock (without my approval) because that was what my warranty will pay for (allegedly).

The car handles much better when making right turns. I have not taken enough hard turns to tell if it is completely correct.

The tech was so sloppy though that the front left brake is now acting funny and making a terrible noise. He also did some other things that I will post on a new thread.

I have terrible luck getting anything done in L.A. without an illiterate screwing it up. It's so frustrating. If you want to witness the fall of Western Civilization, you should pay us a visit.

 

They only did the left one ? With anything suspension or brake related the standard advice in manuals etc is to replace things in L&R pairs (ie axle sets).

 

Jaguar now allow single shocks to be replaced in warranty claims, but there are age and mileage limits. According to my local mechanic Louis, it is now common practice to replace single units. Yes, I know it sounds bad, but is the whole industry wrong ?

PS - not brake stuff, one always replaces an axle set for discs and pads. A single caliper is OK, however.

 

I will need to start a new thread on my suspension issue which is starting to drive me crazy.

 

It's the fact that the suspn unit contains a damper that worries me; I've always understood that dampers should be replaced in pairs, but ...

 

Agree, it worried me too, especially when Louis said it was now standard industry practice. There is a Jaguar TSB on replacing air springs, and it specifies a mileage limit, beyond which the axle pair should be replaced.