My XJ6 has been buggin' me lately.

When I drive, I get a fairly strong smell of hot (not burning) rubber. I had new wheels and tyres put on recently and have done about 200 or 300 miles since they where put on.

When I pulled up at home tonight I thought I'd have a quick look around the car whilst it was still warm to see if I could identify any area that was smelling.

What I noticed was a noticeable but small difference in tyre to wheel arch height on the back of the car. Only maybe 10mm or so. Engine was still running after driving for about 30 mins.

I don't get any suspension warning lights on the dash. Could it just be the compressor?

Also

When I checked the front wheel well I noticed the suspension struts are sitting only about 10 mm away from the top of the tyres. This seems to me to be a very slim clearance. I've included a photo to show.

It's this right?

Am I just being over cautious? My hand is on the tyre and the strut semms to only have about 10 or 12mm clearance. Is that right?

 

Yeah, that balljoint does sit pretty close to the tire naturally. They move together so its not an issue.

 

Ok. Cool. Thank you! That's good to know.

I just did a quick and rough measurement of my ride height and it seems to be all over the place.

Rear offside: 373mm
Rear nearside: 365mm

Front offside: 381mm
Front nearside: 390mm

That's UK near and offside.

Done with a tape measure so not perfect but not that far off either.

 

The LHS is higher than the RHS at the front, but the RHS is higher than than the LHS at the rear ?

Well, unless the body is badly twisted you must have measured it parked on a surface that was decidedly not flat.

Have you got one end the wrong way round ? The figures would make sense then.