Mechanic drove it yesterday and he feels it is the wheel balance. I will drop it off next week. First, will re-check the balance and while it's up with the wheels of, he will inspect everything again.

 

Took the rear wheels/tires-already did the front ones- in to have road force balanced to see if that would eliminate the vibration that I still have felt since putting on the new tires last fall.One checked out OK the other which had 5 ozs of weight-which is a lot-from the previous regular balancing showed to be not within specs of the balancer.So the tire was reclocked on the rim and ended up with only 1 1/2 oz of weight total.Better yet the vibration is finally gone!!In the future I will only have a tire road force balanced since it really fine tunes the tire and rim.

 

I am starting to think it is a balance issue. The shimmy starts around 50 mph and is worse at 65, then gets better around 70. Let's see next week.

I don't think he has a force balancer so we will try to balance again and if not better will seek out somewhere that has the equipment.

 

I just got back from a road trip in the car, and I'm beginning to think I have some bushings which are worn. I have different degrees of vibration, which must rule out the bent rim theory I initially had.. I guess I need to start looking into what bushings need the most attention.

 

Same, left rim was bent so I put on new exact rim, my right lower control arm was replaced. The only thing that my mechanic couldn't do was road force balance my right tire since it's "out of round". He said the machine can't get it to specs. I believe now it's just a tire/balancing issue that cause the vibrations. I get it from 50, gets worse around 65, then literally goes away around 71-72.

 

Had the wheels force balanced and checked for out of round again. Seems they are in balance and perfectly round. My mechanic checked the suspension again as well as the brakes and mounts. While he has serviced all of my cars for the past 25 years, this is the second time he was stumped (first time was with the air suspension on my MB E500 - It was a worn wire under a wheel well liner that a MB indy shop knew to be a common problem and $250 later, the wires were repaired and back to normal)

They just paved a nearby road and it is as smooth as glass. I can feel the shimmy as low as 30 mph.

Going to get it to a Jaguar specific indy mechanic now to see if he can figure it out.

 

I have changed almost my entire suspension myself. Most recently I had front air shock blow while driving. Last week I changed all 4 air shocks over to Strutmaster coils along with changing the front lower shock bushings. Previously I changed the lower front arm, tie rod ends, sway link, and upper control arm. In the rear I changed the lower arm, upper arm, and tie rod ends. I have also changed all pads and rotors. I can say that it is much much better than it was when I originally purchased the car. I think if I wanted it to be as smooth as I would like I would change out my wheels for new OEM 18s. Maybe in the future. I am just convinced that various suspension components on these cars wear out quicker and cause some of these vibrations we are seeing. My car has 128K miles and I started changing out everything at 124K miles and concluded with the shocks and lower shock bushings last week.

In all reality for most car suspension components should have been changed out earlier. Most suspension components start to really show their age at 100K miles as I changed out most of my components on my Saab 9-5 at 100K miles and noticed an amazing difference; almost like a new car. However, my dad has a Honda Civic with almost 300K miles on the original suspension and drives and feels perfect!

I have spent about $4,000 on suspension components over the past year. I can only imagine if I would have had to pay labor.

 

Suggest you ask your mechanic to v carefully check the front suspension thrust arms

This is item #6 on the jag parts front end illustration; part # C2C39683, I believe

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...638d1352026374

This arm takes fore/aft and rotational loads (eg, braking). Soft bushing (even if not visibly shot) makes front end hypersensitive to wheel balance, rotor condition, etc.

Common issue with BMW's as well.

Suggest use OE (eg Lemforder) bush or arm

 

Crap! I've been driving around for the past month on the wrong size tire! My mechanic ordered and put on 225/40 x 19 instead of 255/40 x 19. I told him they looked smaller than the old tires but he said that tires vary a little from brand to brand. Now I realize why they looked so small...they are smaller! The wheel rim is much wider than the tread. He said that he ordered what was on the car but I know that the old tires were Pirelli P6 245/40 x 19.

I don't think that that has anything to do with the steering shake but...

He's waiting for a call back from the supplier to see what can be done. I've known this guy for 25 years and he's always been straight with me. First I'll get the right size tire on the car, then continue to find the source of the shaking.

 

Just throwing my two cents in...I had a lot of the same issues listed in this thread, and I tried a lot of the fixes in vain, and in the end it turned out to be a bad transmission mount that was the cause of it all. Something about the aluminum bodies makes it difficult to tell exactly where vibrations are coming from. Might be something to look into.

 

We are starting to think it is something other than suspension related. Will start checking engine mounts, transmission mounts, drive shaft, brakes, etc.

 

Brought the Jag to an indy shop that specializes in Jags. He found the new bushings that were pressed into the old aluminum arms were moving around in the arms. He ordered new arms and now the shake is gone!

While my old mechanic pressed the bushings into the old arms it seems that aluminum does not like having bushings pressed into them a second time. I guess that is something only an experienced Jag mechanic would know.

Tip: Don't cheap out on parts. It will cost you more in the long run. If I bot the whole are rather than just the bushings, my problem would have been solved a long time ago.

I'll get it aligned soon (even though it tracks well) so I don't ruin a new set of tires.

Drives like a dream. Just floats down the road. Now I'm riding in style!

 

Glad your journey chasing this cat appears to be about over. My 2004 XJ8, rode well, drove fine, and the tires were not showing any abnormal signs wear.The rubber boots were crumbling, so ordered some. But when the car was put in the air, the boots were only the start.To be fair when i was young, picked cars up from my Father in law,(car salesman) from trade in's needing work, after their warranty's had expired. Suspension parts, + shocks, brakes, + brake lines, alternator's, water pumps, trans fluid, with filter change, tires,as well as any other worn out part's. These cars had 65,000 miles or so, most of the time, were fine after a few dollars, some work, & time. Drive a year or so another would come along. Fix it, sell the old one for my money plus parts, so i drove an old car, but for free. NEVER had any issues selling the old one, as it had been seen driving around the neighborhood.These may cost more, but you get a much nicer car, doing the same work, with parts do not seem to wear out as fast.

 

Hate to resurrect a necro-thread, just experienced this for the first time today. 05 XJ8L with only 57K miles. Tires are continentals, pretty new. I recently had the lower control arm bushings replaced for a clanking/rattling that occurred over every bump in the road. Now that is gone and it feels much better, but all of a sudden at almost EXACTLY 70 mph (+/- 3 or so) I get a wicked vibration through the steering wheel. Its enough to make my hands go numb. At first I thought maybe it was just that stretch of road, but i can almost always make it happen either at 70 mph or going over 70 then coasting back down to or thru 70.

it is possible that one of the wheels lost its balance somehow, but it was definitely smooth as glass at all speeds before the recent clanking episode. I guess the next thing might be to replace the ball joints?

I am a little stumped as to why it appears to be only around the 70 mph mark, any ideas there? quite a narrow range....

 

So to add another data point, looks like all 4 wheels needed to be balanced. Once this was done (and I had em rotate them while they were at it), things are back to silky smooth once again.