Gents,
I have just finnished my front end rebuild on my '95 XJR. I needed new springs as one was broken and rather than pay ca £250 each for original XJR spec, I had a pair made to match the non broken original for around £230. This was after tying some spare sport spring I had in my garage which proved totaly unsuitable due to the surprising extra weight of the XJR. Unfortunatly my car is still a bit too low at the front. I don't know why, unless my original spring had gone weak or short and so the replicas are not quite right. The other thought is that the original dampers had a spring action in that you have to lean on them to compress them, my new GAZ adjustables do not, although I would not have though this was enough to make a percievable difference.
Anyway, it is what it is. I see you can buy 4.5mm 'packer locators' (MNA2162BA) to replace the standard 1.5mm (MNA2162AB) between the springs and the spring pans. Has anyone used these and how much do they raise the car?
An extra 3mm dosen't sound like very much, but perhapse it is due to the leverage / geometry. They are listed on british parts as top packer, so perhaps I could fit one at both ends of the spring?

Any sugestions appreciated,

Regards,

John

 

Adjusting ride height is a big headache, especially when you use used or new springs, shocks, front and or rear, unless they are all new and original you don't how they would sit and when you find either the front or rear too tall or low you will have to go through many rounds of trial and error to get it right. I experienced this with my Mercedes C124, and fortunately Mercedes offers 4 levels of shim for you to choose from to adjust the front and/or rear of your suspension. Even so, you may not get it right the first time.

However, if you are considering the 4.5mm packer in place of a 1.5mm set it would not make much difference and certainly not worth the trouble.

The X300 is a very heavy car and the XJR with the supercharger is slightly heavier than the NA version, so the lowered original XJR springs are quite expensive as they are designed to bear the weight, lower the ride and give sporty performance. After-market ones or custom-made ones would be a gamble. I would rather consider a set of good used XJR springs than experimenting with other options.

 

I just replaced my broke front springs on my 96 xjr with the ones from a 95 xj and the ride height didn't change much, if at all. On the driver side I left off the spacer because i had a tremendously hard time getting the spring in the socket. As for your adjustable shocks they will not change the ride height alone. and I can't see the spacer making an appreciable difference either because the springs go in at an angle so it would actually not raise the height by 3 mm but a little less. But to answer your question assuming a 20deg angle the 4.5 mm spacer will raise it 2.81mm ea.