When I got the car it had KYB Gas-a-just installed. I wanted a smoother ride and installed Bilstein black comfort in the front. I know they have to break in but and I do not like the change in ride. I was wondering did I put comfort in a sport suspension? I found a thread with the part numbers but I cant find marking or a tag looking at the springs. There is a blotch of yellow paint on each spring. does this indicate anything? (side note there is a blotch of red on the front sway bar)
Thank you in advance

 

According to the Barratt website, Comfort suspension (Front Spring JLM20422, Front Sway Bar MNC2100AE) are both marked with RED stripes. Hard to find info on the other colours but it seems that they are as follows.

For the Front Sway Bar: Comfort - RED, Sport - YELLOW, SC Sport - BLUE

For the Front Coil Springs: Comfort - RED, Sport - ???, SC Sport - ???

My 1999 Daimler Super V8 which came with Sport Shocks (green) from the factory has RED mark on the front sway bar (Comfort) and two white stripes on the rear coil springs (cannot see the markings on the front springs). I recently replaced all shocks with comfort black ones (genuine Jaguar) but can hardly notice any difference as compared to the old green sport shocks. It seems that for maximum comfort the comfort springs are also needed - Front JLM20422 (red stripe), Rear JLM12257 (??? stripe).

Perhaps others can provide more info on the colour coding of the front and rear coil springs.

 

My 99 VDP (supercharged) has black “touring” (softer) CATS shocks a red stripe on the front sway bar and has no rear sway bar. I’ve only seen the green sport shocks on XJRs here.

 

The comfort springs on my 2001 N/A VDP are coded red front and rear. (shocks are comfort black Bilsteins)


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Ok, in the daylight I can see more. I see the red stripe what does the yellow dot signify?

The rear has a white stripe? I would like to match the spring to the correctly dampened shock.


!998 X308 front

1998 X308 rear

 

Ok, I just read another thread that pointed out that the sport suspension has a rear swaybar. So if I do not have a rear sway bar I do not have sport suspension, correct?

 

I believe only the S/C and XJ8 Sport models have a rear sway bar. VDP definitely does not have a rear sway bar, and I don't think the standard XJ8 does either.

 

And as a quick follow up..................

The comfort suspension sway/anti-roll bar (Vanden Plas) has a red color-code band (MNC210000AE)
The "standard" suspension sway/anti-roll bar (N/A XJ8) (MNC2100CF)....yellow color band I believe.
The Sport suspension sway/anti-roll bar (XJR) (MNC2100DE).........blue color band I believe.



Vanden Plas red color-coded front sway bar.


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I'm hearing some chatter out of the front and there's a little wandering going on. My XJ8 Sovereign only has 45K on the Clock, but i think it's time for Shocks. How do i know what kind of shocks are on the car? I've got the little sport button on the console and i do notice a change in the transmission shifting, etc, when i put it in sport mode. Does this switch effect the shocks as well? What should i look for? I didn't see any airbags underneath....
Thanks.

 

You're looking under the hood to distinguish which system you have, if it's CATS enabled then the top of the shocks will have wire leads to them and possibly black caps.
Being Sov spec' and 03 it should be CATs equipped.

Rather the bushings than the shocks, have a look at the top and bottom shock bushes and AR bushes, also the steering rack drop links.

 

We had to replace the mounts, under the bonnet as the bushings were rotted. I didn't see anywhere for a wire feed to the shocks. I'll get underneath and poke around again. Thank you so much for this quick answer. I am trying to figure out how to get a build sheet or list of equipment on this car.