Hey JagForums, I hope all is well

Im having a bit of a problem with my '99 xj8, I accidentally hit the curbside while driving home yesterday and suffered a tire blowout. It was the front passenger side tire to be exact.
I paniked a little and tried to drive home on the flat as it was less than 3 miles away but that was a no go.
After some very rough driving, some smoke, and a terrible burning rubber smell I gave up and parked the car on the side of the road for the night
I called roadside assistance the next morning to switch the flat with the spare kept in the trunk, now i thought that would be the end of that problem but things got worse

-there's an odd squealing sound coming from what I could only guess to be the tires
-the steering wheel now has to be angled to the right in order to drive in a straight line
-handling on the car is nerve racking, most bumps on the road make the car shake quite a bit
-This one may be unrelated but now at random times steam will start to leak out of the two sides of the hood closest to the tires, think right where the side mirrors are

what could have happened to my poor jag?
any info or knowledge at all would be appreciated

 

Suggest you get into a front end shop ASAP.

 

Your front end is out of alignement, that's for sure. The scope of the damage can be diagnosed only once the car is on the hoist.

Blown tire, and you "tried to drive home"? There is a GOOD reason why you have a jack, and a spare in the trunk (or maybe AAA card in the wallet?). I don't like changing tires on the side of the road in 100F+ weather, that's why I keep paying AAA every year (and not to stand in CA DMV lines!).

Good luck to you.

 

+thanks to both of you for the speedy replies

your probably both right about the alignment having been messed up
is it safe to drive, like to the shop
or should i pay for a tow?

i know its hard to say over the internet but im wondering if anyone has experienced the same problem, particularly tthe squealing sound
is my jag gonna wreck if i try to drive it?

 

I wouldn't drive it. Most shops will come and tow it for free (if you end up having it fixed by them). Or,.....you can join AAA (I am NOT in any way afiliated with them!), and they will tow you up to seven miles for free (included in the membership, ...they will also bring you some gas if you run out, start your car if the battery dies, etc. ....just a peace of mind).

Anyway,...that's what I do. When I have a flat, I pull over, call them, and sit in the shade while they work. To me the membership is worth it's money just so I don't have to put up with the zoo they call DMV here in CA. I moved to CA from AZ, and it's night and day difference! AZ MVD is civilized, and it looks like AAA in CA. CA DMV is worse than the zoo!

 

If it's squealing and the steering is all over the place, don't attempt to drive it to the shop. Something could let go and land you in serious difficulties. Get a tow truck.

The steam means it's likely the cooling system is compromised. You can do very serious damage to the V8 engine very quickly with overheating. Again, don't risk it.

Graham

 

The squealing is most likely the "toe angle" (the measure of the relationship of how parallel your wheels are to each other and to the chassis) on the wheel that got hit being out. So the front wheel that didn't get hit is travelling parallel to the chassis, but it sounds like the tie rod on the side that got hit is bent and is making the wheel on that side run out of parallel with everything else, making it squeal. That is the best case scenario. Worse case is you bent a control arm and it's throwing all of your geometry on that side out of whack. Worst case is you've bent the conrol arms mounts on the subframe or bent the subframe itself. You'll have to get it up on a lift to tell which it is. In any case you need to have it looked at by a shop if you can't do the work yourself, and unless the shop is VERY close and accessible by side roads on which you can travel at very low speed, I'd have it towed there. The "steam" you described is most likely just mild tire smoke from the bad alignment heating up the tire, as there isn't much in the cooling sytem over there. But it wouldn't hurt to cheack out, and if you do drive it keep a hawk's eye on the temperature gauge, because being a presurized cooling system, they can get hot VERY fast, and nothing good comes of it. Best of luck getting it fixed!