Beside the worn out sway bar bushing and links, I am very pleased with how smooth my 1998 XJR rides. The ride is WAY smoother than my 2000 BMW 740il (RIP). These can't be 14 yr old shock, previous owner must have replaced them to be so smooth.

I wouldn't track it as I did with the 740, the body roll it crazy. I don't even feel comfortable taken a curve above the posted speed limit.

Maybe after I change the sway bar bushings and link, the body roll might stiffen up. Hopefully not to much to take way from the smoothness, but just enough to feel comfortable to take a curve at a higher speed that posted.

SGB

 

My XJ8 has a bit of roll and bounce that I need to fix. The ride is smooth (I call it "like a marshmallow!") but the car has too much movement on hard acceleration and turns, in my opinion.

 

Yes a marshmallow or sponge, it absorb mostly every road bump, lump and thumb.

I was reading up on lowering springs, don't want to lower it. At 6'4" it hard enough getting into at factory ride height.

Maybe some firmer springs would do the job. Wondering if the 1998 Mercedes AMG C43 springs would do the job, it has the same suspension configuration as the XJR. I have a set from my wife C43, maybe the weekend I see if springs fit.

sgb

 

Huh. My 740i M-Sport rode better then my XJR but my XJR is flatter in the corners. Then again all my sway bushings are good and my front shocks/mounts/bushings are shot. LOL

 

Broadly speaking, when faced with a compromise on comfort versus cornering, Jaguar always leans (tee hee) towards comfort and BMW towards cornering.

Shoot, I take curves at above the posted limit quite often. After the initial tilt I think the car does quite well...as big luxury cars go. I've never come close to losing grip or control....and I've pushed it fairly hard.

Lack of body roll isn't the sole definition of "good cornering" but I'll admit I could do with a bit less as well. I'd love to go a bit larger on the anti-roll bars while keeping the fairly soft springs.

Cheers
DD

 

My 2002 XJ8 w/ 40K miles corners pretty flat. This is pulling max Gs 4 wheel drifting only briefly under full power, even at 60-90 mph corners. The suspension is stock except for the XJR wheels (255 40 18).

If my suspension was any stiffer, I think the car would move a little more laterally (hippity hop to the outside of the corner during little drifts) more when hitting the small bumps which, at the moment with the stock set up gives me only small bump drifts. I've had cars with too stiff suspensions and "skip" too much and require a different driving style to compensate for now needing a "2nd apex" on the same long sweeping corner.

I've found that stiffer is not always quicker, or more controllable at the max Gs.
My XJ8 is super controllable at max Gs. To me, it is set up very well. As it is right now, I don't need to flick the wheel or take my foot out of it on constant radius sweepers, and it transitions so cleanly left to right with no discernible "set" being required before loading the suspension fully.

Works for me

 

It's not about flatness. It's about knowing how the car reacts. Try hustling a full size 1976 Oldsmobile 88 at full tilt through some curves sometime. You just have to know that the suspension is going to take a set and roll with the punches.

 

At first I was a bit scared taking a corner at speed with my XJR due to the body roll. Not that it rolls that much, it's just that my previous car was a Citroen Xantia Activa... it had absolutely zero body roll due to the active anti-roll bars, and yet a perfectly smooth ride when cruising. It could pull almost 1G stock, and with wider track day tires it went well beyond that. The latest generation 911 has similar active anti-roll bars as an option.

I wonder what it would take to retrofit such a system. It uses a hydraulic cylinder in the place of a stabilizer link. The Citroen system managed with one hydraulic cylinder per axle, Porsche has two.

 

you're all talking about USA spec' chassis setup - 99% of US models imported are fitted with the softer suspension - market demands have seen it this way for years.

It's a shame you can't back-to-back a euro/UK spec car for comparison.....

 

Are the springs different between US and euro spec cars, or is it just the shocks?

About 99% of the XJR's here in Finland are euro spec, and mine is US spec, so I might be able to do a back-to-back comparison...

 

Sean may be on to something. My car was built for the Canadian market and I have been told there are differences between it and the US models, but I did not think that included suspension. My experience is vastly different from the ride descriptions in this thread. My 98 XJR has the stiffest suspension of any car I have ever owned, to the point of annoyance (except for a 1949 Ford pickup... guess that is not a car). There is no comparison to the XJR and my friends 98 XJ8. I have two friends with BMW 740's. One is my business partner and for sure his is much softer than mine. I ride in his car frequently. Another good friend and 740 driver commented immediately, when driving mine, about how much faster and and sportier in the handling department he found the XJR compared to his car. (He also said the XJR had a more timeless body style visually). My car has nearly zero body roll, but I do experience more pronounced bump drifts when cornering in uneven terrain. It out performs those two 740's hands down.

I was honestly very surprised to read of soft ride complaints on the XJR, especially since I have ridden in, and driven the BMW 740 lots. They are boats in comparison to my XJR. I have not been able to ride in or drive another XJR, but frankly always wanted to, because mine is so stiff it is actually annoying when just commuting to work. I have always thought the car was more of a sport set up than a 4 door luxury cruiser. It is nearly as stiff as a friends corvette, which is no smooth ride. I was surprised that Jaguar would make these cars this stiff, so maybe something is different about mine, but it is certainly set up to handle the supercharged power. Not exactly a "Grey Poupon" carrier..ha ha!

 

The ride height is lower on a Euro spec by about a half inch on the same tires. That implies, and has been stated, that the springs are different. The German spec cars are said to have higher rated shocks. So, you use the UK spring part numbers and the German shock part numbers. Roll bars? Unknown.

The most reliable way to measure ride height difference is from the wheel arch to the center cap of the wheel.

 

Ride height will tell the story on spring rate, but my quick search could not find ride height for for either the US or CAN version of the XJR.

 

As to US spec, I wonder if the trend toward bigger wheels and lower profile tires won't have to be reversed soon. US infrastructure (road surface) is deteriorating rapidly and government hasn't got the money to repair it nor the political will to raise tax or cut other spending. Not to make this a political discussion, but seems to me that the automobile manufacturers might just have to respond to the nationwide infrastructure decline by making smoother riding cars at the sacrifice of handling. I for one, bought this Jag because the roads in Fort Worth are merely a bit of asphalt spread over the old cattle trails just to keep the dust down. There was certainly never any intention by engineers to build roads for sports cars to get up any speed at all.

 

I would like to think I have a good compass here since I JUST went from a 2001 BMW 740i M-Sport to the XJR.
My 740i was flawless and by flawless I mean it had zero flaws. Nitto 555 series 255 tires in front, 285s out back. Dinan Stage II suspension with the HD Bilstien and the performance lowering springs.
My Jag when purchased was 100% stock with bad upper/lower front shock bushings, bad front/rear sway links, bad ball joints, Goodyear F1 tires and a slightly off alignment. That being said the Jag inspired more confidence in sweeping corners compared to the Bimmer.

After repairing the ball joints and sway links (also slight mods on the links to make the sway bar behave as if it were stiffer) I found I could take local corners at a greater speed compared to the BMW with less drama and less tire noise.

The car is currently on my lift waiting to install the blower pulley and new coolant hoses so I have not tried them out but I just installed Euro spec HD KYB shocks, poly lower bushings and new upgraded upper bushings. I imagine that the cars handling will be quite nice after I align it.

Now that all being said, the XJR was supposed to compete against the BMW M5. We all know the BMW M5 is a spectacular handling car yet here is our old Jag keeping right up with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkM7PhvxMkY

 

Now THAT'S entertainment! LOL Thanks!

 

Could you perhaps share the part number?

 

I did a bit of googling, and it seems that there are four types of front springs for X308:
- comfort n/a (JLM20422)
- sport n/a (JLM20423)
- comfort s/c (JLM20636)
- sport s/c (JLM20424)

And three different types of rear springs:
- comfort n/a (JLM12257)
- sport n/a (JLM12342)
- all s/c models (JLM20589)

(hope I got the numbers right)

According to alldatadiy my car (US spec XJR) should have sport n/a fronts and s/c rears... is there any way to identify the springs on the car? I noticed some colour markings on them when I was working on the brakes.

 

And keep up it does :-)

In truth, though, the video does show that, when pushed, the XJR loses its composure just a bit coming out of the corners.

In a sense this is all a bit academic. If the BWM's superiority (or the XJR's deficiencies) are evident only when being driven *****-out on a test track, well, the differences between the two can't be all that great. <shrug>

One time a found myself behind a 90s vintage 740 on some twisties. The driver made it obvious that he had no aversion towards "spirited" driving. Over the course of several miles we exchanged lead position several times. Neither of us had any trouble keeping up with the other....and neither of us was willing to go from "spirited" to "***** out" just to declare victory.

I'm OK with that :-)


Cheers
DD

 

Sure thing. Car is still in the air at my shop so I will be sure to get the numbers tomorrow.