Or Xj40, or XJ81 or Fiat Brava or whatever the heck they call these. ROFL I have two that are 1994 coffee and cream inside and coffee? color outside. The one I have had for 11 years now has 139,000 miles and one I just bought as possible a parts car, (possibly not) has 135,000 miles. The questions I have are, 1. Does ANYONE know of a reliable place to get one of these aligned.....CORRECTLY? No one seems to know how. 2. What are the tires that these cars can use? I have Yokohama Advans on my old friend and the new ones are Michelin Energy's. I know for a fact the lateral force will chew up these sidewalls in short order. I do, however, believe I have heard of another kind of tire out there that can hold these cars without being totally destroyed in 5k miles. Does anyone know. Lastly, the new 1994 has an occasionally slipping transmission and occasionally it grabs. Weird hey? These cars are remarkable and my old friend is being disassembled as we speak and is going to be repainted after any small areas of rust are ferreted out and destroyed. Trying to decide what to do with the "new" 94. Oh and hey, did those come with or without a leaper. Have heard BOTH schools of though on this. My first one came with a 71/2" one and the second one came with a 5 incher. Thanks folks.

 

I've moved your post from General Tech Help to XJ40 forum. It's model specific and members here with the same model will be able to help.

You'll find there's already a current tyre thread running and there's been several in the past.

Graham

 

Could you be a bit more specific as to what problem you are having?

I presume that the XJ40 cars, like some of the other Jags, are 'supposed' to be aligned using tools that lock the suspension at a fixed height. I further presume that you can't find a shop that has the tools, correct? Or, can't find a shop who will do an alignment without the tools.

The real-world need to using the suspension-height tools has been long debated. Over the last 18 years, several different Jags, and several alignments, I've always been able to achieve satisfactory results without the tools. That is, the car steers and drives well, no pulling, and no uneven tire wear.



If you're a hard driver ....and it sounds like you might be....and need a performance oriented tire you have very few choices for 15" wheels. I mentioned a couple in the other thread.

It might be worth your while to upgrade to 16 or 17 inch wheels for a good selection of tires.




Begin by checking the fluid level


They were dealer or owner installed.


Cheers
DD

 

I'm pretty sure all 94's come with 16" wheels ...I run Kumho Excsta 225/60 R16 98W's and they still look good and perform well with 20,000+km on them ..admittedly I have a 6 and it's a bit less weighty than the 12, but still, 5k miles to a set of tires?? Somebody's selling you the wrong shoes, mate!

Larry

 

Yes, they all came with 16" wheels, I do know some folks went to 17". The shoes I have on my original xj12 are Yokohama Advans and are Z rated. I have had it "aligned" twice and both times within 5000 miles one tire in one case and two tires in the other had SIGNIFICANTLY more wear than the others. The tires could not be better. The "aligners" however.... SUCK!

 

Doug, I AM a hard driver, but not sure how I could get more performance than a Yokohama advan. The Michelin energys will need replaced in the twin we bought for the other XJ12 because I know for a fact the sidewalls will be ground to powder from the lateral force of this car in a short period of time. H rated wont cut it. (About the tranny) If the fluid level is good what would be your next solution? As for the tires, it has always had 16" wheels. 225/60/16 tires.

 

Tire rack has several choices of 225/60x16 with a V-speed rating or higher.

I had great luck with BF Goodrich Advantage TA, 225/60x16, V-rated.

Yeah, if you are wearing out tires in 5000 miles something is wrong....although hard driving certainly takes a toll as well. Have the alignment guys mentioned anything about worn bushings, ball joints, etc? Have they given you print-outs of the before-and-after results?

I've never had a problem getting a good alignment on any of my Jags. Other than the setting links, the need for which is long been debated, there's nothing exotic about Jag alignments.

Something is amiss here.

As for the trans, the 4L80E is known for problems with the A-B shift solenoids and both speed sensors. If you wanted to take a stab at something replacing them isn't hard for a reasonably experienced DIYer. Parts would be about $125-150. Otherwise, see the local trans guy.

It might be that the trans is starting to slip simply because f age and wear

Cheers
DD

 

Since you asked....

While I've never heard of this "lateral force" issue eating a tire in 5k miles I'll take your word that you have issues. Most likely more than 1

The Michelin Energy is a good tire but it's hardly a high performance tire it's just a standard all season so that may be issue 1

Granted the V12 has some more weight over the front vs the 6 and if your a more "spirited" driver you might want to go to a 225/55/16 with a little less sidewall. I had Continental DWS but you might choose the higher performance summer tire. IMHO the 225/60 while a good tire for high speed stability still may have a little too much flex for any serious driving. So probably issue 2

The XJ in either form may be "sporty" but it's not a Sports car and really can't be expcted to perform as such. I'm not driving with you so I don't know how you drive but probably issue 3

Not being able to see the tires after the damage has been done it's hard to know the whole problem. That being said, maybe the place you took the car for an alignment did a poor job but in my experience that stuff tends to show as soon as the car is driven away. But on the other hand you have a heavy vehicle that is admittedly driven hard that is now 20 years old with ( unless you changed them) has probably 20+ worn bushings, tie rods and ball joints with even minimal wear may add up to something significant.
So probably issue 4

In that case you might want to take the car to a specialist in Jaguars and have it looked at and then have it realigned. As far as the special tools and weights the average shop isnt going to have this stuff for a 20 year old car. I didn't use them when I aligned my car and hav seen no abnormal tire wear in 40k miles and I live on a dirt road.

This was a $70,000 car when new and may need more than a $70 alignment.
Probably issue 5

Hope that helps

Joe

 

Bueller, Bueller ...