Hi gents-

I am about to replace the tires on the XJS because 1-the front inner tires are wearing on the inside, they have a terrible ride, and they are very old (6 years) but do not have too much mileage on them.

The tires there are the cheapest Falkens and to be honest I don’t think I ever rotated, maintained them, or even put air too often in them. I figured they where cheap, the car only gets driven once a week if the weather is fair, and my job was a mile away from home. Also, in 2018 the car sat for about 6 months. Last time I had an alignment was several years ago. I don’t hear any clunks or loose parts when I drive the car.

I think I am going to go ahead and buy some Pirelli’s now, but I am concerned with that inner tire wear of the old tires ....Should I replace something mechanically before getting the new tires, or is due to to my neglect of the tires? I know bad ball joints cause inner wear, so I am not sure if I should do that before getting new tires.

edit: my mechanic looked at the car recently and thought the joints where fine, but he is not a Jaguar specialist and I typically have to tell him what I want done.

 

Well, obviously, the tires should wear evenly. Since they don't, there's a problem. Perhaps having the suspension aligned again will be all that's needed. Or perhaps some parts have developed enough wear to be of significance.

The Jag front suspension system isn't particularly exotic so a a Jag specialist isn't needed....but sometimes a suspension specialist has a better eye for identifying these sort of problems. I would recommend that route, personally.

As far as replacing parts goes, well, ball joints, outer tie rods, and upper control arm bushings are not unusually labor intensive on these cars so if you're in the mood (or there's an actual need) for a freshen-up the bill shouldn't be too excruciating. Lower control arm bushings, if needed, are a different story.

Cheers
DD

 

Thanks for your reply. I see there are upper and lower ball joints. Would these be giving any other symptom other than the internal wearing? Is there a main culprit in these cars that causes the internal wearing so perhaps I could just start with those parts?

 

No main culprit, no. Could be any of the above, or combination. To some degree, normal and inevitable wear can be compensated for with a routine wheel alignment.

I wouldn't plan on replacing any parts....unless you have some money burning a hole in your pockets . Verify if new parts are needed. If so, then there's some strategy to "while you're at it" replacements. For example, upper bushings and ball joints are very easy to replace so including them on a "while you're at it" basis might make sense if you're already doing lower ball joints or lower bushings.

Cheers
DD

 

Have your suspension checked thoroughly before investing in quality tires. It's easy to ruin a pair of new tires They can get to the cords amazingly fast when checked regularly.

 

Mark,

Before you replace the tyres, I would just take it to a decent tyre place and get your tracking properly checked. It sounds as if you might have an incorrect toe setting on the car.

Paul

 

Full front end rebuild. Bushings are prolly all shot

 

I hope not. Certainly does not feel or sound like it. This car has been in the family since new and has regular maintenance. I know about 10 years ago (and not so many miles) lots and lots of front end parts where replaced, but I don’t recall what, because I lost my records and the car manuals during a move. I neglected maintaining the cheap tires, but not the car itself ...

 

2 places visited today and no one thinks the problem is mechanical. I was told to get an alignment and I should be fine. Problem was attributed to a combination of the fact 1-the tires are cheap Falkens-
2- I have never maintained, rotated or even had
Proper pressure in the tires
3- this car sits for periods and sat for quite a while in 2018

I went ahead and got Pirelli Cintauro Strada tires and will be getting the front end aligned tomorrow as a security measure

 

Tyres have been on my car 5 years and 20,000km, I cannot rotate them because of different offset front to rear and my tyres are not worn uneven. If you get suspension and alignment correct you will be good.

Too much toe out will wear the inside edges.

A note of caution, a lot of shops do not know how to adjust castor on an XJS and offset the camber shims, this will cause premature bush wear. Castor shims are in the upper balljoint.

 

I had that same problem when I bought my first XJS. Inner wear. You might be able to find some of my earliest posts here from about 2010?

Anyways, I set off to replace, just as Doug had mentioned in Post #2, both ball joints and the upper control arm bushings. They were all due.

After replacement and an alignment, I found that the camber was off. And that's not something that a standard alignment shop was willing to do. You see, you have to adjust these shims at the upper control arm to play with the angle of the tires. In my case, if I recall, I actually needed to eliminate all shim spacers to get the wheel at the right angle. I suspect you'll need a similar procedure, which means, likely no parts will need replacing, but since you're there, I would certainly swap out the upper control arm bushings. They're inexpensive and likely old?

After that you'll have to decide whether you want to pay someone to make the adjustment for you, which means you'll have to call ahead and actually find a guy that knows how to do this, which most any shop specializing in steering and alignments will do, or I would recommend finding any shop that offers lifetime, or free alignments within a window of time, say several months, and do it yourself. Each 1/16" of shim equated to a quarter of a camber degree, or something like that. I'm sure my old posts documented that, in case you are seriously considering doing it yourself.

To really know what's going on, you'll need to start with an alignment. The data you get should reveal your issue.

 

Thanks Vee- the alignment is where I need to start. Like I mentioned above the car had car arms and bushings and a multitude of front end parts replaced 5 years ago, but only 2k miles ago. It drives solid, nice and straight with no noises or pulls. Sadly I don’t know what was changed because all the XJS records where lost recently, including her original window sticker and manuals

The guy who checked the car today was the Jaguar guy who my grandfather took the car to for years after he ran out of the original warranty, and the guy I took the car to until a couple years ago, but stopped once I realized a much lower cost mechanic can do what needs to be done with the instructions I get from the forum and other sources. Anyway, he is certain about a full front end rebuilt of sorts being done a few years back ...he may not have been too enthusiastic to go over my car knowing he’s not getting business from me as often m, however

So what I need to figure out is who can do a proper alignment on a facelift XJS locally.... gosh that’s going to be challenging.....any other Euro brands that have the same requirements for an alignment ? It will be much easier to find a an alignment place that can do old BMW’s or Mercedes than somebody who knows which to do the XJS

 

I looked up steering and alignment on Yelp and found three shops that looked like they might be up to the task:

Southwest Alignment Service
Benson's Wheel Alignment and Service
Axle and Wheel Aligning

Now I haven't really researched any of them, but they seem like places that are used to doing a true, full service alignment, instead of a gas station that happens to have alignment equipment. I might start with these, or perhaps do a better search than I did. These kinds of places are out there.

 

Some shops get all wacked-out when they hear "Jaguar". In reality, alignment on our old Jags is straightforward.

Technically, Jag-specific suspension setting tools must be used .....and nobody has 'em. And not having 'em is a very convenient reason to not be bothered with aligning Jaguars. The true necessity of the tools has long been debated. I've never had a bad result from not using them.

Sometimes shops that cater to hot rodders/custom cars are a good source for Jaguar alignments (and exhaust work, too!). These guys are not put-off by the unusual. Many shops don't want to be bothered with anything remotely unusual. I don't blame them. If they're staying busy doing ordinary cars, why invite unusual cars?

Cheers
DD

 

Found the perfect shop from one of Vee’s recommendations. Again, they checked and found no mechanical problem, but they think the problems is I need new shocks/struts and coils. I had two people familiar with XJS’s telling me the car is way too low. They thought o had lowered the car.

So Bilsteins I guess. And new coils. Nothing special about doing it in this car, I imagine

 

Whoa whoa whoa, let’s say suggestions. I can’t say I know anything about the shops I listed, they just sounded like they would be more capable to perform the additional work required to complete a camber alignment on these cars.

If they performed and alignment check and the camber was in range, then I guess springs and shocks it is!

Keep us posted. I did replace the front shocks, not the springs, on the car, easy to do, and perhaps that fixed the issue. I’ll never know.

I was not aware it was easy to find replacement front springs for these cars anymore.

 

There's no need to wonder very much. There IS a ride height specification. I don't know what it is for your car (or any other!) from memory, but it'll be in the service manual, usually expressed as xx.xx inches +/- .375" or so.



The problem might be in getting correct specification springs. Some vendors sell springs that are 'sort of' correct for many Jags but not exactly correct for any of them

Cheers
DD

 

I think you meant to say ".....and the camber was out-of-range....."

If the camber is in range it suggest the springs are OK

Cheers
DD

 

Let me say that they say the front wheels are “almost” completely working range. But they can not find any bushing or or joint that looks in bad shape. They actually all recent, which is accurate.

I think the best course of action is to probably go ahead and replace all 6 shocks, 2 front a 4 back. I will definitely go Bilstein unless someone here thinks they have a better suggestion. The front coils are no-where to be found as noted by Vee, so there is not much I can do about that. I am not sure if the shocks come with everything I need or if there are shock/strut mounts that I will need to order from JCP

 

If the intent is to raise the front slightly at the suspicion of sagging springs, then perhaps installing spacers to the front spring perches would give you the same result. I understand that they used these to make adjustments to the car's levelness during production. Maybe adding them as spacers is the solution if no springs are available.
Also, is there that much of a camber change between ride heights? I wonder what the camber measurement change is during jounce and rebound of the suspension travel.