Hi, Well I'm having a thoroughly miserable time at the moment with the XK. It all seemed so simple at the time, poor old XK failed it's MOT with a leaking rear damper and had an advisory on a misting front damper. No problem, change them all they are 15 years old so well worth it.
Found some great Bilstein dampers on ebay checked the fitting guide yes they fit my vehicle, CATS spec, ordered. Parts arrived and were fitted yesterday, new MOT issued, weather warming up, pubs opening again, brilliant! where shall we go the weekend?
Drove home and I instantly knew there was something wrong, the ride was awful, hard and jarring. Spoke to the parts supplier and they confirmed genuine parts, spoke to the tech guy from the supplier (very helpful, Thanks Tony) checked all the dampers were plugged in, diagnostics look ok no faults, 0.5 amp signal when driving dropping to zero amps when cornering but still the suspension is very firm. Hmmmm.
Checked the damper coil resistance 2.6 Ohms checked the old dampers 5.8 Ohms? Spent the rest of the afternoon looking through Jaguar forums. So it appears the early XK 2006 had adaptive suspension but it was either on or off, where the later cars 2007 on had a slightly more refined version which constantly modulated the ride until 2010 where it had a further upgrade (dynamic?)

So I'm at a point where I've purchased these dampers and spent (A LOT) having them fitted and can't drive the car unless I have a live in Chiropractor so... what do I do?

My question is, as I've now got the later dampers can I fit the later control module to make them work or is that a terrible / impossible idea? or do I bite the bullet find the correct dampers (6W83 18045 BA Front) (8W83 18080 AB Rear) ( AB. BA suffix is the critical bit as that indicates early 1st generation dampers) and pay to have the new ones removed and the correct ones fitted and then declare bankruptcy . It's a nightmare.

Apologies if you've read some of this before on my Wandering Jag thread but now I've finally established the issue I wanted a clean thread.

Regards Ian

 

Tony, great write up, are the conclusions that you:

1) Ordered the wrong shocks for your car?

2) Bought the earliest XK you could as that's all your budget would stretch to?

3 Didn't put aside a few £k for essential repairs on a 15yr old car?

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Jaguar-XK-XK...-/143797007826

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Stossdaempfe...-/390727978055

 

Hi and Thanks for your input Markyuk,
To answer your questions,
1. The parts ordered were correct according to the suppliers database. I also gave them reg number and VIN details.
2. It wasn't the cheapest car I saw by any means but it was the colour and trim I wanted, had a good service history and was relatively local.
3. As very much a fun car for weekends it's true I don't have an unlimited budget to keep it on the road but the car is exceptionally well maintained and generally wants for nothing. Having had exclusively JLR products for the last 30 years I am well aware of the cost of maintaining and running the less reliable products of British Manufacturing, but I prefer to buy British where possible, though I have to say it was nice to run a 2003 Porsche Boxster S for several years without it costing a penny in repairs other than routine maintenance.

My question was to try and salvage something from the position I'm in, with new dampers having been installed which are not compatible with the early adaptive system fitted to my vehicle. If it is possible to fit the later control, that would be far preferable to removing the damper assemblies again, stripping the springs, rebuilding the struts fitting and aligning the suspension again, but if it's not I'll have to find some early dampers and strip it all out again.

 

Were you ever able to resolve this?

 

Hi Apologies for not resolving the thread. Yes I did but I had to strip everything out and purchase some second hand dampers and get those fitted. I checked the resistance before fitting and they were the same. It appears the later dampers are just not compatible with the earlier cars despite what the damper manufacturers list. With early dampers now being in short supply I believe some owners have had their original units reconditioned as they only seem to fail on the seals. I bought a couple of spares but have now moved onto a later XKR and you are welcome to them if your'e struggling to get a unit.
Cheers Ian