Hi guys,
My XKR have 89k miles and still have one year or 10k miles remaining. I heard some noise when driving on normal pavements and brought to my friend's house to check it out. I realized that the inner part was covered with dust and it's leaking. I brought it to the Jaguar Dealer (Santa Barbara Auto Group) and the service manager said that it is normal for the shocks to have a little oil on it. Can anyone help me out.
Thanks!!

 

No its not normal! My advise find a different dealer or contact Jaguar directly.

 

It not normal and that deal is not one I would ever revisit ever and I would not be shy about letting others know. Good advise on contacting Jaguar directly.

 

this dealer is the only one near me, just 5 miles from where i am living~ I will try to contact jaguar directly.

 

If you see a wet spot in the accumulated dust then you have to be concerned. However, IMHO a light coating of dust on most suspension components, including the shocks, is no big thing and the dealer may be correct. The key is "wet spot" leak.


What did the dealer say about the noise symptom? That can be an indicator of a bad shock as well as anything else.

 

The severity of the leak is not clear from the original posting.

I'm quite sure that shock absorber manufacturers will love it if we always replaced shocks because we observed a bit of dampness. They'd sell 50x more product and we'd spend a lot of time replacing shocks that really had no operational defect at all. It's entirely plausible (and likely) that the replacement shocks will have a bit of dampness, too, in relatively short order. Naturally, any damp spot will attract dust. Big deal!

I'm not aware of any manufacturer's new car warranty or any service contract/extended warranty that willingly or intentionally pays to repair 'dampness' type leaks be it shocks, engines, transmissions...whatever. And certainly not on a car that has 80k-100k miles.

If the leak can be described as an actual drip or a wet leak, well, that's an entirely different story.


Cheers
DD

 

thanks everyone for the help, i will try to post some photos on the condition of the shocks. Thanks!

 

 

From your photo - I would not have been too concerned about the "damp" spot".


However, sense you now have a suspension knock in addition to the suspected shock leak that is a "situation".


Why not demand that the dealer fix the knock and let the chips fall where they may?

 

At 89k miles I wouldn't give that little bit of leakage a second thought, personally. I'd consider it normal/acceptable for the mileage, and not an indicator of an actual defect. I have my doubts that the actual function of the shock is being degraded because of it.

Others will chime in, of course


Cheers
DD

 

You'll probably have more than a little bit of leakage when you're 89! Depends on it!

 

from that photo, I'd be more concerned with what appears to be rat droppings!

 

What is the rat dropping? Thanks for the reply

 

Pay no attention to that smart *** Canadian. He is putting you on.

 

Look behind the shock.....there's a horizontal 'ledge' of sorts. Some of the debris there looks like it might be rodent droppings. Of course, you really don't want rodents to be in/on/around your cars!

Cheers
DD

 

What is the condition of the other struts and has the cause of the noise been identified?