Yes, I think the ride height is about where it should be. Ride height was not my primary issue - worn-out lower shock bushings were. As far as whether or not all of our front-end suspension work will fix the accelerated inner-edge treadwear on the tires, only time will tell. Adjusting the caster on these things is a crapshoot at best. You have to guess by playing around with the various shims. And what added to my problem is the fact that the Jaguar dealership in Hilton Head, SC that replaced the original right front shock at 5,100 miles in January 2007 (it was discovered to be leaking) got the upper control arm bolt washer order positions all wrong when they reassembled everything after replacing the shock. Wayne quickly discovered this during the process of trying to remove that bolt. It fought us all the way because the washers were in the wrong positions, causing them to deform from gravity and pressure over the years and grab onto the bolt shaft, preventing us from pulling the bolt out. Wayne was very patient and with a combination of using the right air tools, applying force at the right places, and sheer willpower, he managed to get that bolt out after about 30 minutes of fighting it. He then used his press to straighten the washers again and made sure to reassemble the many parts that go on that bolt in the correct order (which the Jaguar dealership did not bother to do back in 2007). The original left front shock had never been touched and all the washers were still in their correct order positions on that upper control arm bolt. As a result, Wayne had that one out before you could blink....

Yet another case of a Jaguar dealership screwing up an important component by either not paying attention during removal or being in a rush to get everything put back together (and most likely both)....

That is why you want suspension-experienced guys involved when you tackle this job. Wayne realized the cause of the problem in about ten seconds after he started the bolt removal process. But it took us more than a half-hour to finally get that damn bolt out due to a sloppy Jaguar tech about nine years ago....

 

Update:

My wife just returned home in her XK8 so I decided to check the ride height measurement again. Not sure if it's caused by the current 32-degree air temperature, but that measurement distance is now right at 16 inches on both front wheels (running 245/40/19 front tires)....

 

Somehow, this sounds way better to me. 3/4" higher on both sides is a much better contributor to fixing the original camber issue.

Seen from another angle, you now have quantified the "wear" on your car over its age this far. "How much wear has this car suffered since new? 3/4 inch." As an engineer, there is something satisfying about putting an actual number to a concept. I digress...

Thanks for the update.

 

My car is a 2004 with 20" BBS rims. When I hit a reasonable bump, I think the tire hits the top of the lining inside the fender well. I have Nexen tires. They are an inexpensive tire the previous owner put on the car. I have 57,000 miles on my car. Sounds like the recommendation is to replace the bushings now. Are you guys having a mechanic do the work or doing it yourselves? If I have to do it my wife will kill me. I've done all this to the Ford woodie with a Fatmans front end.

 

John, We do what we can and would be glad to help, by PM or phone, but the price of getting Jon and I there is difficult. We both can't fly anymore.


Wayne

 

Keep in mind that you should not attempt this job unless you have access to air-powered tools, 20-ton presses, jumbo-sized wrenches and hammers, etc. You cannot successfully accomplish this job with the 50-piece Craftsman all-in-one tool set on sale for $59.95 that your brother-in-law gave you for Christmas. You need to be reasonably strong with good endurance because you are going to run into problems that you did not anticipate and you will probably be underneath your car for 6 to 8 hours if you do everything we did. As Wayne said, we will provide as much assistance and advice as we can....

 

MY shop is having difficulty sourcing 04 XK8 inner tie rods. Are they part of steering rack? Will replacing the rack solve the issue?