In checking out several CARFAXs, I've seen some cars that required repeated 4-wheel alignments. Are there manufacturing "lemons" out there, or are XK8s particularly susceptible to road damage that may not be visible- but that tweaks the frame- or do alignment on these cars require exceptional mechanics?

 

Accurate alignment requires COMPETENT mechanics - and when it comes to finding competence, there's a lot of lemons out there!

Graham

 

Agreed with GGG. I've had zero alignment issues with my XK8 for as long as I've had it. Gone through two complete sets of tires and now at 69,000 miles and the original alignment is still within specs. I had it checked with the newest tire change.
If one clown guy aligned an XK8 once, then someone competent needs to do it again.

 

I have been around this site for about 5 years or so. Can't say I have seen any trend here at all for alignment issues with these cars.

 

I have seen plenty of posts where owners complain of inner tire wear, and the alignment guy says it is negative camber causing it, and the posters ask how to fix the camber issue. Ussually what actually is needed is education, and an alignment tech who will listen, or, go to the Jaguar dealership as they typicaly know how to align these cars.

These cars do not have camber adjustment, and as they age, they tend to go negative, due to worn top shock mounts, worn springs, and occasionaly badly worn lower shock bushings. However, typically from what I have seen is that the camber will go negative to no more than -1.6 or so. But this doesn't cause the inner tire wear as is often belived or stated by the alignment techs. Camber at about -2 degrees will. Inner tire wear is most often too much toe-out. Alignment techs tend to set the toe to zero, yet as the car moves down the road, the wheels tend to toe out naturally. If set to zero on the rack, they will be toed out on the road. Techs need to push out on the front of both wheels at the same time to simulate what happens while driving, and then set the toe, and to compensate for the negative camber most of the cars have, toe-in further. My car is -1.5 and -1.6 camber on the fronts, and I tell the aligmnent tech everytime what I wrote here about pressing out on the front of the front tires, and I tell them to set the toe IN, until almost out of spec. I track straight, and never have abnormal tread wear. This is also known as the mercedes pressor bar method.

I don't take credit for this, it is information I have acqurired be reading the forum, particularly the ever helpful Brutal, and through my own experiences as an owner of a few cars over the years with no camber adjustment capability.

 

thanks- I printed out that to take with me if I need it checked out for my eventual XK8. There particularly bad example that prompted the query is a car that a Jag dealer in NYC has re-aligned several times in less than 25k!