I have a 2002 XKR that was manufactured in January of 2002. I'm not sure if I have cats or if they came standard with them at the time. I'm looking to replace all shocks soon but noticed there's a huge price difference between cats and standard. Even if I have cats, could I get the standard shocks anyway? Or do I NEED them? Would there be a big difference?

 

Check the shock top in the engine compartment. If there is a "wire" coming off of it, they are rebound-adjustable. If not, they are conventional, not adjustable.

 

OK I must have cats then. Might be a dumb question, but they're not supposed to be connected to anything right?

 

They connect to the top of the shock. The fluid inside the shock gets energized and goes to a firm setting when you reach a certain speed, cant remember what the threshold is. Helps with handling if you want to make use of that supercharger

 

Well I meant that little plug that you see in the photos. They were just.... There... Not hooked up to anything lol. So it made me wonder ya know?

Do you think regular bilstein shocks would be fine? I don't care much for a firm stiff ride. If standards can FIT and provide a soft and smooth ride, I'm all for it. I just don't want it to mess anything up though

 

How old are the shocks on your car? It looks like somebody already beat you to changing out to a non CATS setup. My XK is non CATS, so I have no experience with them on this car, but my XJ has CATS. The disconnected plugs you have at one point connected to the top of a CATS enabled shock.

Here is a picture of the type of hole they plug into on the XJ (the loose wires had just been soldered and are missing the plug):

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...tor-image.jpeg

 

Well this is interesting. Now I'm wondering how a firm ride feels if this IS the smooth ride lol.

But my car has 115500 miles on it so I'd like to replace everything I can. I don't know if the previous owner has done it or even if he has, when. So I'd like to come anew ya know? I bought it at 108k

 

I don't have experience with the XK CATS, but I know on the XJ that if you simply unplug them they will throw a suspension fault code on the dash. On the earlier XJ's you can simply unplug the air suspension module and the fault will go away. On the later XJ's you generally have to override them by physically plugging in to trip the system. The XK CATS I would imagine is quite a bit simpler than the XJ. That said, I would suspect whoever disconnected them did some other tinkering also.

 

I've got that code myself. No matter if I change the fuses, it always comes back... Along with that damn airbag light lol. So maybe that IS the reason. After, I replaced ALL of the fuses.

 

On my car, if you unplug the CATS MODULE, there is no trouble code displayed.

 

Im going to try that. Thank you!

 

So it seems cats suspension shocks isn't necessary then? Standards should fit and ride just fine?

 

CATS suspension is not necessarily going to be firmer riding all the way around. The whole idea with them is to have the best of both worlds...nice riding when cruising and sportier or firmer riding with spirited driving using electronically controlled damping, etc. You are not utilizing CATS with the pictures you provided, so going with a non CATS setup you are not losing anything you don't already have.

Disabling the CATS module would probably be the easiest to rid yourself of the dash message. If that doesn't work you could always close the circuit with a resistor. The values needed on other CATS enabled Jaguars has been a minimum 5.4 ohms and capable of at least 65 watts.

 

Okay great! Thank you, you guys are awesome

 

Well that's odd... I have the code and the module was already unplugged

 

Exactly what faults/codes are you getting?

Also, not that it should matter if your suspension module is disconnected, but are you seeing the same thing on your rear shocks (disconnected CATS connectors with standard shocks)?

 

Well I haven't looked at the shocks themselves. The only thing I see constantly is the suspension fault/electrical fault on the dash.

The reason I wanted to replace my suspension components is because I don't know when's the last time it had been done, and theres popping from the rear when coming to a stop.

 

I would get your faults read with a scanner that is capable of reading Jaguar specific codes (in this case CATS). Most code readers will only read engine P codes.

The quickest way to go broke is to start throwing parts at these cars without knowing what is exactly wrong. For instance, on the XJ anyways, if your CATS system is still connected and you unplug a CATS connector on a shock, the system with default to a firm ride setting. The reason being is that it is an open/closed circuit system, and the suspension module will feed signals to the connector which will activate/deactivate a solenoid within the shock to change from soft to firm setting (the default open position with no signal being the firm setting). Again, I don't know exactly how they work on the XK, but having some things connected and others not while trying to trouble shoot without having the codes read can be a real crap shoot.

Since you do not have a CATS dependent shock on your XK, at some point the previous owner changed the suspension. Last I checked a good, quality shock can last 70,000 miles. If you are having a popping in the rear it could also be a rear sway bar, faulty coilover install (if it was recently changed), etc among a slew of other things.

 

Okay I appreciate it. I'm going to have it looked over next week. Great info