My 2000 XK8 has 52,000 miles on it and the front stability is getting worse. When driving on a less than perfect road, like rural roads like we have where I live, the car will not steer streight on its own. When hitting a small bump it takes a left turn and wants to keep that in until I correct it with steering. And I have to keep pressure intil the next bump and then it might want to go streight or turn right requiring another steering correction. Very anoying. The upper shock mount shows no foam deteration at all. Although the front lower shock mount needs replacing. All other rubber bushings look great. I plan to replace the front shocks due to the lower mounts being bad. What else could be causing this shift in directional control.

Thanks guys.

 

Any of your wishbone bushes but something that does cause this kind of thing are the V mounts on your subframe, these basically hold all your suspension and engine to the main chassis, if they have separated it will allow your subframe to move and steer for you, the front subframe mounts do not not seem to suffer as much

 

I am not sure what you are talking about. Is the subframe the big aluminum "U" shaped thing under the car that the upper and lower "A" frames bolt to?

 

You need one of Graham's JTIS drawings.......... I would not say U shaped but to put it bluntly the big aluminum thing your front suspension all bolts to

 

I found a diagram of the subframe. But I could not figure out what the "V" mounts were. Any more help there?

 

Here you go

 

Had a bit of that myself, when the car is cold, and I leave my home at 5 am, the bumps in our (rural) road, want it to change direction, at the same time a yellow light comes on, has to do with traction control. After about 1/2 mile it all works OK again, and other then automatically turning off cruise control when I "fly" over a railroad crossing at about 95 MPH, the Traction Control behaves, I would suggest playing around a bit with Traction Control to see if it has anything to do with your problem, before thinking about mechanical things at only 50,000 miles..

 

my old tires (pirrelli) would want to throw the car left or right depending on where the rut in the road was. that is a basic fault with directional tires and un even wear. got new tires, nice clean even ride now.

 

Yes that is the diagram I already have. But, what are the "V" mounts you are talking about and what can be done to fix things?

Thanks for you help.

 

The V mounts are item 3, these seperate and allow excessive movement from the rear of the subframe