Hi I purchased a 2000 XK8 for my wife a month ago and joined the forum and have been reading it everyday since. The car has low mileage 45K and upper shock bushing were shot crumbly so I purchased the welsh poly mounts and had them installed along with new front rotors and pads and Bilstein shocks,4 wheel alignment and new front tires. I now have a shimmy i feel in the steering wheel and when I go over bumps it does not feel right and tight (damping). I have had the front end looked at by the mechanic who installed the shocks and mounts and voters and pads he said the rest of the bushing are fine. I also had the guy that installed the tires say the same thing btw the tires were balanced on the machine that adds pressure to the wheel if forget the name of it. So I am hoping some one can shed more light on this issue. The shimmy does not get worse with speed but it is always there and slightly. My thinking is the damping is causing this issue? Maybe the shocks are bad?? Any who I have also read the other posts about shimmy and shock mounts so I could use your help if you know what the issue is. I also on another note smell gas and coolant from time to time so I assume I have a vacuum leak and a small coolant leak as I see some moisture on the right side of the engine but no dripping underneath and no oil leaks.
Any help would be most appreciated...

 

Perhaps the problems are caused because you park it up the wall, as shown in your photo.

Regarding your steering. The steering is very light on these cars, noticeably so. The other rather obvious one to check is your tyre, or tire if your in America, pressure. Over inflated tires/tyres will cause a lot of problems.

Water under the car could be just the aircon dripping.

Fuel smell is usually the ........ hmmm forgotten its name, but it resides in the left front wheel well. Tucked up there towards the rear of the car. The fuel smell usually comes from there and requires replacement of a valve. The Rev Sam on youtube gives a good 'how to'.

Found it! Gas canister purge valve. Here is the video.


Hope this helps.

 

Gas smell can also be fuel rail dampers. Purge valve is a much simpler, and cheaper, thing to check.

 

I think your is like this one.

Link JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource

 

Might be a bad ball joint however my 03 did the same on a bump very violently when I got it. After replacing all front suppension parts I still get a very slight shimmy on bumps. Have gotten use to it but it is still there. Would think a car of this build quality, LOL, would feel tighter!

 

My car runs great no idle issues or back fire maybe mpg I think I am averaging is 13.5 mpg. When I got the car I tried to get it smogged and I had P1000 and I still have after a few hundred miles. Readiness monitors 2 incomplete Evap system and Comprehensive component monitoring. I use Dash command on my iPhone with a elm 327 OBDII plug wi fi.

 

Jandreu yes I would think it would be tighter. My previous car was a boxster S and that was the best car I ever owned. We sold my wife BMW 325 convertible and got the Jag her dream car. I am impressed with the trans it is so smooth I can not tell the shift points even in sport mode. The jag had tire wear in the fronts on the inside toe so I figured the bad shock mounts had something to do with that so I changed them to the poly ones and new shocks as the old shocks were fine but the lower bushings needed to be replaced so I got the bilsteins.

 

Welcome to the forum Dawgwalker,

Please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some information about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

The inner tie rods were bad on my car and the tire could shimmy with no steering input...but it had 80K miles.

As frankc said, the steering on an XK8 is very light. Grooved pavement can feedback steering wheel movement, even if the suspension is all new.

They need more caster than the shims can provide.