Ok so I had new tires put on the 97 XK8 and bhad them balanced too. When I left I noticed some shaking from more than one tire, but had to be somewhere so I didn’t take it right back. I set an appointment to have the alignment done at another shop, and figured I’d have them rebalance the tires. Needless to say they found the rear tires were out of balance,but the fronts were at zero, and that the tech didn’t feel anything on the test drive. Also they couldn’t do my alignment because I don’t have the Jaguar shim and bolt kit yet. So they said take it to the Jag dealer for an alignment. Drrrrrrr. I left and still felt a shake in the steering wheel around 50-55. Drrrrrrr! I thought well I’ll keep driving it for a while and see. Coming home from work the other day staying steady at 50ish it started shaking badly in the steering wheel. I checked my lugs and they looked ok. I drove it home and it seemed better. Today I decided to jack it up and check to see if anything felt loose and it seemed fine. Then I was taking my daughter to work and it started shaking pretty bad again. My daughter said " wow it’s really shaking". Then I hit the brake because someone pulled out, and it shuddered badly and pulled a little to the left! I was tempted to turn around,then it settled down and braking was smooth again! I dropped her off and started home. Lots of traffic and no shuddering, but some shaking in the wheel. Halfway home though, about 20 min, it started again and the shuddering with the brake came back! Came to a stop and it was back to a light shake and smooth braking! ARGH! Any thoughts?

 

T, I had a similar experience recently with new front tires. Everything except braking was similar to your description. As it turns out, the inexpensive front sway bar links I put in 12 months ago were failing. The sway bar was far from immobilized. Replaced the links today, back to normal!

Who'd have thought a loose sway bar will cause clunks, vibration (like an unbalanced wheel) at certain speeds, and all the other usual issues that you would expect. Dont laugh but when I brought it back to the tire store for rebalancing they told me it was bad wheel bearings in 3 out of 4 wheels, failed ball joints and some other item I've forgotten. I went home, pulled the wheel off and checked. Every thing was solid, then I checked the sway link - that was it!

Good luck with it. I hope you find an easy solution like this.

John

 

I plan on pulling the wheels today to see if I can see anything

 

What are your current tire pressures? Were your new tires Hunter Road Force balanced when they were installed? If not, consider having it done....

 

The most common problem with alignment is the collapsing upper strut mounts (the Jaguar part is not durable). Go to jagrepair.com, find the vehicle spec book, and measure the ride height. You have to be within spec for the camber to be OK. These eccentric bolts have been talked about before, and apparently only change the camber by a small amount, not enough to correct for a bad mount. They are apparently pricey too. Forum "consensus" is to get the poly mount from Welsh Enterprise. Much more durable part, the one to get if you want to do the job once.

Also, check the condition of the lower shock mount/bush. The seal can fail and the joint gets contaminated. They are available separately, but require a press to remove/install so most folks just replace the entire shock.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Couldnt do an alignment cause they didnt have bolts and shims.??? Lol be glad they didnt do it they dont know the car. I have alot of suggestons but working right now.

 

I brought a set of new Continentals DWS for my 2001 XKR and had them installed at a specialty car tire shop. It shook so bad at 120Kph that I almost lost a filling!
Took it back had had them road force balance them all. They found one tire was so badly warped it needed replacing. They said it was the worst they had seen in 20 years.
Michelin P4 Sports next go round.

 

Ok, 1 as yyc jst stated a new tire can be out of round (high road force) it happens and if you just balance you wont know for sure. Why i like to road force my personal tires. You can balance a block but how will that roll?
Also any vibration from balance or road force can easily come and go from bad shocks and or suspension bushings. Their jobs are to control suspension movement and if a vibration hits a certain frequency it can start isolating badly. Kinda like that bridge that collapsed from poor engineering. Winds at a certain speed or the bridge surface caused the bridge to undulate so badly it finally collapsed. Get the suspension checked out by someone that knows jaguar cars. Not the shop that said they couldnt do an alignment because they didnt have bolts and shims.
1) do road force
2) suspension checked out by jag shop and explaining youre issue . Its a 97, be prepared

 

I too suffered from the shakes at one point. With perseverance it can be remedied.

What brand tires are you dealing with? It makes a huge difference.

And how many miles on the car now?

Try reducing your tire pressures to match your 100mph spec below. It is likely they tire shop over inflated, if they even bothered to check how much they put in them. Make sure that you insist the balance be redone at the correct pressures if you find any were over inflated.



About the alignment, yeah you should always have it done when getting new tires. However it is good to know ahead of time if the alignment is even possible without repairs first. You can make a reasonably good guess about that by just measuring the ride height from center of each wheel vertically up to the edge of the fender.

If front is below 15.5 inches then you probably need at least the upper shock mounts replaced which are part of the strut assembly. If you do need to replace those then also you should replace the upper control arm bushings while you have it apart. If the rear is below 15.5 inches then you have to replace similar mounting bushings that are above the shocks. In both cases the shocks themselves are probably still good for a while unless the lower end bushings are failing. Others have gotten over 100K easily on original shocks.

Any place that tries to sell you shims or bolts as part of an alignment is ripping you off - or too ignorant to know any better. You would do well to find another shop.




Now, have you changed any of these yet? If not then try replacing them in the order listed. All are relatively cheap if you can DIY and all covered here in my working thread.

1. anti-roll (sway) bar bushings
2. anti-roll (sway) bar links
3. steering rack mounts
4. tie rod ends (requires realignment)
5. upper control arm bushings (requires realignment)
6. lower control arm bushings, ball joints, wheel bearings (requires realignment)

 

I did pull the wheels a little bit ago and I (big guy that I am) needed a 3ft pipe to get the lugs loose! I then started looking around and saw corrosion on the contract pads of the wheels and decided to scrape that off. I checked a few other possible causes and everything seemed ok, so I put it back together with a little anti sieze on the contract pads and alternating the lugs to snug then resting it and torquing them to spec. I took it for a nice ride and it seems a lot better. I know it still needs an alignment, but it's better for sure!

 

I had terrible front end shaking when I first bought the car ,had the wheels balanced ,the rears were fine but the front still shook at 60 and up. I took it to an old ,experienced shop that knew how to balance the wheels on the car. This solved the problem. I' m thinking that the BBS wheels are hard to get centered on the balancer.

 

 

That's really high pressure, but I'm sure you know that already. No, cant think of a reason for the ground wire..
John

 

I had a similar issue on another vehicle and it was a front brake caliper that was seizing up. The symptoms I had were identical to what you described.

 

I did measure today, but want to make sure, the measurements are from the center of the wheel to the Apex on the outside of the wheel arch right? If so mine is definitely about an inch or more short. Looking at some videos and such, I am starting to think my shocks and struts may be the originals. Interesting thought about the brake caliper, I may have to check them more thoroughly this weekend, time permitting

 

Well needless to say it started doing it again. I decided to pull my tires again and check the pads, rotors and calipers to see if I saw anything. On the left side the pins were dry and covered in dirt, so I cleaned those off and greased them. The pads are worn, more on the inner pad than the outer, but fairly even and the rotor looks and feels fine. I compressed the piston slightly and it seemed to move evenly with no noticable rust. I went to pull the right side and first thing I noticed was that the wheel was VERY firm to turn when I had the car up. I took the wheel off and pulled the pins, same coating of crap on them, then went to lift off the caliper and it wouldn’t budge! I had to pry it from the front then back, inching it up until it popped off! The rotor still looks and feels ok though. The inner pad is almost completely gone and the outer has about a 1/4" left. The piston is covered in rust and the pretty much all the way out. I checked the seal and it’s packed underneath with rust particles. I tried pushing it in and it wouldn’t move. Yeah that ones shot! I ordered a new one and a set of pads. We’ll see if that makes the difference!

 

I agree the brake repairs will help but I think you are due to replace the upper shock mounts if you are an inch low.

 

Yes I am looking at different strut tools, trying to decide which one I want to buy. I like the wall mounted ones,but I kinda like the pedestal ones too

 

I just used the free loaner tool from Advance Auto. Worked fine.

Use the Welsh upper mounts too!

 

I've thought about that too, but I like having my own tools. Lol! Even if I only use it a handful of times it would be worth it