This is on our '06 XK8 with just under 65,000 miles:
Two problems - the first is during heavy braking the steering wheel shakes and I found the second while checking the front brakes which was that both front tires have premature wear on the very inner surface.


First Problem: I did not feel any brake pedal pulsing just the steering wheel shaking upon heavy braking. Felt like uneven braking force between the front wheels. I removed the front tires/wheels, brake calipers and rotors; all look fine. Calipers slide in/out with no problem.


Second Problem: I did find that the left front shock was wet along its cylinder so appears time to replace shocks. The upper shock mounts appear to be poly so either Jaguar put poly in or previous owner did. Anyways will be replacing both shocks. The lower control arms/ball joints were replaced at 30.5k miles by Jag Service as they said they were worn.
I looked at the control arms bushings and again all look fine, no cracks or shims missing. Tried to move tire at 6 and 12 o'clock but could not see any ball joint movement. Checked outer tie rod ends and although not new did not have excess movement.


At a loss as to what the solutions are at this time; would appreciate some insight/hints/suggestions as to what to check for or what the likely problem is. When I replaced the front tires 30k miles ago there was no signs of inner tire wear...but alot can happen in 30k miles.


Thanks in advance.

 

Ride height sets the camber. What is the distance from the center of the wheel to the fender lip? Sagging springs could be lowering ride height, increasing negative camber.

Inner tie rods on my 80K mile car were awful. With a jack under the lower wishbone, the tire could be turned slightly with steering locked. All of the movement was in the inner tie rod.

Road drag on the wheels could be causing toe out which wears the inside of the tire. Applying brakes could cause a oscillation between road drag and brake drag vectors.

I'm assuming you have staggered wheels? otherwise they would be rotated to the back at some point. 30K miles might be all a some tires have in them.

 

I did not measure the distance between wheel center and fender; did measure the distance between garage floor and fender lip: 27 7/16" Left, about 28" Right. Also measured rear and there was about 1/4" difference between Left and Right with Left lower.


I will measure between wheel centers and post.


I am doubting the mileage on the front tires, that is what my records show, but the front look far too good to have 30k miles on them....of course the inner tread is about to the belt!!


I pulled/pushed on the inner tie rod end with the outer one loose, but did not feel any movement, but it would have to be really bad to feel in this manner. I will try your method.


Thanks for the response.

 

Measured wheel center to fender lip: a good 1/4" difference Left to Right with Left lower; did the rear as well and also about 1/4" lower on the Left than Right.


I guess my car leans to the Left.


Going to replace the front shocks for sure but now thinking I should replace the rears at the sametime. Going to get back under there and check if any leaks on the rears.


Will get the front up in the air again tomorrow to check the inner tie rod.

 

Its typical for the car to sag to the driver side, as there is more weight on that side.

Measuring from the center of the wheel to the fender lip takes the tire height out of the equation, which is different on every car.

 

If the ride height has dropped enough, it will give you negative camber which will definitely wear the inner tread faster.

I would go get your alignment checked before I did anything. Incorrect toe could also be your problem. Either way, you'll have more data to work with. If you're lucky, it might even solve the problem.

 

Yes going to be taking car to a shop that I trust for an alignment check/set. Something has recently changed to cause this inner tire wear....not possible to have been this way for 30k miles.


Any thoughts on the shaking steering wheel?

 

Have them look into it at the shop. If the toe is off significantly it may be causing the steering wheel shake under braking.

 

Going to be next week before I take car to alignment shop as I will be replacing the front shocks and upper shock mounts; do not want to pay for two alignments in one week. Will also need to get new front tires so will probably wait until these three items are done and then go get the alignment done.


What bothers me is that both front tires have exactly the same inner wear...exactly! I could see where one side has a spring sag, or a worn out ball joint, or bushings...or etc.....but both sides??????????????????????????

 

No real update yet; on business travel for two weeks. But I did order a pair of poly upper shock mounts for Welsh Enterprises via ebay....they sent one....anyone have any "history" with Welsh? This is the first time I have ordered from them and likely to be the last as they are not responding much.


Also have poly upper control arm bushings in route....just going to replace these parts since I will be in there anyways...once I return home that is.

 

Changing the shocks will not restore ride height. The main culprits are sagging coil springs and disintegrating upper shock mounts. If the car sits low, the camber angle will be out and causes wear to the tyre inner edge.

 

I had the exact same premature inner tire wear problem. Turns out the upper control arm bushes had failed catastrophically. Everything looked fine, until I noticed that everything wasn't concentric. After replacing the bushings I took her for an alignment - very little was needed. And tire wear has returned to unnoticeable, just as it was before.
Compare the bolt and washers against the ends of the control arms. Everything should be concentric.

 

Update: have gotten the shocks replaced with poly upper shock mounts, poly wishbone bushing installed onto wishbone, just not on car yet.

 

Hello.

My being a former 200 mile per day commuter for 15 years I got to know tires pretty well. All of the tires I purchased in those days were mid-price tires on full size sedans. One time on the 450SE a slight bump, bump, bump slowly started appearing on the car. Especially during braking. I figured, or hoped a balancing weight had fallen off the rim and was causing the mild shaking. To the shop I go for the usual rotate and balance. Problem not solved. Back I go and upon further inspection it was determined the sidewall of a perfect looking half worn tire had degraded inside and was causing the mild bumping in the car. A new free tire was mounted and off I went. As I recall that happened again couple years later using the same mid-priced tires. Turns out the big'ol fat Mercedes was eating up the mid-priced tires so I moved up to the next best tires. No more problems. Fast forward past the '95 Honda Accord and onto the '94 Infinti Q45, purchased in '03 with 100,028 miles. Easily the best car I've ever owned. More tires of different brands and more commuting. One time while pulling in the driveway I heard a squeak, squeak, squeak. Maybe a pebble caught between the caliper and disc? I've had more than one. And also the mild shaking while applying the brakes. A week or so later I head out to the employee lot and there's a flat tire. I changed the tire to the little spare and commuted on the spare for several days and then to the shop. Dismounting the tire showed again the inside of the casing was falling apart in one place in the sidewall area. The squeak, squeak, squeak was the sound the tire made as it rotated slowly up my driveway. With the drivers window down of course. And the flat was caused from air leaking through the paper thin sidewall in the damaged area of the tire. Nothing visible on the outside. Actually, other than the 3 tires that fell apart their mates lasted a lot of miles. Like 60,000 miles or more.
What I'm getting to, Lannyl181 is it just may be a tire sidewall coming apart. If your tires are the same size it may be rotation time. If they're not the same size a quickie rotation might be done for a quick test around the block, so to speak. Or even moving the spare around the car starting with the front. It's just an idea Lannyl81 and won't cost anything.


Jip

 

Jip,
First off...thank you for you reply...always a good idea to pass along ones experience.


But not able to rotate tires as different sizes between front and rear, same diameter but different widths and I have never tried putting the wider rear tire on the front to see if it clears.


Anyways i will admit that the tires on the cars are not high dollars ones but have not had any problems before with this brand/model of tire. I could see one tire but not both having a sidewall or belt go.


I think it was the OEM rubber wishbone bushings as one came apart in taking the fulcrum bolt out and another one face washer was no longer attached to the bushing. The rubber bushings were beginning to fall apart.


Only 65k miles on the car but it is 10+ years old now and did "see" some winters its first three years; now it only "sees" heat!


Will be putting everything back together this afternoon and going to the alignment shop next week to see if I got the shims in the correct location or not and of course to check the other parameters.


I will update next week.

 

BTW: Lanny - You're not alone in having the bushing sleeve seized to the fulcrum bolt. I had to beat the crap out mine and take a dremel cutting disc to it. All that was left of the original bushing was shrapnel. And you can't get that bolt out until all the bushing material is removed, can you? Good luck.

Jip: Do you run your tires slightly under inflated? I've never heard of your sidewall problem before. Unless I'm racing (and I haven't in decades), I usually just go with the cheapest tires I can find. The last set of rears lasted 80,000 miles! I've had belts shift on tires with pretty much spent lives, but I've never experienced a sidewall problem. I also run higher than normal tire pressures (about 40 to 45 psi in the XKR).

 

scardini1: Yeah I knew I was not the only one, read that others had problems as well, but thought that it was due to corrosion of the bolt to the subframe. For me it was just one of the "face washer" as I call it, the thin washer in the bushing, not the sleeve, just this blasted thin washer!


I destroyed both forward bushings getting the fulcrum bolt out. I cut the forward bushing apart on the passenger side, that is how I found the "face washer" was the problem. I first tried using a Dremel cutting disc on it, but could not get much of it cut before I was risking cutting into the shims. In hindsight I should have been able to move the remainder of the bushing out of the way and then cut the washer, but I cut the fulcrum bolt instead....not knowing how expensive the fulcrum bolt was. If only I had known.


So anyone else doing wishbone bushings....cut the bushings apart, cut the face washers...DO NOT CUT the fulcrum bolt unless you want to pay $$ for a bolt.


Lastly, why do you run 40 to 45 psi in your tires? I usually keep 33-35 psi and I thought I this was on the high side.

 

First thing I would do is have tires aligned and balanced. Have you hit a curb or big pothole? The most common cause for abnormal tire wear and a shimmi of any sort is unbalanced tires. When you balance the tires ask the shop to ensure the rims are not bent/warped. A warped rim can't be properly balanced.

If your wheels and tires are balanced, aligned and not warped I would look at the following in order:
1. brake rotors
2. wheel bearings
3. ball joints

If you are removing the shock anyway it is a good time to replace these things as well if in doubt.

 

Hi Lanny,
I've always run my tire pressures about 5 to 10 psi below the tire's max pressure rating (my current tires' max is over 50). I guess I've done it for fuel economy, but to be honest my tire wear has almost always been perfectly uniform across the thread and my tires have always lasted longer than expected.
There have only been two potential down sides to the higher pressure though. Running in the mid-to-high 30s on my '68 Triumph makes highway handling a bit twitchy; and over the decades I've had a couple of tires "end their lives" with belt slippage and going out of round toward the end of their lives. However, they never failed prematurely.
In the end, running the higher pressures just seems to give me better "Bang for my Buck".

 

Back to tires for a moment, Lannyl81.
My '05 XK8 has 245s up front and 255s astern. Too be 'cool' I decided to paint the brake calipers yellow. That required jacking up the car and removing the wheels. Because I purchased the car knowing some part in the front end needed replacing, thus the unevenly worn left front tire. With the wheels off of the car I wondered if the mild pulling to the left would cease if I put the barely worn left rear tire on the left front. It didn't take many miles to figure out the rear tire is a different width. There is plenty of clearance in the front end for 255s. With a 255 up front and a 245 on the rear at just over 120MPH the car wanted to weave. Please bare in mind I live in the bush and have safe places where for decades people have opened up their souped-up Model A's to todays' LaFerraris and still have a half mile to coast down. I've been doing that since 1968 on my Honda S90. 72MPH mind you. But that was then.
And scardini1. Thank you for your inquiry. After 50 years of driving cars and 52 years of riding motorcycles, tires and suspension have become a favored interest. Engines just make the car go. The suspension is what keeps you alive. Without suspension or life the engine don't go.
Commuting 2 hours each way on the freeway leaves me plenty of time to study the brakes, steering and suspension of my cars. I have to do something with my brain,,,or else. That is why since 1976 I've been buying 10 year old 'high end' cars in good shape. And dealing with the same tire store since '78 has earned me the privilege of being allowed out in the shop where the action is while most customers are not. Plus they know I'm a drivin' fool and do the ocassional 140+ blast in the XK, the M-B 500S Coupe' and the '69 911. Yes, I've experimented with tire pressures. Sometimes 2 or 3lbs. below. Sometimes 3 to 5lbs. above. Then readjust if something appears out of wack. Tire wear. Tramming while heavy braking. Wobbly this. Shaky that. I expect my cars to meet or exceed my amateurish capabilities. My driving is way better than average on back roads. Lousy on the track.
Also, scardini1. Please don't think the shop wasn't surprised with a couple two or three of their tires coming apart and are Pleased as Peach to straighten things out free of charge.
I realize that while Lannyl81s' car has visible signs of front-end wear it is the invisible signs of tire wear that can be the more frustrating. And few people seem to have undergone this.

'Enjoy folks' Jip