X350 XJR front suspension woes

[swampy442]

Iv'e got an XJR which I love dearly, 03 car with 78k miles, problem is, there's a heavy, low frequency vibration from the front end, at anything over say, 50mph. At motorway speeds ripples in the road have the same effect, having a hoon around back roads, particularly if one wheel is unloaded, its amplified. The rear is fine, drives perfectly straight, tyre wear appears even (in my limited ownership)

In my experience it feels exactly like tired shocks, but I've been told that's not a common problem on these,
I've changed both front lower arms, and anti roll bar links and nothing has improved, anybody got any suggestions? Oh and its on the 20" wheels with P Zero tyres if that has any bearing.

Thanks in advance

[reddiesel]

My first suggestion with an X350 is always the tyres . I can’t remember off the top of my head which tyres the XJR came with as Standard but most if not all the other X350 came with the Pirelli P6000 which were an awful ride over broken surfaces with clattering and banging completely at odds with the wonderful air suspension
Upon the advice of a fellow Jaguar man I fitted Falken Tyres and the car was completely transformed . I don’t know if you fitted these P Zero’s recently or if the car came with them ? A wonderful car nonetheless . Crankshaft Pulley Dampers can also cause a rumble at the front if they are on the way out . Not a known weakness on the XJR but certainly not unheard of . Failure of this item can be catastrophic for the engine

Edited by reddiesel on Tuesday 14th March 19:58

[FuryV6]

Hi, not sure who told you shocks aren't an issue, I work for a Jaguar Specialist and alot of X350s have knacked front air struts now. Makes cars drive horribly, most customers just don't want to pay for replacements especially on the cars that have such a low value. I think you might have to bite the bullet and replace them, you'll be amazed at the difference.

Mark

[jamieduff1981]

I have yet to remove a shock absorber from a car with that sort of milage which wasn't knackered. They wear progressively from new. They all do. You don't notice the continuous degradation of them and most don't replace them until either some fluid starts leaking for those types or they do absolutely nothing whatsoever. The threshold at which different people say "enough's enough" varies; clearly it's unrealistic to expect people to change them every 20k miles, but if you drive a two cars back-to-back one with new dampers and the other with 80k mile old dampers they will feel like very different cars.

I'm aware that like many top of the range Jags from this era on that they are very expensive adaptive dampers rather than just a good, well-set-up passive system, but they wear out just the same.

Honestly I'd start there. The rears will be just as bad, FYI. You'll notice that when the front-rear balance of grip goes all to pot once the fronts are new but the backs are still knackered.

[anonymous-user]

Biggest long term issue with the car, as others have observed dampers are always miles past their best by 90 - 100k and if you care about the car they go in the bin, but when that means a £4k bill it doesn't happen. Every high mileage X350 I've driven clearly feels like the damping is well past it's best, as you'd expect.

I think the XJR still has a square setup, obvious answer to eliminate a wheel/tyre issue is to swap them front to back and see what happens.

[swampy442]

FuryV6 said:

Hi, not sure who told you shocks aren't an issue, I work for a Jaguar Specialist and alot of X350s have knacked front air struts now. Makes cars drive horribly, most customers just don't want to pay for replacements especially on the cars that have such a low value. I think you might have to bite the bullet and replace them, you'll be amazed at the difference.

Mark

You're a good guy to know then lol, maybe you can help me get rid of that bloody awful auto box surge thing.

Internet forums, groups etc said that, "Mine has 200k miles and theyre fine" etc. Round town its bloody lovely, bit of speed, not so. Its just a shame you cant just replace the dampers.

[swampy442]

stickleback123 said:

Biggest long term issue with the car, as others have observed dampers are always miles past their best by 90 - 100k and if you care about the car they go in the bin, but when that means a £4k bill it doesn't happen. Every high mileage X350 I've driven clearly feels like the damping is well past it's best, as you'd expect.

I think the XJR still has a square setup, obvious answer to eliminate a wheel/tyre issue is to swap them front to back and see what happens.

I read a Jaguar tech bulletin about the wheels so swapped front to rear, still the same. But yes I should have just believed my experience and gone with the struts

[Stedman]

Moss Europe seem to have the best price for Bilsteins. I've been trying to build up the courage to replace mine, too.

And yes, i've read on the facebook forums 'they don't degrade'.

I firmly disagree.

[swampy442]

Stedman said:

Moss Europe seem to have the best price for Bilsteins. I've been trying to build up the courage to replace mine, too.

And yes, i've read on the facebook forums 'they don't degrade'.

I firmly disagree.

Thats good to know, Ill check them out. Everyone else seems to have no stock.

I sort of blame the previous owner but I dont as he lives in central London, the car has lived its entire life in the south east, you'd never notice it doing 40mph or lower. Lincolnshires farm roads really expose the problem lol. The worst thing was it had a health check from a well known specialist

[Stedman]

swampy442 said:

Thats good to know, Ill check them out. Everyone else seems to have no stock.

I sort of blame the previous owner but I dont as he lives in central London, the car has lived its entire life in the south east, you'd never notice it doing 40mph or lower. Lincolnshires farm roads really expose the problem lol. The worst thing was it had a health check from a well known specialist

They are difficult to diagnose and I must say, finding someone as anal as myself with these cars has proven difficult. A lot of mechanics (of all guises) do seem to go with ‘good enough’.

PM me the specialist name if you don’t mind

[anonymous-user]

I've driven cars that have dampers obviously completely shagged out whose owners insist they "drive like new" so I'm not surprised. Most drivers would probably consider if perfectly fine, so undiscriminating are they as consumers.

I'd go so far as to say that of the many, many cars I've driven and owned with over 100k on the clock not a single one has had dampers performing anything like they should; they might be doing well enough to tolerate, or good enough to meet your expectations of a leggy old smoker, but they're always miles off the performance of a new set.

A program of works like barge threadist r129SLs legendary rolling maintenance of his R129SL is the only way to keep an old car from feeling like a bag of st. You just have to decide how far you and your wallet are willing to go on an old car, and where you're happy to sit on the new -> knackered spectrum.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 30th March 23:11

[beertwanger]

I needed a car for occasional family trips and didn't fancy spending a fortune on a boring SUV. Purchased a low milage super v8. 2 owners, lots of history, really nice looking car. Ride was horrible though, wheel shakes, harsh over rough surfaces, and felt dangerous at high speed. £8,000 spent on wheel refurb and straightening, new shock, air suspension pump, front brakes and discs, wheel bearings, tank straps and some other stuff, drives lovely. I want to keep the car, and still cheap compared to a new £50k blob.
Expensive old car = expensive maintenance, no surprise really. Still love the car.

[swampy442]

Just to follow this up, because I hate when people don’t lol, changed both front shocks and good as new.

One had been leaking and one had an internal fault for the active damping.

[GeniusOfLove]

Thanks for the update, glad the car is sorted. What air struts did you go for?

[swampy442]

Just a good used pair. New Bilstein sports are 2300 quid, I’d convert to coilovers for half that price lol.

It’s a totally different car now, had the geometry set and I couldn’t be happier

[reddiesel]

Great news .