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

[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

[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

[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.

[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