I have a 2003 S-Type V8 with about 80K miles. For the past few months, I have been experiencing an intermittent "scratchy" noise that appears to be coming from the area near where the top of the rear shocks are mounted (listen to attached .mp3 file). It seems to come from both left and right sides.

The noise occurs regardless of whether I am driving on a smooth surface or a rough road. The sound cuts in and out and the frequency and intensity does NOT vary with speed. It sounds the same if I am going 30 mph or 75 mph. However, it does stop when the speed drops below about 20 mph.

I also noticed that the noise does not happen when the car is cold. After leaving the garage, I must usually drive 5 to 10 minutes before it starts happening.

I have tried pumping the rear end up and down when the car is stationary and cannot initiate the noise, it only occurs when the car is moving. The shocks appear to be OK, they don't feel mushy and there is no fluid on the floor of my garage.

My S-Type does not have Adaptive Damping, it just has the standard suspension. I suspect the noise has something to do with the shocks, but it might be something else.

I can turn up the radio and ignore it, but I'd like to figure out the cause and fix it.

Are there any Jaguar Sherlock Holmes who can analyze these clues and deduce the cause?

 

If you spend some time in the XK8 section, you'll read many complaints about the gradual deterioration of the front upper shock mounts as the years and miles roll by. That happened to my wife's 2006 XK8 in late 2015 so my forum friend Wayne (cjd777) and I removed them and installed new aftermarket poly upper shock mounts in early January of this year at about 99,000 miles (we also took the opportunity to install new shocks while we had the front end apart). The factory XK8 upper shock mounts are made of a spongy, almost pencil-eraser material that begins to crumble away after a decade or so, sometimes considerably less time than that....

I have not experienced this problem yet on my 2005 S-Type 3.0 (and it is pushing 93,500 miles). But if the S-Type upper shock mounts are made of the same material as the XK8 upper shock mounts are, there is no question that they will eventually crumble away as well. You'll need to get in there and have a good look in order to determine if that is indeed your problem. If you can scratch the upper shock mount material away just with your fingernail, you've probably identified your culprit....