Hi Guys and Gals. I recently had a front coil spring snap on me and set about replacing. I ordered two new replacements so to replace as a pair, and got to stripping the NS down to rebuild, and renovate what should be a simple job. As per the proverbial can of worms was opened and new shocks, bearing strut tops.and wishbone / ball joint all needed replacing by the time id gotten to inspecting and stripped down. The next issue was the problem / delay in getting hold of parts and tools etc in the current lock down situation, There are no spare shops open where I live so everything has to come via the tinterweb and a carrier. I'm fortunate enough to live in the countryside for the restrictions covid19 has placed on us but that's not so good when drivers from carrier firms are not sufficiently skilled to drive down my lane and I usually end up with delays and excuses and have to collect from any drop off point I can find left open. But back to my story and reason for this post, to cut a long story short it took best part of 3 weeks to get all the items I needed to rebuild the NS suspension and that included stripping the rot from cross members and places you cant normally get to, re painting and under-sealing and shes looking good like a new car underneath on one side. The time that the car was stood effected the sensors / electrics as the battery went flat at one point and when I finally put her back together I had to reset codes 3 times before she finally accepted and was fine again. When I put the ant roll bar back to the strut, it had a lot of down force and I had to use a G clamp to pull the rod down enough to let me line up the ball joint, I did this when undoing so wasn't to concerned, now though when I drive and accelerate hard I'm getting a fair but of vibration through that side, as if the wheel is struggling to keep traction with the rd. If I back off the drive and free wheel it stops vibrating but when you engage the drive again it starts and increases the faster you get. It seems to be intermittent as at low speed it doesn't do it and sometime if accelerating to 60 again there's little vibration, nothing much that you'd notice if you weren't looking for it. I'm tending to think I'm going to have to replace the drive shafts now, and wondered if anybody else had heard or come across a similar problem. The cars done 145K mls and is relatively sweet on running, just this problem with the vibration. I haven't replaced the torque restrictor but thinking of doing while i'm down there..

 

Hex, just to ask a simple question which may lead to the answer, did you let the spindle hang where the CV joint (front driveshaft) was taking the weight. If so, then I would almost bet that you have a bad CV joint. The other check I would do is to lift both front wheels in the air at the same time. Now, stand in front of the car and see if both wheels are drooping similarly. Depending on what all has been done and if everything went back together just so, you may have 1 wheel fighting the anti-sway bar. Granted, I would also think that it would be very easy for it to slip on the road and this would cause the DSC to engage. Have you been seeing that kick in more lately? If you are suspecting a CV joint, get the front of the car up in the air and then grab on to the rod between the inner and outer CV joints. Now, pull and push on it like you were going to attempt to take it out through the bumpers. Did you get movement? If yes, then the CV joint is going. The vibration that you are feeling is that rod not being centered like it should be and it is trying to vibrate itself free.

If this checks out good, then let me know and we will start looking at other things. The other likely suspect would be a wheel bearing. If you have the wheels in the air, probably a quick check to make.

 

 

I didn't let the spindle hang but on a couple of occasions the wire I supported it with had slipped and it ended up hanging over night so Id say yes to your question. It doesn't sound like CV no clicking but I've not had a big one go in a vehicle this size. DSC has not engaged at all. As you can see from the photos the drive / CV are old and looks like it is going to need replacing at some point anyway, I've seen CVs for sale on their own but is it as easy to replace the whole drive and CV in one? I'm thinking just swap it out. There is a little movement in the shaft when you try and move it, should there be non at all? ill check the bearing when I jack it up, but there's no play at low speeds so gut says its not that, will have a pull on the drive to too make sure. report back shortly.

 

Hi Thermo, I got called into work on Tuesday so I've only just had chance to check your suggestions. There's no play in the bearing at all its nice and firm, after jacking the front end up I measured everything wheel to floor, wheel to top of arch, checked the wishbone and arms and they all look perfectly symmetrical so don't think there's and problems there. I tried to pull and push the drive shaft as described and there was no play there ether. however when I tried to rotate the shaft it rotated 1 or 2 mm clockwise / counter clockwise and also moved laterally maybe 2 or 4mm... the actual cv joints were quite solid seemed the movement was more towards the drive shaft to gearbox, but I don't know how much if any play should be in that area.

 

Hex, as long as both sides are doing the same thing, then I would call it good. I think my next check would be to try driving over a speed bump, but with only 1 side of the car going over the speed bump. Then drive the other side over the same speed bump. What you are looking for is one way, the car is going to soak up the bump pretty well and the other side will tend to rock the car a lot (like the shock is stuck in position). This would indicate that you have either a bad shock or your anti-sway bar is bound up in one of the mounts and is not letting the wheel have the correct amount of downward force. After that, I am at a loss. I guess you could simulate this same thing by simply pressing down as hard as you can on the front corners of the car and seeing how far the car goes down and how many times it will rebound. If you find a side that will not really go down, then that would say that the sway bar has an issue. If you find that the car bounces up and down more than 3 times (3 times up, 3 times down), then you may have a bad shock.

 

I think were barking up the wrong tree with shocks and springs, but they are very solid and a single bounce and they stop. I took her out for another blast just now up the motorway this time and at low speeds there's some slight vibration when using the engine to pull, until you get to about 50 mph then the vibration increases exponentially to shake the whole car the faster it goes. If you then back off the accelerator and / or freewheel it stops. I pulled up and quickly got under to yank the drive shaft again as described in the previous reply and there is now a definite click and slight movement in the drive shaft just a mm but noticeable. I'm going to swap it out and see if that does the job assuming I can find a replacement in the current climate. will update as on going.

 

The rear driveshaft could be the source of the vibration. I have found that if you use a needle on a grease gun, you can squirt enough grease into the center mount that you can atleast do a diagnosis. You may have caught it early enough that you can get another 6 months or so out of the driveshaft. But, hard to say.

 

When you tightened up the front suspension parts did you do it with the car sitting on its wheels or were the control arms, balljoints, etc tightened with the wheels off or the suspension hanging?

 

I tightened the wishbone and ball joint with the car jacked up, had the wheel off to tighten the drive, but put the wheel back on and dropped to the ground to tighten the strut top. Think you've just hit the nail on the head, need to loosen off then tighten them up again with car on the ground see if that fixes the problem.

 

good luck!

 

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun. I got called into work again last week so didn't get chance to check on the suspension as I also had the front end off grinding the rot out and repainting in the good weather. I finally got round to loosening all the nuts and bolts off the suspension and dropped it to the ground then re-tightened but I've still got the vibration on acceleration so next move when the good weather comes back next week is to swap over the drive shaft and see if that fixes the problem will keep you updated, but thanks for the input so far

 

I would probably revisit the front cv axles like how thermo was talking about. I too have the shake and my front end hasn’t never been apart. Just two days ago I swapped out the rear driveshaft. Shake still there. Swapped out the wheels and tires, yep still there. Only thing left that would or could cause it is the front axles so that’s next on my to do list as I will be replacing the struts also so the axles will get done then also at the same time

 

Agreed there is a little play in the CV and I've bought a complete left and right replacement that includes both CVs and shaft altogether, that's sat on the back seat waiting to go on. I'm going to swap it weekend as the weather is set to improve, we've got clod wind and rain again atm and I'm working outside...! Everything is new down there so that's all it can be unless the gearbox is goosed.. May be useful, I don't know if you're changing shocks etc, but when I took the spring off the end cap they literally fell apart so might be worth while getting them in, depends on how easy you can get parts. Will update further...

 

Finally swapped the drive shaft Weds as the sun came out and it fixed the vibration completely. Shes running as smooth as baby's bum now. When I got the old shaft out the inner joint literally fell apart so it was well beyond saving. I also found it easier when removing the lower ball joint to undo the bushes and completely drop the wishbone, that let the ball joint just slip off with no effort what so ever. the rebuild was a simple reverse of the strip down. Just got to change and rebuild the other side now, a job I'm saving until the summer really comes through and order all the parts in, when I can spend a couple of days covering paint work an all.

 

Hi Hex, I too have not long ago had my drivers side front spring break on mine I have 2 new springs to go on but it looks like a pig of a job? Did you undo to bolts securing the sub frame to the car or just the wishbone as it's the captive nut I'm abit worried about that secures the sub frame to the car as I have heard it can have a tendency to go walking as the welds break any tips or info on it would be nice.

Richard.

 

This worked for me

Front sub frame Mount captive nut broke free. - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

 

Hi Richad

Fortunately I didn't have the problem of the nut breaking free and adopted to merely loosen the sub frame bolts off about 10 mil, just to give me enough room to get the bolt out from the wishbone bush to bulkhead. I used a spare jack to support the sub frame while loosening the bolts, plenty of penetrating oil and it came away nicely. Had to move the earthing point bolt just above too. The spring is easy enough to do, I used the Sealy extra long spring compressors as I didn't have access to a hydraulic press. Then cleaned and painted everything up while waiting for parts. I found the shocks and top mounts needed replacing while doing the spring so had a weeks wait in lock-down while delivered to do it. I decided to reinstall the wishbone bolt from beneath with the nut on top, I know it should be the other way round in case of failure etc, but it made life so much easier and as I'm under there often its something I will be able to keep an eye on. Plus the nylock nut and whole assembly was painted over with HCF paint sealing everything further. I've not started the drivers side rebuild yet as I'm using the car again and cant take it off the road for another couple of weeks, but are amassing parts presently. Its running a lot smoother though just from what I've done so far.