These cars are very finicky on the tires and shocks. Some things can be changed to make them quieter, but at the cost of performance. Softer tires, softer shocks, and softer bushings in the arms will make for a decent ride, but it'll be a bit boaty. Best thing an X-Type owner can do for their car is to install a sound deadener like Dynomat or a spray sound deadener like Stinger road kill. The Jag bodies are not well insulated and it let's a lot of noise in from the wind and the road. If you take a weekend to pull the interior out and sound deaden the car it'll reward itself ten fold with a smoother, more noise free ride. I wouldn't go expecting it to be a quiet as a Lexus, but a very big improvement can be made and it is the best mod I can think of for an X-Type.

 

so, I don't wanna hijack this thread, but I think this might be pertinient, so I'll stick it here and see what we stir up.
I had the same sort of clunking noise in the rear when I bought the car. Because of several other symptoms, I changed the struts, shocks and springs, all the way around. I had the dealer do a 4-whl alignment after that.
Some symptoms persisted, (including the clunk) so I jacked it up and found that the rear-front lower ocntrol arm bushings were bad. VERY bad. I can't figure-out how the dealer could have aligned it, as there was more than an inch of movement on the right rear wheel.
I've since replaced the bushings (well, the control arm actually, as the bushings are integral, and not replaceable) and the clunk is gone entirely.
Here's the last symptom;
When the rear-end gets light (such as over a bump) it tends to try to 'skip' to the right. It's rather disconcerting at speed, when I hit an expansion joint in the freeway and the rear feels like a scared dog's, trying to come around on me. (Truthfully, it feels like an old solid-axle car with a broken panhard mount.....)
Don't let me overstate, it doesn't slide or anything, but I'm concerned it could on the ice and snow.
I have an appointment on wednesday with a trusted / reputable alignment shop to have another 4-whl done, hoping that's all htis is.
ANY thoughts or suggestions?

 

fill your trunk full of sand.

JK - this is a tough one since you have already replaced all the usual suspects. Typically I would have looked at the spring/shock on one side first.

However in your case - perhaps it goes back to our swaybar topic - it is about all there is left to check. Something is really out of whack as this car should feel like the proverbial lead sled....

 

hmm. an interesting thought.
Check out this thread with pics of what I found the first time I was under it:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/m_71297/tm.htm

My weld has held just fine. The bushings are not in new shape, but don't seem bad, but one of them seems to move (left / right) on the bar a bit, and isn't held captive by the clamp, I guess.
What else on the sway bar could be involved in this? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how the sway bar could be involved in this motion. help?

 

That's nasty!

I did notice that you mentioned the squirmy rear end in that post, however I didn't locate or you didn't say exactly if your weld job cured the problem? Did you significantly change any angles or geometery when you did the weld (Thermo your math skillz would come in here_____), or was everything solved after the weld/spring/shock replacement?

Like I said, I wouldn't have first gone to swaybar either, but being that everything else is new, and now realizing that you have some history there.....

 

no, the weld job did not cure the "squirmies".
It DID cure one of the noises, and obviously, a little roll in the corners.
I welded the factory parts, so no changes in geometry.

 

i like the sound proofing idea! has anyone done this yet? to any car?

 

Well, I reduced the pressure front and back to 29psi. The ride is still solid but now when passing over bridge expansions and uneven road seams and cracks the feeling is softer. So I guess I will leave things at this level for now and seeif itimproves with more miles on the tires.
I know there aren't any broken suspension parts on my car as I've been under it several times while replacing the rear brakes and changing the coolant plus the time before replacing the tires when I swapped the front tires to the rear to determine if I had a bad tire after last winters war with pot holes. Also the tire shop checked everthing when putting the new tires on.
I don't have any road or wind noises and definately no clanks of loose parts.
I think when I change oil this coming spring I'll liberally use some spray white lithium grease on all suspension joint areas because occassionally you can hear a squeak over uneven road surfaces at slow speeds.

 

Bob, any penalty on the fuel economy front due to the lower pressure(s)?

29psi is low, I hope you don't get any abnormal wear on your tires.

When I had a clunk noise coming from the front end, I took it to the dealer (still under warranty). They tightened up some bolts on the subframe. They did recently have it off for some maintenance, (I don't remember for which problem). I took a ride with the tech, he said that he has seen the bolts loosen up from time to time. He also removed the front swaybar bushings, greased them, and put them back in and said that I may want to continue this practice. Food for thought.....

 

I haven't had time to evaluate to see if there's any change in fuel use or wear, mileage around town is about the same.But I don't think there will be any, you can't reallyeven see any change in the tire stance. Theseare 80000 mile tires so they're builtfairly sturdy. I only went from 32psi to 29psi but I can reallyfeel the difference in the ride as now it's softerwhen driving over inperfections in road surfaces.
The problem I was noticing before was not that of something loose banging around but that of the harshness of the hit when passing over inperfections in the road surface so this lowering of tire pressure seems to have cured this. The ride now about equal what it was with the Conti's that had 57000 miles on them.

 

I used to be a dealer for Dynamat, and its awesome! I did the entire interior of my Suburban when I was do a custom interior, the floor, roof and doors. Not only was it cooler by 15 degrees sitting in the sun all day, but was so quiet, especially when closing a door. That it sounded like....well like a new Jaguar does today. Xtypes have virtually NO sound deadner in them to reduce weight and cost, we used to install sound deadner under the back seat when they first came out cause we got so many complaints about road noise. And the squeek in the rear is predominatly the park brak cables where they slide throught the brackets, lubed them with grease to permanently quiet them.

 

Just and update on the feel of the ride with the Goodyear Assurance Triple Treads. As I reported the ride softened somewhat after reducing pressure to 29psi. Now I can report on their performance on snow and ice as we've had a good blast of that this week. The perormance is great I can excellerate hard and stopping is not a problem on our snow and ice packed roads. No loss of control, no side slip or tire spinof any kind and stopping is sure and straight. So I'm well satisfied in the performance now so I guess I'll just except the comfort level as being a little hard.

 

comfort level of an Xtype is NOT the same as comfort for XJ....its comfort for the sportier much smaller X..maybe you should get a XJR

 

No, what I'm saying is that the comfort level of the car felt softer with the old original Conti's than it is with the Goodyears. I'm not complaining about the X-type ride, it appearantly justdoesn't care for the Goodyear design and is letting me know by giving a slightly harder ride.
Of course if you are offering to donate an XJ I'm accepting.

 

are you F'n nutz, a R is the NEXT Jag for me, uh wife, yeah I ment wife......But I cant beat the reliabilty of her 96 VDP and its in exellant condition do it will have to blow up or get totalled before she'll give it up