Car was driving great until all new tires were installed. The steering wheel now shakes at 60 mph. Tires were balanced a few more times and the car was alligned. The balancing machine was also calibrated. New rotors were install to see if that would eliminate the shaking. A second set of tires was installed and the steering wheel still shakes. Car has been in the shop for two weeks. I know the last time the wheels came off, they where frozen and really hard to get off. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

GLH, yes, the tires may be balanced, but are the tires round. I know this sounds like a silly question. BUt I just had to help out a fellow JaguarForums member troubleshoot a similar issue and his turned out to be a tire that had a high spot in it. You can first try rotating the tires front to rear and rear to front to see if the wobbling gets better. If it does, then you know you have a problem with a tire/rim. The next thing I would try is putting the tires on the balancing machine and spinning them by hand. Look at the tread to see if there is a wobble side to side and also up/down. I would also do a secondary check of looking at the lip of the rim and seeing if that wobbles any too. Jaguar rims are known for getting bent and while unlikely, it is possible that the rim got bent installing the new tires.

The last thing that is recommended to do is to have the tires/rims "road force balanced". This is a better way of balancing tires and it may also fix your issue. BUt, this takes a special tire balancer. This isn't something that just any shop can do.

I know when I had my X-Type, if the alignment was off by even a little bit, the steering wheel would develop a shake.

 

I had similar problem -tried everything, could not get rid of that little shimmy in the steering wheel above 60 mph. I did have one bent rim, which I replaced. Then I found (on this site), Jaguar technical service bulletin XT204-02, on the importance of "measuring radial force variation." This is an aspect of the road force balancing Thermo mentioned and requires a Hunter 9700/ 9712 balancing machine -and yes, not many shops have this machine as it is expensive. There is a feature on this machine called "tire to wheel match mounting", that allows the machine to pinpoint the low point of the tire and the high point of the wheel. You then rotate the tire on the wheel until these 2 points meet. There are some other details involved, spelled out in the service bulletin. The owner of the shop I took mine to knew about this feature of the machine, but had never tried it. Jaguar supposedly marks this high spot on their wheels at the factory and mounts the tires accordingly. Anyway, I talked him into humoring me and giving it a try. It worked. Vibration was completely gone.

 

If you need the TSB mentioned above, let me know. I should have it in my storage of useful info for the X-TYpe.

 

I appreciate all of the help. I did have the tires road force balanced and it helped. I do not believe they matched up the high and low pints of the tires. the wheel still shakes between 65 and 70 mph, right at our highway speeds.
The shop that did the road force balancing suggested buying Continental tires that come standard on many Jags. He says many cars, especially Hondas, are sensitive to different tread patterns.
Thermo, if you have the Tsb, it would be good to try. This forum is truly great, wish our boat forum had guys this involved.

 

GLH, send me a PM with your e-mail addy and I will send you the TSB. Is there any other documents that you might want relating to the X-Type. I have a fist full of documents that might be useful. Let me know what you are after and I will tell you if I have them or not.

 

I think we are going to upgrade the tires to Perelli or Continental. Any suggestions on new tires?

 

Most brand names have a year warranty on roundness. Continental and Bridgestone have a year. Might keep in mind when checking tires. If your wheels are chrome capped not fully chromed, the tire mounter must use specialized equipment or the chrome caps break or chip and cause balance problems.

 

My car has Goodyear Eagles, and I would not recommend them. My tire shop says they are notoriously hard to balance, and they have very harsh ride. He recommends Michelins. My mechanic shop also hates the Goodyears. He recommends Cooper -says they balance well and have much softer ride. I'm sure though, that Pirellis and Continentals are probably good.

 

I run Nitto Motivas on both my XK-8 and my X-Type. I like the ride. I had the vibration problem on the X-Type and it turned out to be lug nuts. The previous owner had a combination of OEM and after market nuts. The wheels were not centering on the axle and rotor.