I purchased a 2011 certified XJ and found the ride terrible. The front end just didn't feel solid. I didn't know if it was due to being an aluminum bodied car or there was something wrong. As you know, the suspension is pretty much considered wear & tear items, so the CPO warranty doesn't cover most of the issues. I took it back to the dealer 3 weeks after purchase and asked them to find a cure and hopefully fix it. The dealer (Rusnak in Pasadena) called me and informed me that the front sway bar bushings needed to be replaced and they would cover everything! Great! I picked up the car and it felt better, but not perfect. I gave the car back to the wife and put the issue out of my mind. A couple months later I drove the car and and again it rode terrible. I took it back to the dealer and went for a test ride with the service manager. He agreed the ride seamed a little rough and would look into it. I told him I wished I could find another XJ to test drive so I could compare the ride. Well, he found a 2011 XJ with the same mileage, tires and wheels. So off we went for another test drive and this cars ride was spot on. This is what I was after. No pattering over small road imperfections that slowly anoy you on the freeway. He agreed the ride was much better and would let me know what they find out with my car. My service advisor (she is great by the way) called to let me know that they were going to switch (rotate) the front shocks to see if they can isolate the problem. Another call came to inform me that it wasn't the shocks, but a bad lower left control arm bushing. They said they could cover half of the repair and asked if that was ok. I agreed. If the car drove like the other XJ we tested, I would be really happy. Well, got it back and the car drives fantastic! Feels like a new car. All I can say is I am really happy I purchased this car from this dealer, zero pressure sales and they stand behind their product.

 

could you tell me about that Arden exhaust system in detail

 

Glad to hear your dealer solved your problems. Curious as to the mileage on your vehicle.

 

Interesting post! I have had exactly the same issue with my 2012 XJL that I leased new. Took it back to different dealers multiple times, dealt with the factory rep to no avail. The "pattering" would absolutely drive me up the wall on my long commute drives.

Now, 2.5 years into my 3 years lease the ride has improved to the point where I can live with it. Still does the "pattering" over perfectly good road surfaces but, it has toned down to bearable levels. I have given up trying to have it fixed and just intend to ride out the rest of the lease and get rid of the car.

To me it always felt like a shock issue and the fact that it got better might point in that direction. A bad control arm would likely NOT get better. Mine is quite tolerable at city speeds or freeway speeds under 65 MPH. Over that speed and the pattering becomes more pronounced and irritating. I can feel that very slight vibration in my steering. I used to run my tire pressures as low as 21 psi to compensate for that harshness in the ride. Now, I am back running 32 psi and I can take it but, still not loving it.

None of my other Jaguars display the same behaviour. Both our XF and XKR feels stiffer than the XJL but, when I crank the speeds up in either one the cars ride absolutely smoothly vs. the XJL with its slight pattering even at speeds, like 90 MPH.

Just too bad that I had to have an issue with a car that I particularly purchased for its perceived comfort levels for my long commutes (300 miles round trip).

At the time of trying to have it fixed I had collected a good number of professional reviews, as well as private posts seemingly complaining about the very same symptoms. It does not seem like an isolated issue. More like personal as some people, such as my wife, are simply not bothered by it, while it would absolutely irritate me.

Hope your issue has gone away for good. I love most everything about the XJL but, would never get an other one because of my experience with this one.

 

Albert,

I too was very frustrated at the ride. If this didn't fix it, I was going to replace the front shocks and be done with it. Glad they found the issue. I also read up on the issue and it does not look like an isolated case. I honestly think the cause of the issue is the assembly of the car. Either when the factory installed the bushing into the control arm, it was ruptured, or at the assembly of the vehicle. This is why some people complain of a poor ride quality on low mileage XJs and some don't. Blimey, the XF 4 cylinder turbo rental drove better than my XJ. I had to test drive another vehicle to realize what it SHOULD drive like. My XJ had 52K on the odometer at the time of purchase. The car was always a California car and the under carriage showed it. So salt or other things didn't ruin the bushing. The car looked brand new in the show room. Even the Ivory leather seats looked new without wrinkles or wear lines.

Albert, I feel your pain. Go drive another XJ and see what I mean. Your car is still under warrenty, and there are plenty of 2012 XJs on the lot to compare the ride. Just take the service advisor with you.

*on the Arden exhaust.

The fit was perfect with no issues. My wife really likes the sound because it it is a bit louder than stock. Especially when you have your foot into it. I have to admit, it sounds better the longer it was on the car. The cars computer takes a while to adjust to the change in A/F mixture (I am told). I asked the dealer if it would void my warranty and they said no if it is after the Catalytic converter. They did tell me that if it triggered a oxygen sensor fault, I would be charged for removing the fault code. Fair enough.
It has never trigger a fault code.

The sound is slightly louder than stock and it does not crackle on deceleration. But if you put it in Sport mode and use the paddle shifters, then you can get that raspy growling sound, if you want to. I am sure the sound would be much different with a Supercharged engine.
The system fits both the normally aspirated 5.0 engine and the Supercharged 5.0 engine.

 

I test drove a couple of other XJs and did not have the issue. I even had a dealer's mechanic's note on his paperwork following his test drive that the "ride is abnormal". Still, despite all that I could not get Jaguar to replace anything, (shocks, suspension parts, etc.) other than trying to balance the tires. The pattering was minor enough that the factory rep declared it "normal".

Yes, one time I got a Hyundai Sonata as a loaner from the Jag dealer. When he asked me how the loaner was, I replied that I wished my luxury Jag would have anywhere that good a highway ride. He thought I was joking...

At this point I threw in the towel on that car. It is going back in just a handful of months to Jaguar lease and the next owner will have to deal with it. Otherwise the car is pristine. I will have my XKR or the XF take its place as my regular driver.

 

After 2 weeks, the poor ride quality is back. I have read everything about this issue, with no solutions. I really don't feel like throwing parts at it, and end up without a fix. Possible culprits, bushings, shocks, brakes, sub-frame mounting mounting bolts, shock mounts? The vehicle only has 60k on it. Still like the car, but the ride quality and navigation are my only 2 complaints.

 

Very sorry to hear that the problem has resurfaced. However, it does not surprise me, since I have experienced the very same recurring issues and frustrations.

As I said in my post above, over 2.5 years the perceived ride has improved to tolerable levels on my '12 XJL. Yet, about a week ago while driving one of the local freeways my wife and I agreed that the problem was still there and still most irritating. Too many people have reported the same symptoms for it to be an isolated issue. Perhaps it is a chassis rigidity/vibration issue that simply can not be fixed.

I have purchased a brand new 2015 Stingray with a far stiffer, near racing suspension. Yet, even that car rides better than my XJL. At the least, no "pattering" type vibrations coming through the whole platform on perfectly good road surfaces. Like I said, too bad, I really love the rest of the car and will kind of miss it when it goes back on the lease. Miss the car but, not the ride.

As to the navigation; all Jaguar models share that, navigation is simply terrible. I don't even bother to use them. We have Google Nav on our phones which is superior in every way to the Jag factory versions.

I guess, I wish you good luck with the car, even though I don't have much confidence that you can get it fixed to your liking. I feel kind of sorry for the next owners of my beautiful XJL as they will inherit the bad ride and the endless frustrations.

 

Don't pass off the problem to someone else! Release the parking brake and let it roll off a cliff!

 

Hmmm.... I had considered that solution a number of times after being "pattered" for hours :-).

On the other hand the new owner may not be bothered by it. If someone, like my wife, ends up with it, it could lose a wheel and she would not notice the difference in ride. She already said that she could feel the vibrations but, unless I pointed it out she could live with it.

 

Albert -
Thank you for enlightening fellow XJ owners about your problems, which are inexcusable for any first class automobile. I'm frankly surprised that Jaguar has not sent a qualified engineering team out to diagnose the problems with your car.
John

 

Indeed, John, I was very disappointed, as well. The service Manager was always super nice to me with his promises for trying this or that but, at the end nothing significant was ever changed. Not even the shocks that I suspected and he promised to replace. He may have been turned down by Jaguar but, all the same.

Really too bad as I loved most everything about the car and I would not have hesitated getting an other one, or purchasing this one, at the end of my lease. But, now with 2 more super low mileage Jaguars in the garage, a new Stingray and a new Minivan no plans for an other XJL.

I am not giving up on Jaguar, I hope to think that my luck was just simply bad, picking a troubled car. Happens with all other makes and, for me, this is really the very first bad experience with new cars. The other two Jags ran perfectly so, I am sticking with them.

 

Guys I have been reading this post with much interest and have referred to it since getting my XJ in November. It's a 2011 with 33k miles. I had a nightmare with mine and it boiled down to 4 wheels being replaced at no charge under warranty. Car felt really bad over broken surfaces exactly as you describe. I thought it was possibly the worst ride of any car I had ever experienced. It turned out a major problem with mine was alignment. I had it done at 3 garages and still it was out. Finally I got it done through a Jag independent garage and it felt much better. Like you though at times I feel the ride isn't as good as it should be but I'm getting used to it the more I drive. I also had car fully checked over and the complimented me on how good the car was all bushes shocks everything as new. So that gives me some confidence that the car is supposed to feel and drive the way it does. I have Pirelli zero nero all seasons on my car and have read mixed reviews on these. As they are new I will put up with them and change possibly to Hankook or Michelin when they are worn to see if that improves further.

 

Interesting, my XJ was also giving an inferior ride for several weeks after I purchased it, until I checked the tyre pressures which I found to be way too high. They should be 2.2 Bar and were 2.7 bar I corrected them and it is like a different car.
I discussed this with my dealer and he advised Jaguar have told them to set the pressures higher than it says on the door pillar. He didnt know why but admitted they always set them high.
Propably not the fix for the pattering but if you rely on the dealer for all your servicing you may never check tyre pressures and as it is cheap and quick to do I would recommend all XJ drivers carry out this check.

 

gman3428 What year and model do you have? Based on what is see you have done you were at 39psi (2.7 bar) and went to 32psi (2.2 bar). 32 is what many run and Jag has different recommendations based on wheel/tire size. I find that the right pressure, usually Jaguar recommended on the door sticker plus or minus a pound, that allows the suspension to handle road irregularities as opposed to the tire flex works best for me. Once I have a pressure I drive on it for 30 mile or so that the tire "wears" to that configuration. In my case with a SuperSport/Speed I ran 38psi in the stock Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT size 245/40ZR20-265/35ZR20 and now 41psi with Michelin Pilot Super Sports 265/35ZR20--295/30ZR20.

 

You make a good point with the alignment.

I purchased a brand new '15 Stingray 2 weeks ago and, as usual, I checked the alignment, very first thing. The values I read calculated to be conservative but, fine. Still, the car just did not feel as I expected. So, I took it to the alignment shop and specified a more aggressive set of values. To my great surprise the shop showed that the rear wheels were set with way too much positive camber (top of wheel is further out than the bottom) which is really bad generally, particularly for a sports car. The mechanic pointed out that in only 700 driven miles the outer ribs on the tire were wearing fast! The funny thing was that I DID CHECK the alignments and while I was spot on with the front values, I read and entered the rear values REVERSED into my calculator which gave me negative camber values, instead of the actually found positive ones. Goes to show you that sometimes we see what we expect to see and not what is actually there... :-).

I checked the alignment on the XJL and the dealer did so, as well. Not the problem. I also took off my Pirelli Zero Nero tires after only 2K miles, replacing them with Hankooks (that worked well on two previous Jaguars), hoping that would help with the ride. It did not. As a matter of fact, for long periods of times during my 2.5 years ownership I was running as low as 21 psi cold pressures to lessen (but, not eliminate) that unpleasant pattering. I was not worried about the low pressures as I used to run 14 psi cold pressures in my racing slick tires in my SCCA GT-2 class race car. Naturally a track racing car's tires are subjected to far higher side-loads than any street car and I never had any issue with tires coming loose.

I do think that you hit the nail on its head with your point that, perhaps, the car is supposed to ride like this. I have 3 Jaguars right now and to a lesser degree both of the others have a very similar tendency to "patter" over good road surfaces. The other day I drove the new Stingray for about an hour, than I had to repeat the very same drive for a reason not my choosing. I took the XKR. After that one hour drive that involved good highways, twisty roads, bad surfaces I came to the conclusion that my Stingray rode noticeably smoother (no pattering) over good freeway surfaces and the XKR rode better over rougher country road surfaces.

Both our XKR and XF shows very slight tendencies to patter but, not enough for me to complain about. The XJL had it amplified to a more irritating degree. As I mentioned in my posts the pattering was truly irritating during the first 1.5 year and first 15,000 miles. Now, at 26K it moderated to the point that I don't feel like getting out of the car during a long drive and kick the living daylight out of it. It crossed my mind several times that as the ride improves, perhaps I would purchase the car at the end of the lease. But, that occasional road surface that still brings the worst of pattering out of the car, tends to remind me to just forget that idea, no matter how much I do like the car.

 

41 psi sound far too high. It will punish you with a too stiff ride while it will not do a good job at absorbing road irregularities. I run 30 psi in my stock Michelin Super Sports 245/40/18 - 285/35/19 tires on my Stingray. That is acutally the manufacturers recommendation for that car and tire. For track use the recommended cold starting pressures are around 26 psi. Since my Stingray has real-time 4-tire pressure readout I generally see around 36-37 psi hot pressures during extended but normal easy driving.

 

I run mine on 32 psi and have experimented with every conceivable combination settling on jag spec of 32 psi front and rear as per door pillar. There was a post on here discussing the front shocks in that they have little tolerance and far too hard so there is little to absorb the minor imperfections we feel , except the tyres. Moving to a softer tyre might help. I think also as the car is aluminium more of these vibrations are felt through the chassis and steering wheel. With the XF not being aluminium it can possibly absorb these vibrations better given that steel is heavier and has more density than aluminium.

I also think a lot of people are insensitive to these vibrations or it doesn't bother them. But like me you feel them and it bothers us but I do believe we are in the minority. I haven't driven a 13 car with the softer setup and would love to see how much this difference make although from reading it most reports seem to say a slight improvement but vibrations still evident.

I've noticed on total smooth surfaces car is fine but still it has that slight platter. For me I'm going to have to get used to it and hopefully start to enjoy it a bit more.

 

axr6 the 41psi is the recommended pressure for the 2014-on XJR. I will add that since installing the Michelin PSS tire and running the 41psi it rides smoother than the Dunlap's at 38psi. The reason that the pressures are so high is that the Speed Package cars and the XJR have the speed limiter raised 174mph. My ride is on the firm side but is also smooth, go figure.

 

I have the 3 litre diesel luxury premium on dunlop tyres on 2011 plate. The sticker on the door says 2.2 bar but it is interesting that the other models require higher presures and I wonder if the dealer has got confused.