i cant help but over-stress about this. i've put together a list of possible things that could be the cause. Im partially micro-managing because I the service is part of a Kia dealership, I imagine they dont deal with many Jags. Just to recap the issue: heavy vehicle vibration through the cabin (mostly the front). steering wheel shake at 60+ mph, can also be felt through the pedals....no difference if its acceleration/coast/braking.
Driveshaft balancing
u-joints (front)
ball joints
guibo
flex-disc
front suspension bushing
engine/transmission mounts.
anything else?

Could the transmission mounts cause that kind of heavy vibration at that speed? and steering wheel shakes?

 

Is it worth it to you to keep this model? Or will they buy it back and you can go search for a suitable replacement?

You notice the vibration at high speed rather than low speed, makes it doubtful to me that it's mounts. Engine and trans mounts you would feel something, at least a little, at idle or even reverse.
The whole car shaking seems like a driveline issue so I'd be mindful of what troubleshooting steps your service center is going through and I'd escalate to the service manager for a little customer care.

 

they will most likely not buy it back (i purchased it used from a used car dealership)

I do feel a vibration at idle actually, i will note that as well. that would be a mount?

 

boyyyyyyyyy am i being taken for a ride.

went to the service center today, they're telling me its the rims, "rims are bent"...100%

they lifted the car for me and let me see how the wheels spin, basically it kind of looked like the front left and rear right were not exactly spinning true round. its like they vary every so slightly. However it doesnt seem like its a suspension component. Visibly the rims dont look bent, and the road-force machine measured that they could possibly be a few millimeters off.....is that enough to cause rough vibration and steering shake?

im at a loss now because 2 other shops told me it DEFINITELY wasnt the rims....including the shop that did the road-force. I want to go to a jag dealership but i dont think i will have time before the 14th.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience so far. It's too bad you don't live closer, we could swap wheels and you could drive with mine to rule it out. Generally that'd be the first thing I'd check if I had vibration.

This car has had more driveline vibration than any other cars I've chosen to drive or have driven (used to travel a fair bit and still am Hertz Presidents Circle for reference). I accepted that when I purchased it and test drove several (mine is a 2012). However, I don't have the vibration at high speeds issue you're describing, just over small road imperfections.

Yours could be a combination of factors: Rims, alignment, suspension components. You can rule out suspension components by having the shop actually go beyond visual inspection and check for play. Most techs I know don't know how to do this. Once I had to point out to my "master service advisor" that one of my suspension boots was split and there was play in the joint.

Can they shake the driveline? Inspecting the engine mounts is easy enough with the undertray off (any leakage, staining or revving the engine with the hood up you can see if it jumps on one side or the other), the trans mount is less easy to see visible staining because it could be washed off, but poking it with your finger seems to work as an inspection aid to see if there are any hairline splits.

 

I appreciate the thought, i was thinking of doing the same, swaping the wheels....but I would need a person and place to do that. I imagine the best next option would be doing it at a jag dealer
they did a little bit of suspension play infront of me, the tech basically grabbed the wheel and started tugging on it and moving it around...both sides seemed to be good.
Also, they "drove the car" in the air, with me under it (kind of scary) to show me that the axles are spinning without play
i dont think they did any kind of mount validation. but could an engine mount (or transmission) cause a steering wheel shake?

 

Just a quick update because i am sure everyones curious to know about my saga:

Feb 10: dropped off the car at Jaguar.
Feb 20 they finally get a chance to look at it!! Service advisor calls me, tells me the issue are the tires!! Tells me they roadforced the tires, and results varied from 24-58 lbs of force. These are the SECOND batch of tires sent from TireRack because the first batch also tested high. They are Conti DWS06 tires. I explain to the advisor the history of what ive been going through and ask if there is any possibility that its not actually the tires, and if it could be something worse. I've drven with bent rims before, and never had a shake AND vibration as bad as this (i imagine the vibration is coming as a result of the shake). He assures me that the roadforce test would definitely indicate if the rims are bent, and they are not.

I begged him to test using another set of rims/tires to see if it truly eliminates the vibration. He tells me that he needs to coordinate this with the used car sales manager, who is currently on vacation and wont be back until Wednesday. He also tells me it will cost me another 2 hours of labor. I have no other choice, I accepted. I also asked if they checked anything else, the axles? He assured me that if it was the axles they would have felt the shaking much earlier.

Immediately I call TireRack and show them the results. they assure me that the tires were in fact tested before they left the factory and they they resulted in single digits, and that maybe Jaguars machine was not calibrated. So i go back and call Jaguar...they tell me their machine is BRAND NEW and was calibrated only 6 weeks ago. I call TireRack, explain the situation, she gives me permission to order a new set of tires.....this time i go with Michelin Pilot Sport AS3+

good news is, the tires will be delivered by monday, and hopefully mounted same day. This would give Jaguar a good opportunity to test the hypothesis that the issue is truly the tires before wednesday (that way I wont have to pay for the wheel swap test)

at this point im going to lose my mind. This is the 4TH shop ive taken my car to....1st place (mavis tire shop) told me its not the tires....2nd place (local indy) told me it is the tires, replaced my tires, and then told me its not the tires.....3rd place (purchasing dealership) told me the rims are DEFINITELY bent......and now Jaguar is telling me its the tires. Im dumbfounded by the fact that 2 sets of tires measured high roadforce, especially since the 2nd batch was "tested" (do you think they were bsing me?). I'm putting a lot of trust and faith into the mechanics at Jaguar....Im hoping that their experience can definitely zero-in on the issue better then the other places because they know the cars better. The thing that scares me is that ive asked them if they did any other testing, maybe there's something they can obviously see.....like take the wheel off and spin the car to 70mph and see if the axle truly is spinning true....they told me they havent done anything....which feels kind of disheartening, but again...they're the experts...so maybe they can definitely rule out mechanical issue just from the test drive.

we'll see what happens

 

I do not see how Tire Rack can tell you a roadforce rating without mounting on a wheel, I guess they have some kind of special equipment. I just replaced my rear tires with another set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4Ss and on the initial mount one had a roadforce rating os 19 lb. My tire people then broke the bead and rotated 180 degrees and we got 11 pounds. They broke the bead a second time and rotated 90 degrees and we got 4 pounds. The other tire went from 16 to 5 with one 180 degree remount. So my point is a tire roadforce varies as to the mounting point of the tire on the wheel. And i'm surprised the dealer didn't do a remount to get the roadforce down. Just MHO. By the way you will like the Michelin's better IMHO.

 

to your point about mounting, i asked them the same thing. they said they do mount the tire and test. im not sure what the dealer did, if they did any remounting. i imagine getting it down from 58 to single digits is near impossible? i have no clue.

i've been hearing that a lot from "tire professionals"...they're all saying the Michelins are better

 

Well, aren't the little color dots on the tire a good guide to how to mount the tire on the rim? Depending on the tire brand, there's a ink dot on the tire that indicates where to position the tire using the dot and the Schrader valve as the references, to minimize weight needed to balance.
That's a general tire mounting basic. Some installers ignore it from what I hear, but I've always paid attention when I'm mounting my bike tires.

 

12jagmark I agree with your statement, but the new Michelin PS4S's are not marked anymore. Guess they think they make such a round tire they don't need to

 

I agree....problem is, since many tire shops operate on the theory of getting as many tires mounted, balanced, and out the door, as possible, even with a roadforce balancer, if it's ANYWHERE close, they'll just go with it. Because if they don't, they'll have to take the extra time to take the wheel/tire off the balancer, put it back on the tire machine, let the air out, break down the beads, rotate the tire, re-inflate it, put it back on the balancer, and start the balance process all over. Unless really pressed, most shops won't do it.



I agree. Those dots started to appear as far back as the late 60s, when I was just a teen-ager, working in the neighborhood's gas station.

 

the new tires have been delivered this morning! lets see what happens. fingers crossed.

 

the tech working on my car is in training until tomorrow i am literally getting tripped at every opportunity with this car

 

update: they mounted the new tires....roadforce tested them...still measuring in the 30's. Now my advisor wants to send the rims themselves to the "rim guy" and see if they're true. He said visually they dont seem bent. Still no confirmation that its definitely not mechanical, they barely looked.

i pushed him to get another set of wheels (rims/tires) and see if the issue still persists....this would confirm if its mechanical or not. hope to have this test wrapped up by tomorrow.

its still very much possible the rims are the issue. the original owner had a similar issue, reported of vibration in 2016 and had the rims replaced. but whats killing me is that no one has even attempted to look at mechanical

 

I would let him send the wheels. A good wheel shop will check the wheels for runout, and are able to straighten them if necessary.

I just had one done. They fixed a bent spot on the rim, stripped off the powerdercoating, and then re-powdercoated. About $200 per wheel.

 

the reason I havent approved for him to send to the rim shop is because i dont want to keep going down this rabbit hole without REALLY ensuring its not mechanical, because then im going to burn another week or so without my car (the shop works super slow). Second reason, Jag quoted me $200 per rim, i know another repair shop that can do it for $125 per rim. i need to fix at least 3 rims

 

Hate to say it mate but do you know if your vehicle has been involved in a TA. If so yes a rim could indeed be bent, but it opens up a can of worms regarding the entire driveline rotating assembly and mounts.

I have to say though I am very suspicious of those that will not look at mechanical issues in your situation and their reasons for not conducting further inspection, those items need to be crossed off the list to delineate the problem, but hey I have a bit of a suspicious mind anyway.

Not sure when your tranny was last serviced or the miles on your odo, but the ZF can have issues with the internal seals which can also cause issues with vibration, not something you want to hear I know, but its a common complaint with the ZF at a certain age due simply to deterioration of the internal seals which can cause all types of issues and easily mis- diagnosed or overlooked.
While replacing the seals may be a pain in the PITA, the kit is cheap and Mercon SP makes it a relatively cheap job but completely do able as DIY, more consuming time than anything

I know, one thing at a time, but you do have a list of things that can cause what you are experiencing, I really hope its as simple as a wheel out of true.

 

TA? im assuming thats some sort of accident. yes the car was in an accident, but i dont know what kind.

im wondering if the vibration is related to the steering wheel shake. when i get to speeds of 50-60+...it kind of feels like im driving over a bumpy road, and the steering wheel shakes. its not that they are avoiding looking into the mechanicals, they feel almost confident that it is the rims. as of now, its been 4 sets of tires that have tested high for road force: the original tires (which i thought were flat spotted)....the first set of Contis, the second set of Contis, and now the MIchelins. its definitely NOT the rubber, so its the rim! it doesnt get more isolated than that. on paper it makes sense....hence why im also asking them to try putting on a different set of rims...that should be a 100% identifier

the car has 28k miles...its a 2015.

 

GREAT NEWS!!!! Jaguar finally did what i asked, swapped the wheels and tested.....they said it rode smooth......so it truly is the rims. they must be out of round but not necessarily bent in a way that looks obvious. so all this struggle with the tires, the tire swapping, replacement....all a waste unfortunately. even though this wheel swap test is going to cost me ~$300, i think its a good peace of mind.

i asked the advisor "do you bet your life on it"...his response was "i would never bet my life on a jaguar or land rover"............thats what you want to hear from your advisor