I recently bought an 04 XJR. It had a ton of suspension work previously done, so I thought I would get a break from expensive suspension trouble. Turns out not. I have several issues with it now, but first the new parts:
-Genuine Jaguar front forward lower curved control arms.
-Front control arms. One looks to be genuine the other may be a Meyle part?
-Anti roll bar links all around. Meyles in the front, lemforder in rear.
-Anti roll bar bushings done up front
-rear lower control arms
-front tie rods
-Arnott air springs all around. Sticker says made in 2014
-Front lower ball joints
-New tires
Ok, now for the problems :
-Clunk from rear driver side. This only happens when the rear left wheel hits a bump. I replaced the anti roll bar bushing on that side which was extremely challenging. The old one was slightly torn and the inner diameter had increased a lot but somehow the new one did not fix this.
-Steering wheel wobbling very badly. Get the car to 50, and the wheel starts going back and forth and wont stop. It will shake your arms its so bad. I had replaced the curved control arms and it had somewhat reduced it since the spherical joint in one had worn
-Loose steering feel. At highway speeds the steering feels extremely dull and takes a some extra turning before the car will move. It also seems to wander around in the lane with no input. I replaced the tie rods, inners were good, and rack is torqued properly. No effect.
-Squeak and pops from the front. It seems that after I get the car to temp, park it, then drive again, the front suspension creaks very badly over speed bumps like its an old boat. When braking, there is a sharp pop from both front sides like some metal piece is suddenly slipping and hitting something. When taking off again, there is another small pop. It seems one of the meyle links has a squeaky joint in it. I also pressed in new lemforder ball joints which did nothing.
-Car shakes enough to shake the interior mirror. I think this is due to the rear wheel getting bent from a pothole sometime before I bought it. I was able to identify the wheel with the bend.

If I were the previous owner who spent $5000 in work and this thing was still a total disaster like it is now, I would have just scrapped this thing. Its too bad since the rest of the car was very well kept with no issues. I barely want to keep this car its so aggravating but I need to fix it. To me the most pressing problem is the wheel wobbling. The only suspension bits that havent been replaced are the upper control arms, the rear passenger side anti roll bar bushing, subframe mounts and the rear tie rods which are fine. The ball joint in the rear passenger side upper control arm is busted. Its a junk hamburg technic part. A replacement will have to come from England since it seems to be the only way to get one that isnt $400. If anybody has literally any tips on how to fix this thing it is appreciated.

 

I also have a 2004 XJR. I have recently replaced nearly all the suspension components. I have sourced most of it in 2006 Lincoln LS parts. The rear upper arms I used were $100 each side DORMAN 524-605 and 524-606 there are many options. The entire LS suspension in the rear is the same but not sure of the actual sway bar but the links and rear tie rod is also. The front inner and outer tie rods as well as the upper arms are also all fit.

Check the top mounting studs and nuts on the shocks. I have Arnott's conversion kit and have had issues with loose or broken mounting studs.

 

Are these suspension pieces actually the same? No parts catalog shows them as interchangeable. If they are its a big savings considering that's only around $100 or I could pick one up off an s type at a junkyard.

 

Yes, all of the rear control arms are the same as the later years V8 Lincoln LS, Jaguar S-Type, and Ford Thunderbird. The front upper control arms are also the same, but the rest of the front suspension is different.

 

Awesome that makes things a whole lot easier

 

Replaced the front anti roll bar links. The old ones were meyle, and the ball joint on them was very squeaky when moved by hand. Replaced them with lemforder and nothing changed. Very confused what the creaking and popping when braking could be.

The only thing that isnt brand new on the front are the upper control arms. I disconnected it from the knuckle and pulled on it. Very little deflection but it seems to rotate on the pivot pretty easily. Only when rotated very far does it squeak. Theyre stamped Hamburg Technic, which is the same brand as the other 3 failed parts I removed. May have to change them?

My rear control arm is coming in the mail soon so I will update when that is in.

 

Gotta love Fords use of parts bin parts on these cars.

 

Ok, so I have fixed some things. Upon inspecting the rear control arm again, I saw that the ball joint nut was not even tightened! The play wasn't from a bad joint but from whoever installing it forgetting to tighten it. This surprisingly made almost no difference. The steering feels tighter but the shimmy is still there.

Also, I had all 4 wheels repaired. Putting the car up on the lift showed that all 4 sepang wheels were bent up . I guess thats life when you have 20"s with 35 ratio tires. Replacing these wasn't an option with the price of them and considering i just got new tires on. I had all 4 straightened. Made a huge difference. The cabin no longer vibrates like it did and the car feels super smooth on nice roads. Now I'm real afraid of hitting a pot hole. Unfortunately the other problems are still present. At least progress is being made.

 

Ok so some update on this. Progress was slowed due to buying another car but I will continue to update until everything is fixed. Rear tie rods were replaced since the inner joints were bad. The other rear upper control arm was not tightened either. Really shocking was that the top of the rear air springs torqued at all. Whoever was fixing this car did not know what they were doing. No change to how it drives somehow. The rear clunk seems to be the Arnott air spring. Anyone else have this problem? The squeak from the front end over bumps is from the upper control arms. Same old junk hamburg technic parts gone bad.

Now here's the one I'm confused about still. I tried to do some more investigating on the loose front end. I pulled the wheel in all directions while recording video with my phone from underneath the car. There appears to be no play whatsoever besides the upper control arm deflection and a small amount of deflection from the brand new curved lower arms. If I pull the tire side to side very hard I hear a loud clunk. I don't hear this while pulling lightly. From what I can tell it seems to be play in the steering rack? If I twist the steering column by hand there seems to be some movement before it engages and moves the wheels. From what I can tell there is no adjustment screw. Could a bad steering rack be causing this? BTW my steering solenoid to control assist is broken if that matters.

 

Birch...So I had problem with 2006 XJ8 wheel shimmy. I imagine the XJR could be worse because bigger brakes. It turned out to be a warped front rotor. The way the rotor is attached- nothing holds it but the tightening force of the wheel- it was warped. It likely happened during an annual inspection where someone tightened with air torqued one lug at a time and then retorqued all 5.

anyway the shimmy was bad at highway speed. It got worse if you barely touched the brakes and got better if you bit hard on the brakes. Replaced front rotors- which did not looked warped- and all was well. Imagine yours would be exaggerated b/c your rotors are even bigger?

 

Just a thought but with all of the new parts has the car ever gone in for a 4 wheel alignment? If the toe or caster/camber are off it would be a handful to drive.

 

Good idea on the brake rotor, I didn't think of it. I actually worked on another car that had the same issue. The rotors looks like they may be 2nd hand since I saw marker on them that scrap yards like to use when they sell parts. I can check the run on them. This seems logical to me now since the suspension parts aren't visibly loose.

As for the alignment, the car seemed aligned when I bought it. I haven't done the alignment yet since I will haven't replaced all the parts I plan to.

 

Well you sound like you are looking at all avenues. These are wonderful cars when sorted out, and there are plenty of us willing to wrench a little to keep them going but they did not make it easy for us. I get frustrated with mine too. Luckily I have another car so if the Jag breaks I am not stranded but when the XJ is running right it just makes me smile as I go down the road. Hang in there.

 

Yes, It will be a great day when its all done.

 

New update on this. The rear air springs were replaced with genuine sport springs I found used. Made a huge difference. Dampening is greatly improved and CATS totally changes the feel in sport mode. Most importantly the nasty clunk is gone. The assembly seemed to have something loose inside it when I shook it in addition to the shock being totally shot. I can say for sure genuine springs are far better than the Arnott ones. I also replaced the passenger side rear tie rod. I had only done one since I got sidetracked but with both new steering is super sharp.

I have the front upper control arms coming in the mail. I had inspected the front again and it seems the bushing is torn and squeaky. They also move along the bolt quite a bit if pried on. Once I get the new control arms in I am going to get it aligned. The only problem left is the wheel shimmy and its a lot more diminished than what it once was. I'm almost certain this last fix will solve it.

 

Your XJR has the Brembo brakes. Those may have warped. But usually that shimmy is during light braking. The wheels you have are not if they get bent but when. Even straightened they are easily a source of shimmy.
Mine shimmies on certain pavement. None of our other cars do this. The highway near my home has a section that sets it off. All our other cars have no issue.
I went through all the parts too. After sorting out the shock bushings on the straight arm in front failed. Squeaked, clanked, and thumped. But All is quiet for now.
While sorting all this out, replaced the front wheel bearing to eliminate this. Detroit Axle has them for 80.00 for the pair shipped. Unbelievable cheap. Has the speed sensor too.

 

So the wheel bearing was the issue? I have REPLACED everything up front and the vibe is WORSE.

 

Mine was a bent wheel and a bad balance from Discount Tire.