^^^what did you pay for the inspection??? I know and thats what you got. See my sig? I need info and concerns to address a problem. I do look at many cars for problems that the customer may not or should be made aware of to plan a course of action. No one wants to know they need tires when they have a blow out on the way to work, dinner , meeting etc or hose/belts etc...
The suspension may be in a firm setting if this is youre issue and it doesnt bounce when going down the road like a buggy

 

It was a free inspection done while they were reprograming the engine, so I understand it probably wasnt the most detailed and thorough inspection.

Yes, the suspension is still bouncy while going down the road, almost too bouncy.

People who sit in the back dont seem to feel the rough nature of the ride, but when they get in front its very apparent, especially at freeway speeds. A lot of vibration and hard knocks. You sometimes get a feeling of instability at those speeds, especially on curves or turns. The steering wheel and pedals shake hard over bumps, and when braking and coming to a stop the front end seems to lurch forward more than normal. Even at city street speed its very difficult to get the car to stop in a civilized fashion, without some degree of lurching. Thats when the groans sound off. Also I noticed that when starting the engine, the front end seems to jerk a bit from the force, as if the motor mounts were loose or something.

 

Old thread I know, my XJR started the front end groan tonight. What was the outcome of your problem XJ8JR. I know I have a weeping lower control arm bushing which I have replacements for in Garage, just wanted to know if your groan was fixed and what your Mech did.

 

He hasn't logged on in 6 months and the OP was a guest and never came back. Happens too often. We never get the solution if there is one.

 

Ok, thanks Red I will keep updated on my groans. Dropped into my regular Jag dealer today and they took the car out with me and said they had never heard the sound before they put the car on the lift and could find nothing amiss,so mystery again. I have a trip back to the UK in 6 weeks so my Mech said lets see if the sound get worse so It will be easier to find and I will be leaving the car with them so that can investigate more at length. So will be doing the usual and turning the radio up abit.

 

Hello Robert, I've had some personal issues which unfortunately kept my attention focused away from my Jag, but everything is sorted now, and since the Jag is nearing 130k miles, its time to pay more attention. The groan went away on its own, actually. Occasionally there's still a bit of noise, but nothing like it was before. I do believe my moron mechanic (I will definitely be searching for a new one!) suggested that my upper control arm bushings be replaced, and of course he quoted the astronomical price because the bushings supposedly can't be replaced on their own.

My main issue now is that the front suspension rattles terribly over bumps in the road, so badly that I can feel it in the pedals. It really takes the joy out of driving, I can tell you.

 

The rattling could be ARB bushes.

Two small rubber bushes that are not expensive but apparently not easy to get to either.

Search this forum for more info.

 

ARB = sway bar (anti roll bar?)

 

@H20boy,

I have only had my 04 Jag XJ8 for about a year and 1/2 now, and i don't really drive it much. But i took it to a local Jaguar mechanic for a oil change and mostly to check it out for me. The front tires are starting to wearing on the inside he saying replace the sway bar bushing do a Alignment, Road Force balance on all four tires. The only thing that I'm wondering about is the cost for replacing the Bushing 390.00. I have seen the bushing going for 25.00 to 45.00 online. Not trying to be cheap or anything but is this a normal say a average cost for installation? The other thing that worried me just a little bit he stated that we make these repairs and see if there's any other issues.

Thank you for your time

Vacmail

 

Sounds all wrong to me.

I would go elsewhere.

 

Anti-roll bar (sway bar) bushes are very cheap, but the work to swap them out is a fair labour time, hence the $390, which I would hope includes the two bushes.

If your tyres are wearing out on the inside, you need to get the car onto a sophisticated tracking rig that measures all the suspension and tracking settings and compares to stock values. Only then will you be able to get it sorted. I assume all suspension bushes and ball joints are within service limits ? If not, then it will never be right.

 

Fraser,

Thank you so much this is why i join the forum two years before getting my Jag. He's going to install the bushing, do a Alignment and road force balance on all 4 for right around 550.00. I guessing that's a good price from what i have seen about replacing those bushing.

Thanks again for your time.
vacmail

 

THANKS Matt, I didnt get that one either...

 

$550 converts to £336 here in the UK so doesn't sound bad. In comparison, I just had a 70k service yesterday which cost £389 = $584. However, my bill includes our VAT tax of 20% (yes that's right, you read it correct !!). This included oil, filter, plugs and an aircon regas.

Basically if you dont sort out the suspension, you spend the money on tyres instead of bushes

 

I have a similar problem with my "98" XJR. It will groan as you push down on either fender. With my experience with American cars I figured it must be the shocks seeing that it has over 104,000 miles on it. So, I changed just the front ones (the back ones seem to be beyond my level of experience so I'll leave those to the experts) and the noise went away. But, now it's back again and maybe even worse. Any ideas? From a visual inspection on my own the bushings don't seem to be leaking. I sprayed some penetrating oil on them to no avail. Now what?

 

I have seen this problem on a friend's X 350.

It was the upper wishbone bushes.

The clue is that the groan can go away when it is wet.

Try to get some lubricant in there or replace.

Oops just noticed that you have the earlier model!

 

I know this is an old post and the member involved is apparently no longer active. However, this appears to be a complaint that surfaces with some regularity so I'll chime in with my experience with a very similar experience but not with my XJ8.

Years ago while driving my fathers car I hit a relatively minor bump while negotiating a wide radius turn and you'd have thought the whole front-end had come unglued from the chassis. The front-end started doing a wild jitterbug all over the lane and applying the brakes only made it much worse. After the car had slowed to about 40mph from the 55-60 I had been traveling the problem disappeared and didn't return for several days. Eventually, however, it started to do it again under similar circumstances in that I had gone over a pothole in the road (not very large). My father didn't drive much at that point with the daily trip to the golf course being about 5-6 miles round-trip and his daily drive to the university where he was teaching which was a similar distance.

I checked the suspension thoroughly and couldn't find anything that looked out of place and no amount of pumping up and down on the front-end would make it so much as squeak. Short answer it turned out to be a failing ball joint on the upper A-arm that would begin oscillating violently at certain angles and speeds when aggravated but the sudden suspension movement

 

All and all everything turned out great, I was not able to get in the shop Friday the alignment guy was not in. But that worked out great I order Jag-Voice and the D2B cable from across the water and they both came in at the same time. So I install them, put the Jag in the shop Monday pick it up Monday evening and she runs great. I put a set on the Pirelli Nero on her Wednesday So I'm ready for a road trip. I now have a great Shop in Edmond OK that will not cost me a arm and leg to keep my toy running. I'm thinking about running down to Dallas this weekend just because. Lol

Thanks again guys for all the feed back.