My recent foray into the world of Jaguars has been educational, and I love my 97 X300. However, she has one lingering issue that has me absolutely stumped. I've owned the car for about a week thus far, driving 10-12 miles a day in mostly city traffic. Three of those days, I have been stopped at a stoplight when all of a sudden, the driver's side front corner will suddenly lift (almost violently) 2-4 inches! Of course, the car has no air suspension, and I cannot logically explain what would cause the front corner to rise so suddenly with a conventional shock/coil spring arrangement.

Not likely to be related, but so far I've replaced the valve cover gasket, rear pinion seal, fuel pump, and rear shocks/bushings.

This sudden lifting fron the front corner has happened 3 times this past week, and all within 5-10 minutes of leaving my home with the car cold. I'm concerned, obviously, that this could happen when the car is at speed, causing me to lose control. I've tried searching for similar symptoms on the internet to no avail. Any help would be most appreciated!

 

OK, first things first.

You are NEW, so welcome to our world, fun will be had, and mostly your car will be sorted haha.

That is strange for a Jag, not so for a Citroen, but that is getting OFF the subject.

My best guess, as having just done the front and rear shockers on mine, would be that the shocker on that side is "jamming" and then once settled it releases. I know a tad far fetched but there is simply nothing else in there that could cause such odd behaviour.

The suspensions are firm on these, so get a mate to assist and bounce the car on that side, and then once it settles, kinda eyeball the ride height, and see if something is amiss.

A bent shocker shaft is not outside the range of possibilities, and the "bounce test" will show that easily.

The shocker "jamming" internally due to valving issues is also on my thoughts.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! The car has 180k miles on the body, and I'm not convinced that the front shocks have been replaced at any point. I did do the bounce test, but did not notice anything wrong with the ride height once settled. I have since noticed an occasional slight clunk coming from the front drivers end of the car when I take a sharp turn at reasonable speed. I think I'm just going to leave it alone and observe to see if the problem gets worse--I just hope the car is not unsafe to drive! It has not since occurred again.