I have a long highway commute to work (around 40 miles each way) so it is essential that my vehicles be nice and smooth on the highway. When I first got the car I noticed that there were vibrations in the steering wheel just above 50 and above 70, they were pretty bad. I had the tires machine balanced and it has improved, but definitely not gone.

The odd thing to me is that usually with a tire/wheel issue the vibration stays consistent at a certain speed, but mine seems to vary. I can be cruising along at 70/75/80 and the car will be perfectly smooth then out of nowhere the steering wheel will start to shake a bit. I change speed and it will usually smooth out and feel great, but then the vibration eventually comes back. It does not vibrate at particular speeds with any consistency. The steering is nice and tight, so I dont suspect any issues in the column or anything like that, it definitely "feels" like a tire balance issue.

When I purcahsed the car a month or so ago I dont think it was used much for the past few years. It does have like new tread Continental tires date coded 2017 and I'm afraid they may be flat-spotted. However, I've always been able to drive out flat spots after a good amount of miles (I've put about 300 highway miles on her so far). Is it possible there are permanent flat spots and if so, any way to get rid of them?

I did check the front end components and everything seems to be in good shape, no play in the wheels or in any components when under the car. I greased the u-joints for the rear CV shafts and I cant find any play in the rear suspension either. I do possibly have a rear shock mount issues as there is a clunk over large bumps, but that should not be causing this issue with vibrations up front and in the steering wheel. Brakes are good with no vibration so I think I can rule out a rotor issue.

Just wanted to see if anyone has had a similar issue and has any guidance. Very strange that is comes and goes even when at constant speed. I am 95% sure it is not driveline related as accelerating or decelerating does not change what's going on. If anyone has any input I would appreciate it. I bought this car to be a highway cruiser and when it's smooth I'm in love with it. If it makes any difference I do have the Brembo brakes & BBS Milan 18" wheels.

 

Read this and see if it seems familiar, at minimum its somewhat easy to check... https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...g-info-188400/

Something else to check would be wheel bearings, I had a cracked race when I bought mine which I found each time rolling into a off ramp type loop.

Have you had it aligned, performance tires are fickle beasts and don't play well together unless aligned together. On the same subject, flat spotting will subside after a few miles. I travel extensively and deal with it each time I'm gone for at least 2 weeks...I have Michelin Pilot Super Sports on 18" pentas.

 

I read that exact thread earlier today and thought it was very interesting, thank you for posting. That is on my list to check this weekend when I get under the car. Mine differs in that turns (long, short, hard or soft) do not change the vibration and the speed at which is happens seems totally random. Just got home from my 40 mile drive on the highway from work and there is absolutely no consistency to it. I can cruise along at 75 smooth as butter for 2-3 minute then out of nowhere it starts. Same thing at any speed, it just seems totally random, very odd.

I did not detect any play in the wheel bearings, and there is no change when turning which I've usually found to be a tell tale sign of bad wheel bearings. I'll check out the driveshaft this weekend and go over the reast of the suspension again. I would love to swap another set of wheels/tires on the car to see if that changes anything, but finding something that clears the big brakes doesn't seem feasible at the moment.

Thanks again for the reply, at least I have something else to check for now. If anyoner has any other ideas I'm all ears, will check anything necessary at this point.

 

Yeah, those brakes are great to have, except for situations like now. I just got a set and hope to be putting them on soon, I have to rebuild them first.

Just to touch on this, have you dealt with pressed bearings? These don't have tapered bearings and the wheel should be picked up off the ground and checked. The weight of these cars can counter standard checks. The wheel hub also goes through the bearing and is secured on the backside.

Disregard the Christmas decorations, this was from another post. But 1, 2, 3 are what I described. You may want to check the Christmas decorations as other possibilities while you have her in the air.

 

I have not dealt with the pressed bearings before, have only recently been reading about them on the site. I checked the play with the car in the air and checking for movement at 6/12 & 3/9. There was no play on either side up front. Is that the proper way to check these?

Going to check out all of the control arm bushings, ball joints, shock mounts, and sway bar links/bushings this weekend. If there are specific ways to check these please let me know. I mostly plan on doing a visual check to make sure nothing is obviously wrong and the pry bar method to check for movement, have been doing this on various cars for years and seems to work well.

 

Something that isn't common, but possible, are the front subframe bushings. You can review this thread to get a better idea on this... https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...joints-176838/ ...the thing is being able to check them. Since they are inset its very hard to determine their condition unless removed. There's a couple other threads on this, but this one has good pics.

 

I have read a few threads on the subframe bushings, that does not look like fun. However, most that had this issue either had tracking problems or some sort of noise. I dont have either of those, in fact the car drives perfectly straight an does not tramline (as I've seen it called here) at all. The front end is also completely silent and the steering feels tight and direct. I'm sure they could be worn at my mileage, but not sure it's causing the issue I'm having. Too bad they're not easily checked on the car...in the threads I read it looks like you dont even know they're bad until you have the frame out of the car. Does not look like fun.

 

I had same problem a while back turned out to be warped brake rotor. not a difficult job to change. I put cross drilled and slotted rotors with ceramic pads, which also got rid of brake dust on wheels so less cleaning ,if you don't have an indicator to check run out on rotor take car to local shop have them check for you

 

Interesting. I am not having any plusation or vibration when braking, did you? I was ruling out the rotors due to it not happening when braking. I do have a slight squeak even after greasing & resetting the pads so was thinking of having all rotors surface and new pads. Would rather keep the rotors as they are the OEM cross-drilled. I would be absolutely thrilled if this was due to a rotor, thanks for the suggestion.

 

What happens when you rotate the tires? I watched my vibration move to right rear . . . I also noted the vibration was less consistent over less-than-smooth pavement with new sway bar bushings and drag links. Finally, got to near to perfect as I could get with new upper shock mounts (the soft rubber ones). Finally, the simplest of all, it was the same stretch of road on the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Expressway.

 

I have not rotated the tires yet, but plan to do that and give it a shot when it's in the air this weekend. If it moves to the rear then definitley a tire/wheel issue. I will say that half of my commute is on ashpalt and the other half on concrete (all highway). The car is generally smoother on the concrete, but still have the vibration.

Are you talking about the front or rear shock mounts? My fronts are OK, but I need to check out the rears. I have a noise over large bumps from the right rear. Really sounds to me like an interior panel, but I have heard rear upper & lower shocks mounts are common failure points so plan to check them out. Other than the vibration that noise is the only other issue I need to track down with the car so far.

 

You can have a perfectly balanced tire and still have a vibration from those tires/wheels. You want to find a shop with a Road Force Balancer. The only thing I miss working at a Toyota dealer is that they had a sweet RFB. The biggest downfall about our BBS wheels is that they get scratched easily and if the tech doesn’t take the proper precautions such as using plastic covers when needing to turn the tire on the rim (to lower the RFB numbers) while unseating the tire...SCRATCH! It bugs me to no end.
I have the 19” Montreal’s and had them RFB. Two of those wheels have higher than desired RFB numbers even when they installed brand new 255/35/19 Michelin pilot super sport tires. If I chose to have the RFB numbers lowered, I’d run the risk of having my newly refinished wheels get scratched and I just can’t justify that. I use them in town and when I go on long trips I install the 16” Jaguar crown wheels anyways. The factory pentas were beat up pretty bad and I just didn’t like the style on my 98’ XJR.

I'm not saying what I mentioned above is your problem but, it’s something to take into consideration given the fact that we have fairly low profile tires. One other thing I’d like to mention just in case you didn’t know (being a new jag owner) is that the rear wheel bearings will have some slop in it from the 6/12 position. Just make sure they’re relatively the same if you were going to check on those.

 

That thought has crossed my mind about the road force balancing. I trust the shop that balanced the tires for me, but it was just a regular Hunter machine not a Road Force machine. I have read that these wheels/cars can be sensitive and have seen older threads recommending RFB. I dont specifically know of a shop in my area that has one but Im sure there are a few (right outside of Philadelphia), just need to find one.

Going to swap the wheels front to back and see if rthe vibration moves to the rear. If so then definitely going to find a RFB and have them done. Thanks for the tip on the rear bearings, I have read that so was aware the first time I checked. Otherwise I would have cefrtainly thought that there was a problem with the slight play.

BTW, the 19" Montreals are a beautiful wheel. I like the Milans, they're OK, but the Montreals are just perfect.

 

The Hunter Roadforce website will show your nearest location with that equipment.
Just had my Montreal’s Roadforced. Did reduce vibration a bit but as my car has been sat for a few years there seems to be flat stops which would effect the Roadforce.
Agree on how easily these wheels are damaged. While off the car one wheel fell over and scratched the stainless trim ring. Whoever came up with this modern idea that the tire must not be wider than the rim???
Anyone know if a 265 x 35 can be installed on a Montreal?

 

Hey my thread got referenced! As a follow up to that, the front subframe rearward bushings did help with the shifting feeling significantly, but the issue with pull ended up being a radial pull from the tires. The shop that sold me those tires refused to take care of it, denying any possibility, even after I eliminated every single other cause... New tires solved that! Lessons learned, trust my gut on mechanical issues, and buy online...

I've also been getting a similar vibration at highway speeds, also with the seemingly odd inconsistency - some days itll be nice and smooth, some days itll just be shaky, almost as if the flat spotting never works itself out completely. Mostly noticeable in steering wheel left/right wobble, and vibration felt thru feet. Had it with the old tires, replacing tires didn't help much, rebalancing them helped slightly, road force balancing helped somewhat but didn't cure. I've got some play in my front left lower ball joint - going to replace that in a week or so when parts come in, and maybe report back

May be worth checking those, they're a bit weird to check for play vs other parts due to the way they're loaded. The way a local Jag shop showed me was to raise the tires above the ground, stick a prybar underneath, and pull up fairly hard/jerkily, so that you "push" the hub up into the LBJ. Since the weight of the hub/wheel/etc "pulls" down on the LBJ in the air, you can't easily feel play in it by just grabbing and rocking the wheel.

 

Sounds like we have nearly the exact same issue. I actually had the car out last night for a blast up the highway and for the first 5 mintues it felt like a brand new car, I couldnt believe it. All of the sudden slowed down to 65 or so and the vibration came back, but not as bad. Then just as soon as it came it went away again...very odd. And yes, my wheel shakes back and forth slightly when this happens so our symptoms are nearly identical. Hopefully one of us can figure this out and help the other.

The fact that is comes and goes leads me away from tires. Usually with a apoorly balanced tire, bent wheel, shifted belt in tire the vibration will be constant at certain speeds and will not go away. Thinking Highhorse might be on to something with the driveshaft in some way or another. It doesn't feel like a driveline issue, but the fact that its intermittent it would make more sense than tires/balancing at this point.

 

The carrier bearing bushing and associated flex couplings harden, crack and begin to fail over time and can give some very misleading vibration symptoms. One minute you swear the source of the vibration is from the rear wheels, the next it seems to come from the front, etc. etc. It's a relatively easy/cheap thing to fix and you have the satisfaction of knowing you have all new rubber under there.....................if you go that route replace the rear transmission mount at the same time.

 

On my Daimler Super V8 (75k miles), I have Continetal tyres (like "87LC2"), about 2016, bought them in 2018, and they are very little used up to now. Last year, I replaced propshaft couplings, engine and transmission mounts, new genuine Jag shock absorbers front and back together with all related top mounts. I have no play in the steering, bearings or ball joints. All swing arm and subframe bushes are good. Wheels recently balanced and re-balanced.

Still, I have slight vibration on the highway felt on the steering. It comes and goes. It is a bit stronger with cold tyres and it goes down noticeably when they warm-up but it is still felt. One thing I noticed is that, when the vibration is present, it will disappear immediately if I enter even a mild turn. Overall, the vibration I have is small and not really annoying. I often do not notice it if I am not waiting for it to come back but think of something else.

I might be the Continental tyres but, since they are still fairly new, it will take a few more years before I try another brand.

Another possibility is that it is just the Jaguar suspension design. The fact that this kind of vibration comes and goes (in fairly regular intervals on my car) suggests that, since the left and the right wheel circumferences are not perfectly equal, the individual minute vibrations of the two wheels (that are not felt) come into resonance at certain intervals (numbers of revolutions) amplifying each other and this is felt. Once they go out of resonance, everything is smooth again and so on.

 

Very interesting, thank you for posting. Mine does not go away during turns, but I can see what you're talking about. If it were my choice I would have went with something other than Continental tires as I've had issues with them before. With them being so new (and expensive) they're going to stay until they're worn out unless for some reason it turns out they;re defective but I doubt that is the case.

Also interesting that you replaced all of those parts and it's still there...not very comforting but I appreciate it. The thing that gets me is one minute it will feel great and then it comes back, have not had an issue like that on the numerous vehicles I've owned over the years. I am sure there are some worn out parts under there (124k miles) so I'll replace what needs to be replaced and go from there. I'm sure it will only get better and who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and it will disappear completely. The shocks still dampen well and being original CATS units I'm going to try and keep them if possible. I know if it comes to shock replacement I will most likely be going with non-CATS Bilsetin, the price on the originals is more than I paid for the entire car.

Really appreicate all of the responses guys, this is a great forum. Can't wait to get under there and check everything out. Was planning on doing that today but it's raining and my garage is full of other projects, will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

To muddy the waters even more, a "mysterious vibration" can often be cured with a complete steering alignment by a competent shop.

I had a vibration on my 4,000 mile 2003 Corvette and I tried all sort of tires, balancing, road force, even new rims, etc, etc all to no avail, and then I had a local specialist shop test drive the car, they did a full alignment check/adjustment, and the vibration was gone!