Hello my fellow jaguars owners. I recently purchased a xk8 and that was not driving straight and took it to a shop for an alignment check. They said that the front left camber and rear right camber was out of spec. Fair enough after alot of money and work I did a diy and replaced all the parts on those sides myself and took the car to a different alignment shop. This new shop also does frame pulling. So the mechanic puts my car up on the hoist and the camber on both sides is fine but he than says my front left caster is out of spec and should be pulled I told him he can simply adjust the washers, which his alignment program than shows him to, than he moves on starts freaking out about my rear left wheel and says that it must be pulled. He points out that one wheel is 1 inch in-front of the other and that the toe is way out of the spec. My car had been hit around here before so I do not know if it was a legitimate claim, he refused to align it and said the frame must be pulled first. He ended up charging me 50 dollars. The rear wheels had everything in spec other than the toe, the side that was hit had a toe of 1.8 degrees and with the other side having a toe of -.9 degrees. Here are pictures of both wheels as you can see one is clearly more in-front than the other but I have seen pictures on the internet where other xk8's had the same thing. Thank you.

 

Sorry here are the pictures.

 

I am not a expert but i have never seen something like this on a XK8.

How is your tire wear?

 

The first alignment shop I took mine to also wanted to use a frame straightener to "adjust" my front castor. Castor doesn't effect tire wear and only makes my car pull very slightly to the right so I said no thanks. Rearranging thw upper control bushing shims will likely correct the castor but thats a big job so I'll just keep ignoring it until the upper bushings need replacing and worry about then.



Dave

 

An inch should be easy enough to measure for yourself.

At each wheel, drop a plumb line from the top of the tire so that it passes through the
center line of the center cap. Mark the place where it meets the ground with a pen on
masking tape on the ground.

Move the car and measure the distance between the marks on each side.

They should be close to equal.

 

I am taking my newly acquired XKR for a Hunters 4 wheel alignment next Thursday. Could I suggest you google Hunters 4 wheel alignment and watch their videos. My garage will do a check and print out before any work is done then its £15 + Vat for each adjustment. Even if the lot has to be adjusted it will still be worth it for peace of mind.

 

 

Yeah I measured it and there is a difference of more than an inch looks like I may have to pay the shop a visit haha. And as for the hunters alignment looks pretty nice thanks for the link!!

 

Well, at least you know. Aligning a car that is out of square is a nightmare.

Just make sure you know which corner he is going to pull because he went from one corner to the other. In other words, have a good talk with the guy before he starts.

 

Haha will do!!

 

How much does a 4-wheel alignment cost for these cars (in US dollars)?

 

Around here $49 to $69. But only if they can do it by turning things. They want $45 more each for anything that involves shims.


Dave

 

$150 on Maui for 4 wheel alinement.

 

Well mine goes in tomorrow for its four wheel alignment check. Does not feel that there is anything wrong so it will be interesting to see what the report says.