I have a 2000 S Type (4.0 with 60,000 Kilometers) and have a noticable vibration from the front end. It almost feels if something is loose yet under inspection everything is tight. The alignment has been done, Wheels balanced, Proper inflation in Pirelli tires, shocks checked out ok.....could this be a stabilizer issue. I live approx. 2.5 hours from nearest Jaguar dealer and would appreciate any input prior to taking to the dealer. Has anyone experiened this before >>>> Its like I can feel every pebble I drive over. Comments. Thanks all!
John, I know this will sound ridiculous, but rotate your tyres. Put the fronts on the rear and the rears on the front. While it may do nothing, it may pin point the problem -- for no cost. I know this is heresy amongst Jag owners, but I wouldn't own a set of Pirellis if they were the only tyre left that would fit any of my 3 Jags.
The problem is the Pirellis fitted to the S-Type, and for years the P4000s installed on the XJ. They are notorious for developing near-permanent flat spots, which form after the car has been run for awhile and the rubber gets warm and pliable. When the car is parked the rubber cools and the tire forms a flat spot where it is in contact with the ground. While this condition in varying degrees is common to most brands of "Z" rated, high performance radials, on other brands like Michelin, Continental, etc. the deformation will go away after just a few minutes of driving. OTOH, the Pirellis begin to take a "set" and the flat spots tend to become permanent. The condition gets progressively worse and worse as more & more areas of the tire develop these deformations.
Ford/Jaguar engineering use(d) Pirellis because they were cheap. They also sourced some low-end Conti Contacs on the 2000 S-Type, not sure if that continued. However the UK service guys started to rave about how nice the Contis were, prbably because they'd used the crap Pirellis for so long they had no experience with another brand.
When I ran Jaguar Customer Service in the USA we had a simple way to deal with this annoying customer complaint: we fit equivalent rated Michelins and never heard another peep from the customers. UK Service and Engineering knew they had a crap vendor on their hands but for whatever reason there was never any definitive action to solve this issue. Pirelli blamed Engineeering's spec and said they'd warned them the problem would develop, Engineering blamed Pirelli, etc. YADA YADA YADA, the Ford/Jaguar Corporate BS went on and on. Meanwhile, no other competitior fit Pirellis to their products so the simple answer was to just toss the tires and replace them with another brand.
In those cases where the qualiy, engineering & service organizations wouldn't deal with obvious issues, I was always very happy to spend A LOT of Jaguar's money to help the customers. Unfortunately, in the OP's case I'm sure far too many miles and time have passed for Jaguar to contribute to their replacment. A call to Tire Rack WILL solve your problem, however.
I had a similar problem with my XJ and it was really noticeable. I had recent Pirelli P6000 tires and it turned out they had ovalized. I had them replaced under warranty but the new ones were likewise. Cured the problem with new Michelins. Vibration has disappeared.
Hi Guys......done all the suggestions including rims and tires.....no difference......can anyone think of additional suggestions.....steering rack etc? Its driving me nuts....Thanks again!
I had a similar problem with my 2000 3.0SE S-Type, over approx 8000 miles it developed a knocking noise when traveling on uneven roads which progressively got worse, upon inspection by my Jaguar dealer (under warranty) they found the anti-roll bushes were worn and required replacing (only having done 24000 miles).
Having done some further research this appears to be a relatively common problem, in fact the bushes seem to be on ebay for sale all the time check out item 4501526574 or just search for "Jaguar roll" to see the offending item.
Are they really £56 +VAT each on the S-Type? I just had the main dealer do these on my XJ8 (admittedly the suspension is probably completely different), but the bushes were under £4 each, and the total job including labour was less than £50 + VAT.
Thought mine had gone, had it checked out by my mate who owns his own Garage, he could find nothing wrong with them or any part of the steering apart from a split steering rack gator that just cost me £18 from the Jag Dealer, while I was there I asked how much the front Anti roll bar bushes were and he said they were £47 each.
Since My car has been up on his ramps with all its suspension etc hanging down while he was inspecting it my Knocking has vanished. Maybe something wasn't quite sitting right, I don't know but I do know its as clean as a whistle with a clean bill of health.
Paul, You are now an official member of the Jaguar club with your own personal "Gremlin" Most gremlins are electrical -- you must be honored to have a mechanical gremlin
I am used to Gremlins, I owned an Alfa Romeo 156 V6 SIII before this car, now there's a car to have a mad love affair with they drive you mad but are an absolute hoot to drive especially the Alfa V6
For a moment I thought you were going to say a Peugeot 505. The only car I have ever known that owners loved to visit at their local garage -- constantly. Then they would swear how much they loved the car -- and then go buy another one!!
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