Had a steering wheel wobble/vibration for a while so thought I'd get wheels balanced. The garage said both nsf and nsr have slight buckle so did the best they could with balancing. When I went for a motorway drive the vibration had definitely reduced. Now however there seems to be a wobble through the steering wheel when braking from 50 mph or above which I can't say I noticed before. Anyone have any ideas how getting wheels balanced could cause this? I thought only warped brake discs could be the cause.
Wilderman
I had this on the 2010 XKR I bought last year - unfortunately with 20 in wheels they are very prone to buckling. I took it to a specialist wheel shop who said they were completely out of tolerance and about as round as a 50 pence piece! I eventually got the garage I bought the car from to contribute towards a set of wheels that were round and have enjoyed smooth running ever since.
Yes, the shimmy type feel on the steering wheel under braking is very often attributed to the discs, which need not be warped - they can simply be no longer running true. The tolerance for "out of true" of the disc or the hub is extremely tight, so anything that exacerbates that "out of true", enhances the shimmy.
It could well be that your bucked wheels were installed in such a manner as to be masking the shimmy before the balance work. Having had the wheels balanced and replaced, presumably in a different orientation, the buckle and the discs are combining towards the shimmy.
This has happened twice to me, the first time on the original discs / pads after 10 years (43k miles) and then again this year after only 5 years and 17k miles - the replacement discs and pads at 43k miles were OEM, so they should, in theory have lasted as well as the originals, but sadly no. This is a known, but uncommon problem with the 5 litre X-150 models.
Suggest your first call should be to a decent wheel specialist who can assess the level of buckle and whether they can be trued to specification or not. That would give you a starting point on a definite known issue - the brakes are still just a working theory.
If you do end up needing to find replacement wheels, make sure you get all of the part numbers from the inside face of your existing wheels, including the VERY IMPORTANT "offset" number.
If your wheels are the version with "Supercharged" in the centre boss, the XFR uses a similar looking wheel, but the offsets are different, which surprisingly makes them cheaper, but not correct for the XKR.
Scot Amb
It could well be that your bucked wheels were installed in such a manner as to be masking the shimmy before the balance work. Having had the wheels balanced and replaced, presumably in a different orientation, the buckle and the discs are combining towards the shimmy.
This has happened twice to me, the first time on the original discs / pads after 10 years (43k miles) and then again this year after only 5 years and 17k miles - the replacement discs and pads at 43k miles were OEM, so they should, in theory have lasted as well as the originals, but sadly no. This is a known, but uncommon problem with the 5 litre X-150 models.
Suggest your first call should be to a decent wheel specialist who can assess the level of buckle and whether they can be trued to specification or not. That would give you a starting point on a definite known issue - the brakes are still just a working theory.
If you do end up needing to find replacement wheels, make sure you get all of the part numbers from the inside face of your existing wheels, including the VERY IMPORTANT "offset" number.
If your wheels are the version with "Supercharged" in the centre boss, the XFR uses a similar looking wheel, but the offsets are different, which surprisingly makes them cheaper, but not correct for the XKR.
Scot Amb
Did they balance the fronts and make them worse?
Try some very hard braking. 5 stops from 50mph down to 5mph 80% braking power. This can resurface the disc if they aren’t too bad.
Try some very hard braking. 5 stops from 50mph down to 5mph 80% braking power. This can resurface the disc if they aren’t too bad.
Thank you for the advice everyone 👍🏻 I'll try that hard braking from 50, I'm always happy to go for the cheap and easy fix
Most steering wobble when braking is not warped discs but crap on the disc surfaces
Hard braking that has been suggested can fix it.
A brake skimmer that I had skim my XK discs when I first got my XK does this to his own car.
Some have had success by removing the front discs and cleaning the hub surfaces as dust etc can get in between disc and hub
Hard braking that has been suggested can fix it.
A brake skimmer that I had skim my XK discs when I first got my XK does this to his own car.
Some have had success by removing the front discs and cleaning the hub surfaces as dust etc can get in between disc and hub
Jaguar usually get their disc cooling from the wheel side and sit the disc quite close to the wheel for this. Other companies, like BMW use cooling from inboard.
When the disc sit close to the rim, they can get wet from rain and if the car sits a lot, the patch behind the pads ends up different to the rest of the disc. This results in a pulse when braking.
I’ve had several sets of discs in under 50k miles. Not washing the car without driving afterwards and some heavy braking every now and then (motorway slip roads are good for this), has kept this last set of discs much happier.
When the disc sit close to the rim, they can get wet from rain and if the car sits a lot, the patch behind the pads ends up different to the rest of the disc. This results in a pulse when braking.
I’ve had several sets of discs in under 50k miles. Not washing the car without driving afterwards and some heavy braking every now and then (motorway slip roads are good for this), has kept this last set of discs much happier.
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