wonky car

[kujawski]

very vague and very weird.

i have a jaguar xj6 1996,(rear wheel drive obviously) and on acceleration the back end seems to want to do its own thing either pull to the right or pull to the left, fells very wierd indeed

ive taken it to a garage and they said the suspension is fine, the bearings are fine and there is nothing else untoward,

but it still feels not quite right when driving it, anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

[Buenchico]

'Very vague and very weird'? That's what people say about me! ;-)

It's possible that you've got a wheel which is binding slightly against the brake pad.

Chris

[kujawski]

thats what i thought, but putting the car on a jack they , well all 4 spin freely?

[kujawski]

forgot to add , with no wobbling, scraping or anything?

[red-forest.]

what about the tyres have you any new ones fitted or swopped them around,do you have any directional ones fitted,are they on the correct side.look on the tyre walls for arrows.

[chas2008]

2 options, poorly inflated tyres, worn axle/trailing arm mounting bushes or similiar. Nothing else that i can think of could cause a car to steer from the rear. But i would assume any decent garage would have picked this up.

[sigma]

Are you using excessive acceleration ?

[paddiez]

If it has leaf springs then one of the spring shackles has failed, if if it has coil springs then one of the rear wishbone support links has failed.

[eltelioni]

You would imagine the garage would spot the failure of a major component or mismatched tyres (though there is no guarantee). I would suspect a more subtle problem such as misalignment of the rear wheels. A quick look would not reveal the problem, you need to use sophisticated equipment. An alignment problem could be caused by a minor accident or even by bumping a kerb. How long have you had the problem? The reason I ask is the problem may cause the tyres to wear unevenly and that would give a good indication of the fault.

[TWR]

The springs on the rear of your car has a Centre bolt in the middle of the spring//s get someone to follow you in their car and ask them if they can see your car CRABING, ( I am not joking) the car will look as if the back end either N/S or the OFF/S is not in line when the cars runs ahead.

[eltelioni]

TWR's suggestion sounds good - let us know how you get on.

[gsr600]

well i reckon its the rear axle bushes,
they had a problem of coming unbonded from the metal plates,
you could literally jack up the car & leave the axle on the deck.
a day late but hey!

[kujawski]

thanks for all your answers,

gets interesting, just driven back from tiles r us with 15 sqm of flooring tiles and about 100kg of adhesive, grout and leveling compound, spread in the boot , back and front seats, and it handles just like it should, now weaving, smooth acceleration, felt normal quite ???????

[kujawski]

was meant to read "no weaving"

[Brooksy]

If the rear axle is located the same way as on a 95 XJS then the radius arms are notorious for rusting from the inside outwards. Although they can look fine from underneath & pass an MoT test, they may look like a sieve with the crud, underseal & paint removed. They are crucial to location of the rear axle & may be flexing. As several of the previous posts suggest, the bushes in the radius arms are crucial as well. Give the radius arms a good poking with a pointy thingy!

[dilligaf]

Some of these are fitted with a self leveling suspension system. Have you had this checked out ?