Jaguar XK8 feeling wobbly, shakey, skittish? Check your mounts!

Having bought a lovely 70k mile XKR 4.0 Convertible for stock and having had all the usual engine upgrades attended to, the car wasn’t quite right on the road. So after balancing all the wheels, it sits on 20″ alloy wheels with low profile tyres so the car looks the part,  it still felt well, Friday night after the Donington Chequered Flag ale house, wobbly and  tripping up at the slightest glitch in the road!

I rang Danny at Elite & Performance Jaguar and he said “V-Mounts”. I said it has an MOT from last month with no advisories! “V-Mounts”  he patiently reiterated.

Whats V-Mounts?  The sub frame to body shell V shaped mounts that connect the rear of the front cross member to the body of the car.

They’re rubber  mounts attached to a cast aluminium body with four bolts.  On earlier XK8 the rubber delaminates and sometimes the actual aluminium mount can crack. This can all take place within the first 20k to 30k miles of the cars life. We have seen these mounts cracked after just passing an MOT! Not just 4.0 cars either, 4.2 can fall foul of this problem.

Not a particularly expensive part for it’s important role,  but unfortunately it can turn into a very big  job if the bolts are seized into the frame and have to be drilled out. Luckily our XKR was sorted without serious dental work and returned feeling much more sober and without the wandering and skittish behaviour. Of course always set up on CTS Derby 4-wheel laser alignment machine straight afterwards.

So, a resounding success for the car, as for the rest of us, stay out of the ale house!

DH