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2005 Jaguar Vanden Plas

Question: A rumbling sound has developed at 40 - 50 mph What might it be?

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bjwillisco, Bradenton, FL, May 03, 2009, 15:39
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Jaguar serviced my car (16,000 miles only). They checked the wheel bearings and rotated the tires, but he noise is just the same. They said it was probably tire wear, but the noise is still identical in pitch, frequency and loudness as before the front tires were rotated to the back/changed sides. Does this mean that the problem is likely to be something else other than the tires? If so, what might it be?

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    patrick mannion from Greg Solow's Engine Room, May 04, 2009, 19:38
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    I would ask to go for a drive with the technician working on the car to point out the noise. Tires can make noise (I recently put a set of tires on my own car and am unsatisfied with the amount of noise they make by comparison to the last set of tires I had on the car). If the tires that are on your car presently are being blamed for "tire noise" I would think they would have been making noise all along. If they said you have tire wear did they align the steering and if so did you see the alignment specs before and after alignment?
    Do the tires exhibit signs of tire wear? I would be inclined to think you have wheel bearing noise.

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    bjwillisco, May 15, 2009, 04:53
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    I had a drive with the technician, as recommended. Prior to Jaguar he had worked for Rolls Royce for 25 years, and he seemed very knowledgeable. He says he checked the wheel bearings, and that he thinks there are flat spots on the tires due to the car having just been standing for 4 months. He recommended seeing if 'it' drives-out, and in future increasing the tire pressure when the car is left standing.

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    patrick mannion, May 15, 2009, 09:19
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    I would agree with driving the car and see if as the Jaguar technician said see if the noise "drives out". We work on a lot of British vintage cars that often sit for a period of time.
    Older tires lose pressure just sitting and take a good drive to get them to operating temperature to bring them "back into shape".
    It is an old fashion automotive repair that modern tire stores have forgotten, but we used to "true tires" by shaving thread off to bring them back into round and then re balance them very labor intensive and with the price of a new tire vs cost of trueing a tire not worth it.

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  • Answer #2

    Visitor, July 14, 2011, 01:52

    This noise is common to nearly all Jaguars at some point and only gets worse as time goes on.
    I have 3 jags at the moment and they ALL do it.
    This is a drive train problem having to do with the universal joints which connect the differential
    to the whichbone assembly on each side. These "U" joints are notorious for rumbling at a particular
    range of speeds, I'd say from 50-66 mph. The rumble seems to go away at higher speeds although the
    increased ambient noise at the higher speeds could simply mask it at that point.
    I've rotated, changed tyres, as well as replaced wheel bearings and wheels and it has never affected
    or changed this sound.
    Jaguar has a tool that measures low frequency vibrations as the car is in motion, it was designed for
    this very type of noise detection.
    I may be full of bull here, but this has been my personal experience after having owned over a dozen
    Jaguar sedans from 1972 - 2001 models.
    I have never gone so far as to change the universal joints, I've decided instead, to live with it.

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