Hello from Surrey

[jBrodin]

Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m 52, married with three primary school boys. Live in Epsom, Surrey. Just bought a X350 V8 4.2 SE 2004. 78000 miles. Lovely car.
I’ve already found some issues with the car:
Rear parking sensor not working. I’ve identified which one is not ticking and ordered a new one.
Steering wheel is vibrating at about 60 - 70 mph. I let some air out from the tires to see if that helped. It did a bit, but then I got a yellow warning light with Air suspension fault instead…
I need to buy a good code reader.

Kind Regards,
Jonas

[davidr]

Hello Jonas and welcome. X350s are lovely cars and you’ll not regret your choice.
As for your problems, the steering wheel wobble at the speed you mentioned is a classic symptom of the front wheels being out of balance. Get them balanced at your local tyre depot and there’s a high chance that will cure it.
The rear sensor sounds like you are already on the case. The only tip is not to put too much paint on it as that impairs its performance. A light dusting is all you want so the paint doesn’t damp its vibrations.
The suspension fault is very often because the piston ring on the air pump (behind the bumper at the front of the near side wheel arch) has worn so the pump takes too long to get the reservoir up to pressure. The system interprets that as a leak and will give an implausibility error. The pump can be replaced entirely but it is much more economic to rebuild the pump with a new piston ring
Enjoy!

[jBrodin]

Hi davidr

Thanks for the welcoming and the tips. Yes, I will get the tires balanced and thinking of buying a refurb kit for the pump. When it comes to the parking sensor, I found someone selling colour coded ones on ebay. Fingers crossed the colour is right. Cheers.

[jBrodin]

I got the wheels balanced but it didn’t help much. Turned out a wheels was buckled. Also replaced the faulty parking sensor. Didn’t help either! I received my iCarsoft tool and all parking sensors are detected etc. Unfortunately, it seems like the tool can’t read PAM codes on the early X350s.

[ptjs1]

Jonas,

Maybe try and get the tracking assessed, which might also highlight if there's a problem with excess wear in the suspension arm bushes.

Cheers

Paul

[jBrodin]

I went to an alloy wheel specialist today to get the buckled wheel straightened. Was told it wasn’t buckled at all! Don’t know if the tyre company I went to last week tried to shaft me or if they were completely incompetent. The wheel company re-balanced the wheels. It didn’t help. I’ve booked a wheel alignment for tomorrow.

[Andy P]

Hi Jonas,
Hope the wheel alignment solves your issue.
Take care.
Andy

[jBrodin]

The wheel alignment was fine. Didn’t need adjustment. Not sure what to try next.

[ptjs1]

JBrodin,

Take it to Ray at Surrey Jags (tell him I sent you). I'm sure they can find the problem.

Paul Sinnott