What does a rear shock absorber do?
Shock absorbers are responsible for your vehicle’s smooth drive over bumpy or uneven roads and are an essential part of your suspension system.
Your shock absorbers are gas-filled tubes that are compressed by a piston, dissipating kinetic energy to provide a comfortable ride for you and your passengers, regulating the rebounding of the car.
How often should shock absorbers need replacing?
You can expect shock absorbers to last at least 50k miles. Your owner’s manual may specify a different mileage or duration, as this figure is only a guideline. You should also have your shock absorbers checked after heavy contact with potholes, curbs or large rocks in the road.
The law, vehicle regulations and your MOT
Car suspension is a common reason for MOT failures. Broken or faulty shock absorbers, including oil leaks, will be a definite fail at an MOT.
What causes a shock absorber to stop working correctly?
If a shock absorber is leaking fluid, from malfunctioning or damaged seals, it will fail to operate correctly.
A damaged, broken or bent shock absorber will also fail to operate as intended. This can happen through continual use, general wear or through damage from an accident.
Some of the smaller internal parts will eventually wear out, which will prevent the complete component operating correctly.
Symptoms of a malfunctioning rear shock absorber
Excessive bouncing and an uncomfortable ride
If your car is providing uncomfortable ride quality and is bouncing excessively, it could be that your shock absorbers aren’t operating correctly.
The car feels unstable
When navigating corners or over uneven ground and your car feels unstable, this could also be due to suspension damage.
Driving over speed bumps is difficult
When driving over speed bumps or raised road elements causes uncomfortable and excessive bouncing, it is likely that your shock absorbers are damaged.
If you spot signs of leaking
Any puddles of oil-like fluid on the road around your wheels could be escaping from leaking shock absorbers.
If your wheels leave the ground
If your tyres lose contact with the road when driving over bumpy or uneven surfaces, then your suspension isn’t working properly and could be down to a faulty shock absorber.
Jaguar
Jaguar is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover.
Jaguar first appeared as a brand in 1945, when SS Cars Ltd. changed its name at a shareholder meeting; the company went on to have a variety of ownerships and mergers, including those with British Leyland, Ford and Tata Motors. After buying both Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, Tata Motors combined both to create Jaguar Land Rover in 2013.
How popular is Jaguar in the United Kingdom?
This executive British luxury brand currently has 360k vehicles on the road in the UK. Given their matching luxury price tag, it would be acceptable to think that the numbers would remain a steady constant, yet the marque has shown consistently growing numbers since the mid-1990s.
This could be partly due to recent fresh marketing strategies, targeting younger professionals to boost the sale of units, rather than relying on the older, executive drivers the brand previously associated with.
High-end, luxury executive motoring
The RRP of their cheapest model, the Jaguar E-Pace, hits the market at over £29k, and as each model brings something different to the range, their prices peak with the standard level Jaguar XJ starting at £65k. That’s before you begin to choose from the mass of customisations options, available at an added cost when building the finished specification of your car.
There’s a lot more to a Jaguar than luxury upholstery and the famous badge on the grill.
Throughout history, Jaguar has been instrumental in providing high-spec indulgent sports cars; they are a combination of opulent luxury, cutting-edge technology, sporting dynamics and performance. Jaguar makes cars that can take you from 0–60mph in under 4 seconds with top speeds of over 200mph, but without any compromise to comfort and functionality.
Keeping up with today’s trends
An important addition to the Jaguar line-up was made in March 2018; the Jaguar I-Pace was their first electric car, and an SUV to boot. A bold decision to introduce new fuel technologies into a relatively new and growing model type, this was their car to compete against the Porsche Cayenne and long-established Range Rover.
Jaguar’s reliability and reputation
Jaguar ranked a long way down the list at 28th out of the 30 car brands in the What Car? Reliability Survey in 2018. Despite being a high-end luxury brand, Jaguar car owners reported more repairs at higher costs than many of their competitors.
Recent Jaguar recalls and reliability issues
Various recalls have been made on Jaguar models throughout their motoring history. The following are a list of the most recent in the UK and Europe.
10/03/2019 – Jaguar F-Type, Jaguar E-Pace and Jaguar F-Pace, (2015–2018)
Jaguar XF and Jaguar XE (2014–2018) Certain 2.0L diesel engines may emit excessive levels of CO2
02/02/2019 – Jaguar XJ, Jaguar F-Pace and Jaguar F-Type (2018)
The crankshaft pulley retaining bolt may fracture
13/04/2019 – Jaguar E-Pace (2017–2018)
The reversing lamps may fail
30/03/2018 – Jaguar E-Pace (2017)
The front brake flexi-hoses may come into contact with the front tyres
16/03/2018 – Jaguar XF Sportbreak (2017–2018)
There is a defect with the restraints control module
04/03/2018 – Jaguar F-Type, Jaguar F-Pace, Jaguar E-Pace, Jaguar XE and Jaguar XF (2016–2017)
The brazing of the fuel rail end caps may not properly seal the fuel rail ends
30/11/2017 – Jaguar F-Pace, Jaguar XE, Jaguar XJ and Jaguar XF (2016–2017)
The TFT instrument cluster screen can go blank and reset intermittently
17/07/2017 – Jaguar XJ (2009–2010)
Airbags may deploy incorrectly on severe frontal impact
All recall information sourced from gov.co.uk data.
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