For the past few months, my ride and handling has become jumpy ... As if my rear end was dancing on pavement irregularities. The feeling is somewhat similar to driving in the winter and crossing the slush as you change lanes ... You get a momentary sliding feeling. I can experience this driving slow on residential streets as well as highway speeds. Expansion joints and potholes are not an issue ... It is mostly pronounced on surface "waves".

I brought the vehicle to the dealer recently (an '06 with 21K) and they discovered a cracked rear spring. After the replacement, the ride is slightly better, but not "normal" yet. BTW- I do have a rear sway bar (dealer installed over a year ago).

Does anyone have some additional ideas or suggestions ... Anybody else experience a cracked spring? I do not do any aggressive driving and I did not hit a major pothole ... What can cause a cracked spring (seems it was cracked on both sides of the mounting area)?

Any help would be appreciated,
427

For the past few months, my ride and handling has become jumpy ... As if my rear end was dancing on pavement irregularities. The feeling is somewhat similar to driving in the winter and crossing the slush as you change lanes ... You get a momentary sliding feeling. I can experience this driving slow on residential streets as well as highway speeds. Expansion joints and potholes are not an issue ... It is mostly pronounced on surface "waves".

I brought the vehicle to the dealer recently (an '06 with 21K) and they discovered a cracked rear spring. After the replacement, the ride is slightly better, but not "normal" yet. BTW- I do have a rear sway bar (dealer installed over a year ago).

Does anyone have some additional ideas or suggestions ... Anybody else experience a cracked spring? I do not do any aggressive driving and I did not hit a major pothole ... What can cause a cracked spring (seems it was cracked on both sides of the mounting area)?

Any help would be appreciated,
427
I am real sorry to hear about your spring issue!!!

To my recollection I haven't heard or read of another one in any model year. Do you think the dealer tightened it up too much when they did the sway bar?? (Just guessing).

I'll bet you don't get that part back even if you request it. The engineers will be very interested. (Also isn't it the same composition as the Corvette??) I honestly don't know.

Please let us know how it comes out.

Regards

To my recollection I haven't heard or read of another one in any model year. Do you think the dealer tightened it up too much when they did the sway bar?? (Just guessing).

Hummmm ... I had not thought of this. For those that have installed a rear sway bar themselves, is there anything you tighten that could potentially crack the rear spring?

What about the frame weld problem I heard mentioned a while back ... Could this cause the crack in the spring or driving instability issues?

Hummmm ... I had not thought of this. For those that have installed a rear sway bar themselves, is there anything you tighten that could potentially crack the rear spring?

What about the frame weld problem I heard mentioned a while back ... Could this cause the crack in the spring or driving instability issues?
I was wondering if they had inadvertenly loosened the spring to install the sway bar.

Also I willl ask my tech (if I remember--old) I am going over to pick mine up (oil change).


Regards

Jerry

I am not sure we are talking about the same sensation, but I have noticed something similar to what you describe on my '06 and have pretty much passed it off as the nature of the beast - Magna-ride shocks and less then high performance tires (stock run-flats). I do not have a rear bar, but have wondered if this would help. I do find that it is less pronounced when I drive more aggressively. I have driven other XLRs and also noticed this 'dancing' of the rear on pavement joints and repair spots (PA does not have the countries best roads!), so I have assumed it is common to the XLR. I have had several Porsches and other performance cars that have a much more 'planted' feel, so maybe I'm expecting too much and maybe this is the improvement that was made in later models with the upgraded Magna-ride.
I bought my car used, so I do not know the full history. I have thought about having the dealer check it out, but don't feel they have a lot of experience (they just took on the Caddy franchise this year), although they do have the #1 Vette dealer in the area.

I have driven many XLR's and when the tires may need to be replaced, they tend to become jumpy or jerky to the road surface. Some individuals would describe the feeling as if the car wants to pull over road imperfections causing the car to "dance: on the pavement.

I would recommened having a tire specialist take a good look.

www.CadillacXLR-V.com (http://www.CadillacXLR-V.com)

Thanks
Allen

For the past few months, my ride and handling has become jumpy ... As if my rear end was dancing on pavement irregularities. The feeling is somewhat similar to driving in the winter and crossing the slush as you change lanes ... You get a momentary sliding feeling. I can experience this driving slow on residential streets as well as highway speeds. Expansion joints and potholes are not an issue ... It is mostly pronounced on surface "waves".

I brought the vehicle to the dealer recently (an '06 with 21K) and they discovered a cracked rear spring. After the replacement, the ride is slightly better, but not "normal" yet. BTW- I do have a rear sway bar (dealer installed over a year ago).

Does anyone have some additional ideas or suggestions ... Anybody else experience a cracked spring? I do not do any aggressive driving and I did not hit a major pothole ... What can cause a cracked spring (seems it was cracked on both sides of the mounting area)?

Any help would be appreciated,
427

I have an '07 and have experienced absolutely no rear-end dancing at all... I have been very pleased with the ride and handling.
mtrocket

Thanks Allen, you may well have pin-pointed what I am experiencing. My car does have tires that need replacing soon and at least two of the cars I drove did NOT have run-flats. I will report back after the tires are replaced. On that note, do you have a recommendation for replacement brand? Michelin? ...GoodYear? ...other? I am assuming it is best to stay with the run-flats.

Thanx to all for your replies and suggestions. Although I do have about 21K on the vehicle, half of that is on a set of snow tires (itz a daily driver to me) ... So the original tires are still in good shape.

I've considered the tires in the past, but the discovery of the cracked spring was a shocker. It is possible I my have two completely different issues ... Bad tires and something that caused the rear spring to crack in two locations.

And the beat goes on ...

I've seen a cracked rear spring on a C5, we were assuming just from "old age". Yours seems to have failed a bit early.
Bruce

Thanx to all for your replies and suggestions. Although I do have about 21K on the vehicle, half of that is on a set of snow tires (itz a daily driver to me) ... So the original tires are still in good shape.

I've considered the tires in the past, but the discovery of the cracked spring was a shocker. It is possible I my have two completely different issues ... Bad tires and something that caused the rear spring to crack in two locations.

And the beat goes on ...
I just got back from picking my XLR up at the dealer and as promised I asked him and he said they hadn't heard of a cracked spring...yet.

I did tell him where you said it was cracked and he thought what I suggested...that somehow it was tightened up too much. But as he said without seeing it first hand it was hard to be really sure.

We'll keep looking

TIRES: I had a good experience with the Discount Tire people. Even if you don't buy from them they seem to have some good information on what brands and compounds work and what doesn't based on customer feedback. Maybe you could gain some more insight into which tire was the best for your all season needs.

It is true that the car rides better with the run flats but thats because I was told the tire compound is softer.

Regards

Regards

Again, many thanx to all for your time and info ... It is greatly appreciated!

A good part of the chassis design and engineering has to do with tires and wheels. After the countless hours of studies and tests, crash test are done along with durability and road adhesion testing.

The tire gives you about 6", the size of your palm is what grips the vehicle to the pavement. You have about 24" or 4 small sections on each tire that keeps you from loosing control of their car.

The XLR was designed with the Michelin Extended Mobility (Run Flats) for the early years and Goodyear in later years (V-Series use Pirelli) I would strongly recommend using the tire that the vehicle was designed the the optimal handling, performance but most of all safety.

www.Cadillac-XLR.com (http://www.Cadillac-XLR.com)

Thanks
Allen

[FONT=Arial Black][COLOR=purple]The XLR was designed with the Michelin Extended Mobility (Run Flats) for the early years and Goodyear in later years (V-Series use Pirelli) I would strongly recommend using the tire that the vehicle was designed the the optimal handling, performance but most of all safety.

www.Cadillac-XLR.com (http://www.Cadillac-XLR.com)

Thanks
Allen

Interesting, Corvette went the other way, using Goodyear runflats for years, and just now switching to Michelin.
Bruce

Interesting, Corvette went the other way, using Goodyear runflats for years, and just now switching to Michelin.
Bruce
Bruce:

Another interesting tidbit.....I went by the Discount Tire place where I got my new tires to have my Wife's CTS Sport tire pressure checked.

We got to talking and their database shows that the Bridgestones on her car should now carry 30lbs of pressure instead of 32.

That got me to thinking (dangerous) so I asked what the recommended pressure was for the XLR Michlen Pilots and they said and showed me 30 lbs now instead of 32. Interesting.

Thanks Allen, :cheers
It has taken me a little while to respond to this, but when I had my car in for oil change and tire rotation, the dealer called to recomend replacement of the tires due to extream wear. After some confusion on type between the dealer and me I had all four replaced with new runflats (for the price of non-runflats) along with a 4 wheel alignment. I can report that your original comments about my 'floaty' rear suspension has been eliminated and the car drives like new. At this point I'm not even sure that it needs a rear swaybar as the suspension has settled down significantly - and I'm not looking to autocross or go too crazy on the backroads.
I would definately recommend new original equipment tires to anyone else experiencing problems like I described in an earlier post on this thread.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!

Jon

A good part of the chassis design and engineering has to do with tires and wheels. After the countless hours of studies and tests, crash test are done along with durability and road adhesion testing.

The tire gives you about 6", the size of your palm is what grips the vehicle to the pavement. You have about 24" or 4 small sections on each tire that keeps you from loosing control of their car.

The XLR was designed with the Michelin Extended Mobility (Run Flats) for the early years and Goodyear in later years (V-Series use Pirelli) I would strongly recommend using the tire that the vehicle was designed the the optimal handling, performance but most of all safety.

www.Cadillac-XLR.com (http://www.Cadillac-XLR.com)

Thanks
Allen

I had the tires replaced last week with BF Goodrich kdws. They are not run flats witch I may regret but the ride is great, they are quiet and I got all 4 delivered for $ 365 from tire rack and $80 to install. we just got back from a trip to Tampa and it was as good a ride as my eldo.