Need Some Help

[floppy]

Hello All,

I am new to this site and new to owning a xjs and I could do with some help. My car has just had a bare metal respray and I have got her back on the road for the first time since I bought her. Now the mirro's have just packed up the heater does not work or the speed control. Please somebody tell me that these cars are not going to fall to bits on me.
Thanks

[SimonR]

Hi there,

Welcome to the site and to the joys of XJ-S ownership. It's my first anniversary as an XJ-S owner this month, and also my car's first anniversary since it was completely restored and put back on the road, so I remeber well the trials and tribulations!

In my experience, it's unlikely to fall apart too badly, but prepare yourself for a few teething problems in the first year or so.

Coincidentally enough neither my mirrors nor my heater worked first time either! The mirrors were easy to fix - it was simply bad contact in the joints in the door. If you take each mirror off and gently pull the wiring out with it, you'll notice a four-pin connector. All I had to do was clean the pins and also squidge the sockets a tiny bit with some pliars and that sorted it.

My heater improved greatly with a new thermostat, but I also had problems with the fans and aircon in general - we'll need a bit more detail to help you with this one!

My car is a 1987 so the mirror instructions may not be correct for a face-lift version (post 1991ish). I'm not sure.

The thing with the S is that no matter what breaks and how much it costs you or how long you have to wait at the road side for a tow-truck (at worst, I managed: front suspension failure, £750 and 5 hours respectively) as soon as it's going again you forget the problems immediately.

Have fun, and how about some pics of your paint job?

Simon R.

[HerefordMark]

Er... Sorry, can't tell you it won't fall to bits, because it probably will! It's got more electrics than the space shuttle, and it all goes wrong! And while you're fixing it, the bodywork is rusting before your eyes! And even if you do fix it, the petrol/tax bills will mean you can't afford to drive it!

Well, that's what they say, but it's all rubbish really. It's much simpler than any modern car, you just need time, patience, and a renewable source of knuckle skin. Here's a few ideas which might help:

Mirrors - first check the fuse. Use a new one even if the current one seems OK. Plenty of WD40 will help those crusty old contact points. If it's only one on the blink, try some WD40 in the switch. If it's knackered, they are pennies on ebay, and easy to fit. If the motors seem to be working, but nothing moves, the glass might be detached from the servo arms, so dismantle and reattach.

Heater - check fuse as above. If it is totally dead, no relay clicking, nothing, then 99% of the time it WILL be the fuse. If not, then you'll be checking relays, vacuum lines, etc. you'll har horror stories of total dash removal etc etc but in my experience that is rarely necessary. The bits that fail are easy (ish) to reach, it's just that there's a lot of it.

Speed control - normally it's either the rubber boot not sealing, or one of the 2 solenoids on the same unit. You can easily seal the bellows unit with some B&Q silicon, and there is a check procedure for the solenoids. Can't remember what it is, but it will be on here somewhere, or if not see the Jaglovers site and Kirby Palm's book.

the best bit of advice I can give you is to buy a workshop manual and a parts book. you can do most things with them.

If all else fails, walk away, have a cup of tea, and post a message on here. Somebody will help.

Regards

HM

[dhdove]

Floppy
Sorry missed this thread, replied on Electrics, Simon R seems to have pretty much got it taped. If youre car's been stripped for respray suggest they didn't put it back together properly.......
NB Simon was that collapsed subframe or snapped top mounting???
Regards
DH Dove

[SimonR]

NB Simon was that collapsed subframe or snapped top mounting???


Hi there, it was the bottom fulcrum bolt that holds the bottom front wishbone onto the subframe. It was a bit of a freak problem really - everybody I speak to about it claims never to have heard of a failure of this nature, but it's an expensive one to fix because you either have to take the engine out or drop the subframe to fit the new bolt.

Still it's been great since and the handling improved dramatically!

[GlennH]

Hello All,

I am new to this site and new to owning a xjs and I could do with some help. My car has just had a bare metal respray ..... ..... Please somebody tell me that these cars are not going to fall to bits on me.
Thanks

Hi Floppy,
Congratulations on getting your XJ-S restored and welcome to the (sometimes) frustrating world of the XJ-S. I'm sure it's just teething troubles you are seeing. None of them too serious. The other replies you have had here cover the fixes.

I just wanted to add that these beasts thrive on being used. The havoc pixies do their worst if your car is shut away and not run from one month to the next. The one I bought had only done 100 miles in the previous 12 months and it suffered for it - electrical problems mostly. Hang the fuel bills and take her out frequently. Call it preventive maintenance! It's as good an excuse as any to enjoy driving the car.

Regards,
Glenn.

[floppy]

Hello Again,
I would just like to say thanks very much to everybody who reply to my call for help. I managed to get the mirrors going the conections in the door to the switch had both pulled off somehow.
Now I have just got to get the rest sorted. I was asked for photos of the car. If somebody could tell me how to post them I would be glad to show her off to everyone.
Thanks All
Mike

[Gordon@1962]

There are a few web sites out there if you don't have your own web space and know how to upload with an FTP programme.

http://imageshack.us/ and http://www.putfile.com/ are two.
I've never tried them but seen some stuff on there.