busy weekend on the car.........

[Brakebuster]

i have been very busy this weekend on my 1999 XJ8 Sovereign , i had been meaning to do some work on here for six months now, but this weekend the parts, time and weather all came into line and i got the tool box out, lol

first of all , she has now covered 102,000 miles, and though not worn out ( far from it in fact ) there are several things that needed looking at to ensure at least another 50k without trouble...that and i got some ebay bargains,lol

the front shocks, though good needed replacing due to the milage, i managed to get a brand new pair of Jaguar Bilstein ' comfort ' spec shocks for £20, yes £20..!! , rather than the price of £300 from jaguar , this price saving alone meant it was worth doing the job , no matter what condition my 100k milers were in....

about a hour each side saw them swapped out, not to bad a job, but you do need two jacks , one is to pump up the lower arm to take the strain off the shock to remove it safely , the new shocks feel softer than the originals, but spring back quicker , and is a very comfortable ride , and are the exact replacement for the originals,

then i moved onto swapping all the wheels round to even out tyre wear, front to back , thats all, and i noticed a little bit of scrubbing on the inside edge of both fronts, so a 4 wheel laser track is in order to save the new'ish' tyres
while all the wheels were off i took the opportunity to copper-slip the calipers and check all the brake lines etc , all good there

then i decided to fix the recently acquired boot light problem, this is very common , and involves soldering the broken wires ( 2 off ) back together at the point of the boot-lid hinge , didnt take too long, and it was all covered in heat-shink insulation for protection , job done

then it was onto the engine, i bought a brand new water pump from Jaguar in January when i changed my tensioners, but didnt get round to it, i also got a new thermostat , took me about three hours of leisurely work in the sunshine today to complete , the stat was very easy to change , the pump was a little bit awkward, but patience is a virtue, as they say

while i was in there i also changed the serpentine belt idler pulley ,POP to do once the tension has been removed from the belt

lets hope she doesnt break down on the motorway tomorrow, lol

BB

[joejag308]

Sounds a worthwhile days work ther BB saved yourself some money mate. Its what needs doing at that mileage if you want to keep the car on the road............Joe