What I did to my XJ-S today.....

[poprivet]

The sump washer is steel but has a bonded rubber seal built in, (Dowty washer).

I would use a new one, they don't need a lot of torque as its the rubber that provides the seal. The alloy pan can be damaged quite easily by either overtightening or using a sealing paste etc.

[SimonR]

I had a couple of hours today while my daughter had her afternoon nap - and although I was unable to get assistance to do the brake work I wanted to do (due to a covid close encounter) I did get a few jobs done:

- Oil and filter change
- Drain coolant, flush radiator and re-fill with new mix of 50/50
- Clean and rinse K&N filter, ready to re-oil over the weekend
- Re-fit road wheels, and take the car off its axle stands, ready to jack up the back to get access to the rear callipers.

I had wanted to get the car roadworthy again today as the MoT expires tomorrow, but that's not going to happen now, so I'll have to book it in for a test before I can see how much better it is with these bits of work complete.

[Lastmin]

New battery always surprised how small they are for a lump this big. My permanent indicator lights was diagnosed by a fellow member (thanks) fice minutes of my pressing the hazard switch on off and now fixed.

One big expense actually the same as the bosch battery was petrol, the price of E5 super was £1.62 a litre and she likes a drink.

Rest of this week has been daily use for all my local tasks, sons rugby match, swimming lessons (he is 10 year old) quite a few dog walks and various just driving about.

[Lastmin]

I'm quite local to the new RHS Gardens in Manchester.

[Lastmin]

Pros and cons today using the xjs daily in this patch of sunny weather. Had to take my son to the local small airport for a tour, jag perfect car to be along the Bentley and Ferraris there who's owners no doubt then took up their small planes/helicopters.

But the dog in an effort to see what's going on stepped on the sunroof switch and ever so slightly opened the sunroof and it rained a bit later but nothing serious. Great driving it today and sat in her comfy seats watching the craft come in and out.

[Lastmin]

Bloody wife's dog

[SimonR]

Good to see pictures of your car, Lastmin - i really love an XJ-S in white.

I'm on day 4 of isolation, after a positive Coronavirus PCR test, so the boredom is setting in! I've been busying myself as far as possible with the XJS.

The first task was the oil the freshly washed K&N Filter and then fit it, along with the rest of the air intake, back into the engine bay.

The exterior of the car is pretty tidy, but the aerial grommet had clearly seen better days. Part number DAC3588 is £20-ish for a genuine part on David Manners or £2 for a pattern part. Whilst I don't mind spending money where it's needed, I went for the pattern part, especially since the other one is on back order. Time will tell whether that was a false economy or not. Initially it seemed too small as I expected it to fit firmly into the hole in the wing before passing the aerial through, however, it seems that instead, it's clamped in place by the aerial.

Before


After


The other job I completed was replacing the fuel filter. The manual says to depressurise the fuel system first and the easiest way I found to do this is start the engine and then flick the inertia cut-off switch which is next to the door aperture and to the side of the dashboard on the driver's side. I'd not previously been wanted to start the engine as the brakes are still not finished, however, unplugging the ABS pump made that possible.

The job was straight forward enough and although I was expecting to find the original filter from 1989, I think the one I found had a 2014 date code.

The next job I'm giving myself to do to kill off the boredom is to take the headlights out, inspect them and their environs before replacing the bulbs (with some Osram ones that claim to give a better light output than standard) and rust-proofing everything. I've got two sets of headlights in my parts stash and I think I'm going to need to use at least one unit as I can see some deterioration of the nearside reflector.

[SimonR]

It was a good day today - while my daughter had her afternoon nap, my other half helped me flush the old fluid through the rear brakes and then bleed the fronts. Thanks to all the help from this forum (thanks Paul, especially) the brake work went without drama and we nearly got it finished in the two hour time slot we had.

Having this completed meant that I could finally get the car moving under its own power again:



I drove it out of the garage so I could run the engine to get the coolant circulated and then top it up.

My intentions to replace the headlight bulbs were scuppered because I couldn't remove the wiper arms which, in turn, meant that I couldn't get the headlight surrounds off. A puller arrived today so that job can be completed in the near future.

[ptjs1]

Well done Simon!

I should know this but don't the pre-facelift cars have the same setup as the later cars for bulb replacement? IE you don't remove the headlight, but you just undo the access panel in the wheelarch behind the headlight and then just remove the bulbs?

Just checked the parts website and this does seem to be the case, that you just undo the panel in the wheelarch.


Cheers

Paul

[SimonR]

Hi Paul,

Yes - you're right about that. I should have said that although the job was to replace the headlight bulbs, I actually also wanted to inspect the area behind the headlamp units for corrosion, and Waxoyl everything to prevent any further deterioration.

Here's the passenger side, after I'd cleaned it and painted on a liberal coating of rust protection:



I was quite pleased with what I found - the worst of the corrosion was on the driver's side, on the wing panel above the headlight - no holes but it wants to be sorted before it gets any worse.

Once I'd cleaned everything and painted on the Waxoyl, I changed the headlight bulbs and put it all beck together.

[greeban]

Hi,

This w/e I replaced the rubber grommets on the gear linkage with machined aluminium as gear selection was becoming vague, and so while the car is up on ramps I decided to pull out the fuel lines and paint them - they were rusty in a few places but have come up nicely. Had looked for ages to see if you can get replacements for the facelift but seems not - would have to be bespoke which i imagine is very costly

Fitting them back in was a complete mare! Got there in the end but mine must have been a Monday morning or Friday afternoon build as the factory pipes needed some muscle to get them to sit in the brackets at the rear as the bends are not perfect. Makes me think if you had to get them remade this could make the job even harder if using the same clips. Should have been prepared for this as was not easy getting them out!

[greeban]

Ironically this just arrived in my email from SNG Barratt - one small part and is the only part I have seen so far - not cheap!!

On this basis, renewing all 3 lengths must be North of £500!!

[SimonR]

Quite a watershed for the XJ-S today - having spent quite a lot of time and effort on it, I took it to my local trusted garage to have its rear brake calipers replaced prior to MoT.

The bad news was the they didn't have time to replace the calipers due to staff illness, but did MoT the car to see what else it may need and it sailed through the test with only an advisory for minor brake binding at the back end. That's a nice vindication of my decision to purchase the car in the first place and also shows that the work I've done on it was worthwhile.

They'll hopefully be able to do the rear brakes early next week and then I can take it off to the bodyshop to get the corrosion seen to. I'll update when there's more info to be had.

[davidr]

Great news on the MOT. At least you have the peace of mind that the car is sound

[ptjs1]

Well done on the MoT, Simon, great result!

I know you've heard my comments a number of times now about the Teves system! But even some experienced Jaguar specialists are not aware of the problems that are starting to be encountered by owners of XJSs with the system in recent years. (Some still don't understand the bleeding procedure properly!) As mentioned previously, they must not allow fluid to be pushed back in the system when retracting the rear pads etc. They must fit a tube to the bleed nipple and open the bleed nipples before moving the pads and pistons.. Even with your clean fluid, there is almost a certainty that you'll still have microscopic sediment in the filter baskets of the valves in the ABS valve block. If that sediment gets disturbed it can fractionally jam under the ABS valve seats. If that happens the car can dive violently to one side under certain braking conditions, and the harder you brake the more it dives. I've sadly seen a couple of examples of the inside of these corroded valve blocks and 2 crashed cars. It's why I get on my hobby horse about it! I should perhaps write an article for the magazine about the Teves ABS system?

Don't feel bad about even putting it in writing to them about the procedure you want them to follow, and making them sign it.

Good luck Simon

Cheers

Paul