I am in Burlington, MA. I have a laptop with VCM and IDS, it is the same setup that Jaguar dealers used back in the day. Once you get the car running, I will gladly pull the codes and/or clear them, if you make it to my neck of the woods. I will do it free of charge of course, to help a fellow forum member.

 

on the 98-99 cars, they require a coolant which conforms to ESD-M97B49-A (EDIT: this seems to be the spec for the later-MY cars). I believe the 00-03 cars use the dexcool-type fluid. I found that the prestone universal (yellowish/green in color, not the traditional green) has that spec listed as a conforming spec in its compatibility chart. You can also get the OEM fluid I believe. jaguar classic parts UK lists the coolant for UP TO vin F00034 as JLM204042 for the 1liter or JLM204043 for the 5 liter tank. I'm assuming this is the correct coolant for the earlier cars, but you'll need to check your VIN as it sounds like the specs changed mid-99 MY.

"what coolant to use" can open up a can of worms, so here is the TSB on it http://www.mediafire.com/file/xc7ca3...XL+coolant.pdf

 

Here is an other reference.

 

Great, thanks for the coolant info.

I appreciate the offer! I will do the basics and see if i need to swing up there.

Last night i tinkered with the car for a little while. I was able to bend the fuel pump access panel back down and use a couple screws in the cut line itself to secure it, and then duct tape the cut line as well. Next I spent some time with the subwoofer and soldering iron as one of the voice coil wires separated from its terminal. Next step is to get the interior back together, but i want to clean the pieces before reinstallation. Might get to that tonight if i can defrost the leather/interior cleaner.

The CD changer worked fine last week. Now it does not. The car came with one CD, Bob Marley! Wont eject the cassette or play whats in there. Not sure what happened since i didnt touch that side of the trunk. I guess ill be looking for a fuse.

New (to me) drivers door seal went on. The old one was missing about a foot section, and a lot of gorilla glue was present I still need to remove the door panel to get to the window switches. The switches currently do two things, lower the left rear and move the mirrors. That is all. I grabbed another switch from the junkyard, hoping it fixes these issues. The global open/close works fine with the key in the door. The lock/unlock button inside the car seems dead as well. At the same time, theres a loose metal piece of something noise in the door i will be looking into at the same time.

Im thinking Saturday morning i will be registering it

 

Good to see fast progress.

After you installed the new switch, check the connectors of the module as well.
Don't know if your windows were tinted, but during the process, water drips down and creates havoc.

If done, you will need to perform a hard reset, otherwise the door switches operate all the wrong things.

 

Ok, very good. Thank you for the info. Windows are not tinted, though the PO told me the buttons had failed on her. She had them replaced and they failed again in the same fashion. That was one of the points she made when making the sale ad. Ive performed a couple hard resets while getting the shifter set up, and the window buttons have not changed performance. I will check the connections when i install the new buttons.

She was also a smoker, so id bet the window was down when it rained and whatnot....

 

+1 what Eric said about the door module. Before you do anything else with the windows, simply disconnect your drivers door module electrical connector and then reconnect it. If it still doesn't work, unplug then replug again followed by a hard reset.

If the trunk release inside the car isn't working, either your car is in valet mode or your trunk (or boot) wiring harness is broken by the RH hinge.

 

Got a lot done last night. Got the interior back together. When disassembling the rear parcel shelf, i pulled off the third brake light cover, breaking the retention clips right off of the brake light fixture itself. When reassembly happened, i figured i would find another way to secure it. Well i picked up the cover and it basically fell apart in my hands. I am hoping the third brake light can be removed easily and is not adhered to the window. At the very least, i need a new cover, and to fashion a way to secure it to my broken fixture.

My cup holder was broken, which from my junkyard trip, tells me this is a very common occurance. I saw a revised, more robust, design at the junkyard, but the interior colors were more tan than off white leather, so i didnt get one.

As far as the window controls went, the buttons themselves felt sticky, so i didnt have much hope for them. I pulled the door panel to replace the switch, plugged in the new one, and reconnected the battery. Everything came back to life. Mirrors work too. Before i head to the owners manual, can someone explain how to set a memory?

The metallic noise i had in the door turned out to be the window track at the back edge of the door. Somehow the tab broke clean off of the track section, so with the window up, the track was swinging in the breeze. I removed it, welded it back together, and reinstalled it. Window goes up and down fine with no binding.

Off course with all this progress i also was due for a failure. I removed the intake boot so i could inspect the cleanliness of the throttle body. Leaned over the engine bay from the drivers side, and accidentally put weight on the coolant bleed line that runs from the expansion tank to the top of the radiator, breaking the end clean off. Oops. Doesnt look very easy to rig up a repair, but i will figure something out until i can make another junkyard trip. I will be registering the car tomorrow morning, so i will be itching a drive in this thing!

 

where are the pics...? I've seen sapphire blue, but what color is mistral blue? PICS !!!

 

It's not uncommon to see those coolant lines broken where folk have leaned on them. But as you say it's easy to fix them.

Go back and get the cup holder as you can swap the parts and keep your colour as it's easy to do.

If she was a smoker and you are not, then I imagine you will want to rid the smell from the cabin. There are products available on the internet which mist the inside of the car, or I'm sure there is a company near to you which will be able to use a machine to fog the interior and rid the smells.

 

You are by far the first, and surely not the last one to do this.
I think I spend a quarter of my time thinking where to put my hands on something solid, it is kind of 2nd nature by now.

 

So no pictures yet since im not proud of what it looks like just yet, but i did get some work into it this past Saturday. That morning i message a guy on craigslist who states he has three x308's hes parting out. The ad is a month old and at this point hes got one, but its complete. I meet him and find that the bleed line i need is broken, but at the radiator end. Figure i can splice mine and this one together and make a good one. I grab the third brake light assembly and was on my way. Get home, installed the third brake light, breaking a tab on it in the process (man that light is brittle!). I 'fix' the cupholder again so it stops popping open if i look at it funny (really annoying). Graft the two bleed lines together with a short piece of fuel line and two clamps and quickly wipe out the throttle body and slap the intake back on. I start her up, get it up to temp and i take it for a spin. Eventually start to smell coolant so i turn around and head home. On my way i listen more closely to the suspension. The rear is definitely the worst of the noise, the front is OK, but a little clunky. Still very impressed with how smooth the engine and trans feel, so very happy about that. I also notice a slight pull in the steering, so figure its just due for an alignment. Once home i pop the hood to see the engine steaming. Coolant was leaking from the plastic 'tower' at the front of the engine, WAS being the key word. Hasn't done it since then, and ive let it warm up three times. Ill be keeping an eye on that. An oil change completed my engine work for the weekend. Suspension-wise, i dug into the front to find both lower ball joints to be bad. Looking around, all i can seem to find is URO brand, which i would like to avoid. The top joint seems fine, and the Jag garage said they had replaced some kind of control arm in 2013. Any suggestions on ball joint? I also felt a knocking inner tie rod on the passenger side, so i will likely do it as well. I will see how the outer feels when i disassemble it before ordering parts. Out back, i cleaned both ABS sensors, breaking one bolt into the hub. Current plan is to flip the sensor and use the 'spare' bolt hole. Hopefully the system doesn't care if its spinning 'backwards', and its just looking for reference rotation. We shall see. The drivers lower shock mount is beyond toast. The passenger side isnt far behind. I am contemplating doing shocks, but they feel OK driving the car, and the lower bushing is available.

I have one minor annoyance i need to figure out. I dont have the manual to tell me how to use the memory function. Can someone explain to me how it is programmed? I have successfully adjusted the seat, steering, and mirrors, all for the memory 'ease of exit' business to suck the steering wheel in and move the seat back. When i restart the car, the seat stays put and the steering adjustment no longer works. Same goes for the mirrors, sometimes the adjustment works, sometimes it doesnt. I am trying a hard reset to see if things come back, but does anyone know what may cause this? It would be nice to use the 'ease of exit' business, but i will turn it off if it continues to be unreliable.

 

Press memory and then a number and you should hear a ping which confirms its programmed. Ensure the switch on the column is set to Auto.

I've added links to the Jaguar customer introduction videos which are the manuals in visual form.

 

thank you for the info. Ordered a pile of parts.
-4x Sensen shocks. They seem to get decent reviews and with a lifetime warranty, ill take the gamble on the cheapies.
-KYB rear spring isolator. With this and the shock replacement, the rear end should be taken care of. I will be adopting the lower subframe drop method in removing the spring/shock assy as seen here: http://jaguar.blackonyx.net/tech/rearshocks.pdf
-New front lower ball joints. Ill be attempting this with the arm on the car.
-The upper front shock bushings are nice and tight. I will order some if i need them when i get the car apart. Not terrible to do after the fact if clunks persist.
-Still need to order tie rods. Might as well do both inners and outers if ill be needing an alignment anyway. Its seeming tough to find inners that dont seem sketchy. suggestions?
-Aluminum thermostat housing. For 45 bucks including a new thermostat, piece of mind here is what im after.

 

Checking in! Got most of the parts I ordered. Still waiting on front shock mount bushings from welsh. I finished up the rear shock replacement this morning. Took about 4 hours. I dropped the lower k member to allow the arms the droop enough to yank the spring and shock combo out. As I said, the lower bushing on the drivers side was beyond bad. The passenger side wasn't too far behind. I replaced the spring isolator as well on both sides. The one that came out was worn but still looked usable. Definitely gained some height replacing that. Once together, I turned my attention to the abs sensor. As I noted, I cleaned both rear sensors. They were filthy. I tried welding a nut to what was left of the bolt in the hub, but it did not work. I tapped the hole and flipped the sensor. Upon the test drive, no more rear end noise!! And cleaning the sensors fixed the trac/stability/abs issue!!! Yeehaww!!!

Fixing the back of the car revealed how bad the front is, so apart it came. I'm in the middle of trying to release the lower ball joint from the upright on one side. I think removing the dust shield is going to be helpful. We shall see! Let's get back to it!

 

Good to hear of your progress, it keeps my spirits up! Still want to see pics of your car. Wouldn't mind seeing the "before" pics first. Good luck on your journey.

 

i realized yesterday that i didnt/havent really taken that many I started taking some of the front suspension work though! and once shes cleaned up, i will be taking a lot more!

A small update. I was able to get the suspension apart without too much issue. The dust sheild wasnt able to be removed due to a tab being captured by the lower ball joint anyhow. This tool is key to get the lower taper to release:

Bad news is the Eurospare ball joints dont fit, so im shopping again. The press diameter was machined 0.008"-0.010" to small. Welsh has some greasable ones on their website. Very cheap though, so thats a little offputting. OEM lemforder will run me 100 or so for both sides, a little less than twice what the Eurospare ones cost me.

while the car sits waiting for parts, i will swap in the aluminum thermostat housing/tower. Easy draining coolant when its already in the air!!

EDIT: looking for a favor if someone has the parts on hand. The shop that sold/serviced the car stated that they once did "control arms". I do not know which they did. Assuming they did the lower with the ball joint, there is a chance they replaced the whole thing. This leaves it open for the control arm and ball joint press area to be open to whomever designed it, not allowing OEM replacement parts to fit correctly. I am hoping someone either has some lower ball joints sitting around there can measure, or control arms they can measure. Just trying to decide if the arms are the culprit or if the ball joints are at fault here. I have a couple emails out to various vendors to see if they can measure it for me. Welsh offers very inexpensive joints that im curious about.

 

I just bought a URO upper and lower ball joint since the lower on mine has play, waiting on LCA bushings to come from SNG Barratt (might as well while in there). Also held up by other things in life before getting a press, and building a spring compressor, and getting small parts like althread guides for the pan, and BJ seperators, and and and... You know the deal...

Anyway, I'll try and measure best as possible with the cheap digital calipers I've got. The pressed section of the ball joint measures to 1.557 in with a variation of +/- .001 in out of round.

 

Thank you very much for that. I appreciate the response. I measured my old ball joints to be 1.561-1.562" and the new ones to be 1.553-1.554". The new ones slide right into the arm with new press at all. If the URO brand is only a couple thou larger than the new ones i got, then i cant bank on my control arms accepting a different brand of joint. I am awaiting response from two vendors to see if they will supply me with diameter measurements. I will report back. Might be shopping for a new set of control arms unfortunately.

EDIT: did a lot of picture investigation and came to a couple conclusions. Here is how the numbers stack up:
1.562", original ball joint press diameter
1.553", aftermarket Eurospare ball joint press diameter
1.557", URO brand press diameter, thanks to Nilinium for this info
No vendor i messaged got back to me.

As i said, the Eurospare ball joints slide into the press diameter of the arms with no force. There is actually room for play here. I checked both sides and both ball joints. Google and eBay image searching revealed a small indent/circle on the back of the FACTORY lower ball joint, an indent that did not exist on either of the ball joints i removed. It also revealed a difference in how the casting looks. This was evidence enough that the arms are aftermarket. I found and ordered complete factory/used lower control/A-arms (front and rear arm, spring plate, bushings, ball joint) on ebay for 35 each with free shipping. Look to be in fantastic shape. We shall see how they are when they arrive.

 

Update:
I have some pictures but its all of the front end work im doing. Nothing you guys havent seen before. When i get her driving and cleaned up ill get some up!

So as i said on the last update, i bought factory Jag complete control arms on ebay. I did confirm having aftermarket arms. Once they arrived, i decided that while the ball joints felt OK, i did not want to be back in there again soon doing them, assuming they had all of the 81k miles the ad stated the car had. I still had the Eurospare joints on hand, so in they went. Pressed out the joints the same way i did the others and proceeded to get the new ones in. Once both were ready, i unbolted the steering rack so i would be able to get the rear control arm bolt out. I removed the nuts for the control arm bolts and made sure they were free to rotate/slide out. So at this point i needed to get the spring retained so i could remove all the bolts from the spring plate. Here is what i bought/needed:
-18" of 3/4" threaded rod. Got it from Lowes in a 3ft bar and cut it in half. 18" is probably sufficient if you actually plan to unload the spring, which i did not do.
-1x 3/4" nut
-3x 3/4" washer
-1x 5/16" x 1-1/4" bolt, Need this for the cross "pin" at one end of the threaded rod.

After cutting the 18" bar in half, i made a flat about a half inch down from the end. This here is where i drilled my 5/16" hole. I cut the bolt head off and slid the "pin" into the threaded rod. I tacked it in with my MIG to make sure it stayed put. At this point i tried fitting it to the car, and had to shorten both sides of the "pin" down to get it to fit into the slot in the subframe. I havent measured it, but it likely ended up being just a bit over an inch long. Slide it in, turn it 90°, and she locks into place nicely. Slide washers on and spin nut up. Tighten nut until the load is removed from the control arms. Remove all the nuts, slide the control arm pivot bolts out, and fish the control arm assembly out. Once it was removed, i was able to slide the new control arm assy in and re-secure the spring plate to it without having to unload the spring at all. Now its just reassembly time! I was able to get the passenger side installed. I am going to line the arms back up to the original marks for now until i can get an alignment. Now that i have the method and the tools i need, it shouldn't take too long to get her back together.

Now onto the inner tie rods. As i mentioned previously, the right inner tie rod has a little bit of play in it. It would likely be fine for a good long while, but i cant bring myself to pay for an alignment knowing that. The issue is finding quality aftermarket replacement pieces. There is a couple available on ebay, all of which dont really give me the warm fuzzies. No brand name usually, some just say "quality". Yea, no thank you. There is some from Taiwan available. I see another labeled "black dog", which are 55 each for who knows what. Jagbits offers one with no brand listed for 150 each!! ahh!! None of this made me comfortable, and i am not about to just do the outer joint and call it good. Here is where Moog comes in. After some research, i see that Moog has a very handy sortable list of the inner tie rods they offer. One ebay auction for an x308 inner tie rod listed the thread size at each end and the length. Moog make a pile of tie rods with the correct thread size at both ends, of varying lengths. Not sure how exactly either the ebay seller or Moog is measuring their tie rods, so i will need to measure the one on the car and then go shopping at my local auto parts store. I will report back with what i find, but one for a 95-01 Explorer/Ranger is looking very promising.