When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So I thread jacked a couple other peoples topic and figured I should just start my own. Last Tuesday I purchased a 98 XJR, Black/Black. Car has sat a lot and is mechanically sound with 2 exceptions: Brakes need to be flushed and power bled, and the fog lights are not working. I looked the motor up and down and did not see any leaks or hear any funny noises. The previous owner stated replacing all the pulleys with metal ones. Where do I go from here? I've owned Mercedes and Audi before but never a Jaguar.
Welcome tahoemedic, quite simply you can do some thread searching in the search drop down above in the task bar. Its a word response type, so you can put in ...x308 brakes fog lights...or XJR... and threads will appear for your review. If I were you, to get some ideas on what else to search for, glance over the thread "What did you do to your x308 today?" ....there are pages of responses.
Here's a link for repairs also....JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource
Also, if you do a Bing or Google search for a P code, be sure to put Jaguar (or whatever car maker) in front of it. Many codes are maker specific, although overall generic, but the maker will tell you more of a fix for its product than the generic listing.
Hope this helps your future here and congrats on getting a Jag.
Got the car home and in the garage with light on it. Paint is not great and will need to be repainted in the near future. Tonight I did what I could with my polishing chemicals, elbow grease, and commercial buffer. It's acceptable and the car really looks totally different. Tomorrow night I'll detail the interior and try to find out why I don't have fog lights. I noticed the buttons on the steering wheel don't light up. Is that normal? Also seems like there is a bulb out in the clock as it's dim. Some point the interior door latch for the passenger door became disconnected so I need to tackle the door panel to investigate. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Welcome to the forum, I read your previous post of the purchasing process, good to see you got her home.
It all depends on the previous owner, but even with the rather well maintained car I bought some 3 years ago, it took me a year to work through all small issues.
The fog lights front or rear?
Front could be as simple as a fuse, rears sometimes corrode, it is very simple to take them out and check.
If not, then it might be a bit more serious, but check the simple things first.
The steering buttons have no back lights, but all other switches do, including the ones in all doors, and the small switches behind the steering wheel.
A lot of those small back lights are rather expensive from Jaguar, but I just bought matching bulbs, and installed them in the little holders.
On the door latch, there is an older, very good thread how to tackle it, probably a broken cable.
Be careful removing the wood from the panel, if you do it wrong, it will crack.
PS. Time for some detailing of the garage as well .
Before starting to randomly poke at things trying to get issues fixed, do you have the electrical guide and JTIS or the Shop Service Manual downloaded?
The shop manual PDF I believe is just a pdf version of all the JTIS modules compiled into one. JTIS can be awkward to use at first, but I've begun to prefer it instead of the pdf once you get used to it. The electrical guide is separate, and definitely better than trying to get the electrical docs working in JTIS.
Other things not always obvious, change out supercharger oil. Fairly cheap, most people forget to do it, and it provides a lot of peace of mind and a slightly quieter supercharger. Check the part load breather (there's a TSB on it in the large files section) and clean it out, and look for excess oil in the air intake or air filter.
There are lots of little backlights everywhere, except the steering wheel. Parts that are backlit, aside from the obvious center console and gauges, includes the J-gate, sport/cruise buttons, foglight buttons, trip buttons, all door window controls, central ashtray/lighter socket, rear lighter socket (if you have one), and the clock (which should be the same brightness as everything else, could be a bad bulb, or maybe it takes two, I don't remember). The clock and center console and many interior parts are actually very easy to get to, I was pleasantly surprised when I first started doing interior work on my car. Plastic pry levers are a must. Tons of things to attack but it's very satisfying to drive at night with everything backlit in that nice warm jag blue.
I can tell this was an executive/corporate car. small dents from parking lots and it obviously sat outside during the day. After that, not much care had been taken with it's appearance. Mechanically everything was done correct and on time as far as maintenance and repairs. I spent the better part of 3 hours tonight just working on getting the interior up to par. I cleaned and conditioned the leather which had become dry and hard. By the time the conditioner soaks in overnight, seats should be soft and pliable once again. It's amazing how much different the car looks with 7 short hours of detail work!
hmm, NEED depends on your skill and interest level.
Obviously (?) get any easy stuff like workshop manual and if interested tech guides etc - most are on the site I reckon.
At least get an OBD tool with live data (I think an elm327 works on these cars) and check:
1. no codes (other than a pending P1111 which is a good status not a fault)
2. all OBD monitors have set (thus the P1111)
3. fuel trims especially LTFTs are close to zero (say within 5)
4. sensors for plausibility (ECT, IAT, ...)
They pull off, but do them gently so as not to crack the lacquer. The dash ones are thicker than the door ones. I use a rigid wide flat blade (5 in 1) with painters tape on it and carefully work them out. There is a plastic tool for removing them, ericjansen has posted them before. I think you can actually get them from Harbor Freight?
When you get a chance please change the fuel filter. this action will help out with fuel consumption. Also check out your local auto store and purchase a can of seafoam and our into tank. run this process through two tanks...
read the service manual on the interior jobs. Gauge cluster panel and the center clock/vent panel were very easy, just get the pry tool under there and, well.. pry. Careful with the edges since they can crack if force is applied right on the edge, so try to get the tool under the edge and pushing against the metal backing plate. Sometimes clips will stay in the car while the panel comes off, just pull those out and press them back onto panels.
Door panels are more tricky - there's two clips towards the back, so furthest away from the doorhandle. After having removed the door handle plastic insert, pry under and get those two clips out, just enough to get them out of the main panel. Once those are out, slide the wood trim away from the door handle and it will come out after about an inch or two of sliding. My pass trim was very difficult to remove, someone had put a metal shim under one of the clips, making it too large to remove once pressed in. Took that shim out for the future..
I've had the HF pry levers for a few years now, cheap and absolutely needed, avoid the whole "wrapping a screwdriver in a rag" thing, esp with that nice wood trim. http://www.harborfreight.com/nylon-p...-pc-69668.html
ok has anyone done the fog lights in the front? Mine don't work and I'm pretty sure it's the bulbs that are either missing or burnt out. My factory service manual should arrive this week.
I don't remember what the exact procedure for the fog bulbs is, I think they're the twist-style HB4 bulbs. A quick google seems to agree. Take out the splash shield, then unplug the bulb and it should twist out. Or take the entire for assy out, it's only three screws.
So since I couldn't figure out where my wiring issue is with the fog lights, I decided to try and attack the dash lights. I pulled the center trim section off to find the plastic for the vent/clock panel had been glued to the back side of the trim. Of course it broke. Thankfully I found a close to new replacement on ebay for $32!! I haven't been able to take the passenger panel off because I think it too is glued. I will also need to replace the rear sub as it sounds like it's blown. For now the parts I've ordered that are enroute are: Antenna mast - $17 on Amazon, 2 new dash light bulbs, and the replacement center panel clock/vent piece. I'm debating on buying the replacement wood trim for the gauge cluster...I found the matching color for $25!
I haven't done the pass side wood trim before, it covers the pass airbag so I think there may be more to it than just popping it off. The hardest hit with these cars is repairing the PO's neglect...
12-17-2016, 01:08 PM
New to Me XJR, What do I NEED to Know?
.
