MOT test on Friday although its not actually due till 5th Feb, if anything needs doing it gives me a month to get it done.
Before the test on Friday its having new front discs and pads.
I haven't been able to get out and fix the drooping left hand headlight but that's my next job. I bought a pattern replacement adjuster from eBay.
If it works then I will buy another one for the right hand headlight.
There are some useful video's for this job on the S type on youtube.

Then next month independent of the MOT its having new front shocks and springs fitted. The front end is too soft and bouncy.

 

Mines due in March
Like you I'll get it in a month before
Fingers crossed for you

 

Thank you.
Its always a bit of an unknown. I do get a bit uptight around MOT time.
But my mate who is a mobile mechanic is good and he doesn't rip me off.
He is a biker and got a GSXR1000 and a Honda Hornet 600 for tatting about on. I give him the bits and he does the work and he also has a mate who does the MOTs.

It is going to fail on the left hand headlight because the adjuster has broken, but I've got the bits to do that job myself.
But I'm glad I cleaned up the headlight lenses last year or it might have failed on that. The Meguiars was excellent.

 

Good plan to put the car in a month in advance to get a 13 month MoT or allow time to fix any issues if it goes wrong. I always do this.

Graham

 

Failed, not great. Could be worse.
11 items of fail.
2 advisories.

Needs one new rear shock, although only 1 needs replacing, I always do both. Rimmers gave the best price for a pair so far.

5 items relate to two failed stop lamp bulbs ??????????? and some effect an incorrect bub is having on other rear lights. The rear lights were fine when he drove off so I'll go and check them myself when its dark. At its worst it will be because I replaced one brake lamp bulb with a generic replacement aka not Jaguar compatible.

Brake pipe excessively corroded to nearside front.

Rear subframe mounting corrosion (rot) nearside and offside outer cill.
Welding required.

Rear suspension arm rubber bush deteriorated excess movement. Offside rear inner.
Rear suspension arm ball joint dust cover excessively deteriorated to prevent ingress of dirt. Nearside rear inner.
Rear suspension arm ball joint dust cover excessively deteriorated to prevent ingress of dirt. Offside rear inner.

Advisories:
Slight play in offside front anti-rollbar drop link. (Not a big job and a pair of drop links are £15)
Slightly worn bottom bush on offside front shock. (Was my intended next job see other thread)


Sooooooo......
I can sort out the bulb issues.

A pair of new rear shocks.

A new rear lower suspension arm offside.
A new dust gaiter to rear lower suspension arm nearside.

Some fancy welding at the rear cills areas.

 

We know the score

 

Original Jaguar lower rear offside suspension arm/wishbone = £240 incl VAT
Pair of Bilstien shocks for the rear £210 incl VAT and delivery.
Bulbs very little cost.
So labour is to be added and also the cost of welding.
Could be talking anything up to £1000 in total.
But I think I will get it done because the rest of the car is great and it still done only 80k miles from new.
But I will need to replace the front shocks soon anyway.

 

I forgot to say ths car passed all of the emissions tests without a problem.

I've been checking out more prices.

​​​​​Can get a pair of original Jaguar shocks for £146 plus VAT.
Rear right lower suspension arm for £120 all inclusive and delivered with two year guarantee.
Fuel line is £38 from Jaguar.
Looking better now.
​​​​

 

That part of the MoT always worries me the most because it's the only thing I can't check myself in advance.

Graham

 

Its a total unknown until they've tested it and I don't like unknowns when it comes to expenditure. I guess its the older,higher mileage cars that are more at risk of failing?

I didn't even put a bottle of goop in the tank before the test.

 

I am not going to get rid of the car, I'll get it repaired and carry on.
It was a real shock in the first place to find a car that both my partner and I like, want to drive and really enjoy driving it. I never thought I would find a car that suits both of us so well. We have very different tastes in cars. Part of that is the huge range of adjustment on the seats and the steering wheel which suit our different sizes very well. I am 6 foot 2" tall and 130 kg and she is 5 foot tall on a good day and weighs much less than I do.
I slink the drivers seat down to its lowest and furthest position away from the dash and then I have maybe 4 to 6" clear headroom over my head.
We both love the same things with the car, its ease of driving, its comfort and luxury quality ride, the sound it makes on start up and when you kick it hard. The fact it makes very little of any sound inside the car on a journey.
She say she loves the car because it compensates for her not so good driving when she's having an off day.

The car has grown on me a lot and although I keep looking at STR's I remember the low running cost of this 2.5 V6.
Average fuel consumption has gone up in the time I've had it to 30.5 or 30.7 mpg something like that. Most of our driving is round town.

 

To a fair extent you can. If the fuel trims are OK and it's not flagging codes you can be virtually certain it's OK and probably by a long way in the UK.

Oh, probably should check it runs CL (closed loop), but hey you'd know it doesn't by the terrible mpg before even checking OBD.

 

Of you don't have CATS fitted then you can use Sachs shocks. Here in Germany they were a third of the price of the Billsteins.

 

Yes no CATS on this model, its the plain SE.
Best UK prices for a pair rear shocks online atm are:

Bilstein £204 and Sachs £202.
Bilstein's for mine are priced anywhere up to £300 each and that is nuts for the same brand of shock whether B4 or B6. I can get B6 for £135 each.

Not sure which ones to go for....?

 

The MOT testers comments aren't very clear tbh.
What ball joint? The only ball joints are on the drop links?
The suspension arms have bushes, not ball joints?


"Suspension arm ball joint dust cover excessively deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt. Nearside rear inner. (2.4.G.2)"

 

Have a look under the car I suspect he means the stabilising bars


https://www.ebay.de/itm/263361959420...&ul_noapp=true

Sorry only able to find them on German ebay

 

If you go to this site you will see all of the parts available from sach s
https://webcat.zf.com/?SPR=4

You will have to use the diesel to find the correct shocks.

 

Ball joints are on the outer extremities of the suspension arms, they allow the wheel to turn when the steering wheel moves.

 

That is why I used Sachs 311 535 they are fully compatible and only cost 103 euros each. I was unable to get billsteins for less than 300 each even at trade price.

As they are super touring they match the billsteins sports I was unable to get

 

That's for the front wheels is it not because the OP was referring to the rear suspension which is why I thought it may be stabilising rods. Which also have ball joints.

I have to replace them virtually every year because the rubber splits.