Well, I can officially bring to an end the worst week I have had with any car thus far. Some of you have already seen part of the misery from the lug nut thread, but little did I know that there would be more today...

Quick re-cap:

Saturday night blow out and can't remove the lug nuts. This leads to tow truck (to and from their secure impound lot since I was over 70 miles from home) and Discount Tire Monday morning. The Lug Nut search started that morning and ended after a visit to three seperate suburbs (got 10 at one of the three Mitsu dealers...). After tires replaced, bent inner control arm is found (drove home with it...Yikes!). Replaced steering box completely.

Got car back Thursday. Squeaky steering wheel is gone and car was perfect.

Now to today: Hit another piece of road debris kicked up by the Semi that was traveling NEXT to me. It hit under the front bumper and broke the valence, which immediately folded up under the car at 65 MPH. Pull off, re-attach it the best I could and drove it home and parked it.

The lug nuts I had ordered previously arrived Thursday (all 20, so I'll have extras...), so I will be changing out those this weekend, as well as pulling the valence and the two tire wells that hit the tire when the valence let go and got holes burned in them by the tires before I could pull over.

I've just been pricing the valence and tire wells and I am at my wits end. This week will easily exceed $5K for crap on the road...

I guess I should start a pool of what will damage the Jag next:
Windshield (Windscreen for the Brits)?
Mirror ripped off
Leaper stolen
Curb the wheels
Check Engine light
Transmission failure
Headlight bracket failure

Sorry, I just needed to vent. It just hasn't been my week...

BB

 

Wow... when it rains it pours.

Sorry to hear about your second incident. Any damage to anything besides the plastics? When you say valence are you talking about the belly pan? Or the lower piece of the front bumper?

Look at the bright side. Things could have turned out much worse, in both situations.

The belly pan parts and the wheel liners I'm sure can be sourced cheaply used. It's one of those it's either broken or fine parts.

With the lug nuts. I'd start soaking them with pb blaster or wd-40. You can't get MUCH in there with the caps in place. If you feel like you're getting into it too hard, stop. I was shocked when mine snapped. I didn't do anything that I thought could possibly snap a nut but those lugs have a definite weak spot. Look at my pic of the top half of the nut and you'll understand. I've broken a couple wheel studs off before on other cars but I was pretty much jumping up and down on a breaker bar. I never thought the nut would fail before the stud.

George

 

Bytor - you have my sympathy! Could happen to any of us But at least you didn't crash and get injured.
You might get some parts from a wrecker, if there are any near enough, though the liners are well fixed.

 

Bytor...Man you have all our sympathy... Hey, with under car plastic, I too agree, do a search for used. I'm going to poke around myself while the kiddies are all still in bed. Here is a site that I've had luck with. www.car-part.com Here is a strategy I use. Search for a part, any part, for your car and see who has it close by then call them and ask if they have the car and possibly the parts you are looking for. It has worked quite well for me in the past.

Well, I also checked Jaguar Cleveland's parts site for new.. Front Valence, unique for the R, $244.55. Front wheel liners, same for all models, $111.34 ea. Not that it would be practical for you to ship them from Cleveland, but you should be able to get them for that price from your local dealer..weird thing is they don't publish part numbers...go figure...

 

My sincere condolences as well. Sounds like you are handling it far better than I would be able to manage. I would be snapping at everybody and everything around me....

 

Holy crap. I took the belly pan off today to install HID fog lights. and the amount of fasteners on that thing was truly amazing. for something to just rip off the pan like that and fold it under the car seems nuts. Do you have any idea what you hit? Did the front piece of the pan come off or the whole thing? I took those little corner pieces off and left them off. (both of my "mud flaps" had broken off). I don't think it will effect anything but we'll see.

George

 

George, I think that a lot of these cars are riding around with their undertrays being held on by two remaining bolts, four rubber bands, and an alligator clip. By the time some of these cars get to their second and third owners, the undertray has been pulled off by enough jack-leg pseudo-mechanics that most of the original undertray hardware is long gone. I felt pretty lucky that our car came to us with all of its undertray fasteners intact. But the two Posi-drive Phillips screws were pretty much completely head-stripped so I replaced them with better screws....

 

My X-type had a couple of zip ties in places where it should have screws. I don't understand Jaguar's fondness for torx screws, especially with how easily they strip. That phillips screw you mention is not a standard phillips # 2 head, it needs a smaller bit. Most fasteners strip for two reasons in my experience, #1 corrosion. and #2 the wrong tool, either bit or screwdriver, or power / air tools, when there was no need. I was at my buddy's shop today, and saw a 1/4" drive air ratchet hooked up to an air line. Is there really a need for something like that.

My S-type had all of the hardware intact. Among its many flaws, that thankfully isn't one of them.

George

 

Same here; belly pan was lashed on with bailing wire and chewing gum. I too replaced and upgraded all the fasteners.

With it off and away from under the car I did a little modification to make draining the oil and accessing the filter more user friendly.

Bytor, expensive week, ouch. My STR was tagged Thursday with a stone out of left field that cracked the windscreen. Not the $5k you spent, but I feel your pain.

 

All,

Thanks for the support. I feel a little better this morning. I talked to the body shop that I use (since they had replaced the SAME parts for my car when I purchased it (I, too, had zip ties and some kind of sticky substance holding the pieces together)) and they believe that the parts should be easily had. Looks like next Monday to take the car in.

This weekend, I swapped out the rear lugs with the Dorman's. No problems with either wheel.

While it is in the body shop, they will also replace the driver's side body seal (hole in it) and fix a couple of small dents (hood and passenger side rear door). Should be 100% when I get it back...

BB

 

Wait a sec. I'm not sure if I'm understanding this correctly, but you already had the belly pan replaced by a body shop, that attached it with zip ties and bubble gum (my choice for sticky substance). And you're taking it BACK to them to redo it?

Please correct me if I have somehow misunderstood...

George

 

George,

When I bought the car, it was in need of attention (zip ties and some kind of glue holding the lower belly pan, wheel well liners, and black plastic grille). I took it to the body shop to get the bumper cover reconditioned and all of the necessary parts replaced. This was last year in November. The car was in great shape after I got it back from them.

This just ticks me off that all of the NEW parts I put on it in November happened to get trashed (except the passenger side wheel well liner).

At least they give me a break on labor costs and will detail it very nicely...

BB

 

OHH ok. I thought they put the new parts on with zip ties and glue and you just discovered it now after your mishap. That makes a lot more sense.

George

 

Dammmmmnnnnn......Im leaving this bad luck thread alone!