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replaced drivers side a/c vent,i bought one on ebay for 8 dollars and just needed to change the face plate,i used my harbor freight pick tool and eventually removed the assembly by pulling from the inside top left section of the unit.then i used my smallest flat screwdriver to gently remove the metal washers.
careful not to break plastic face tab
onece the washer began to move up,i switched to a larger screwdriver
trim tool to apply even downward pressure to reinstall
fin
Last edited by michaelmedina2005; Apr 5, 2017 at 06:47 PM.
Reason: more info
replaced drivers side a/c vent,i bought one on ebay for 8 dollars and just needed to change the face plate,i used my harbor freight pick tool and eventually removed the assembly by pulling from the inside top left section of the unit.then i used my smallest flat screwdriver to gently remove the metal washers.
careful not to break plastic face tab
onece the washer began to move up,i switched to a larger screwdriver
trim tool to apply even downward pressure to reinstall
fin
Amazing job well done. I did a similar replacement with the center dash vents and am embarrassed to say, I couldn't get any of those "washers" off without breaking the plastic studs. Luckily a couple of drops of contact adhesive saved the day and I'll be the only person who ever knows. I admire your patience.
I have the bushings replaced a while ago and wish to share this here with folks with manual gearbox, whether original or converted.
My XJR6, Rose, drives like a dream after recovery. One day, suddenly, the stick shift became sluggish and she refused to shift into the 2nd or 4th gear. The mechanic found that the shift bushings at the bottom of the shift stick linkages had broken or worn out. I was asked to order Items #7, #8, #9 and #10 in the following Parts Diagram, only to find that Item #8 is no longer available.
I got all the bushings except Item #8 from Jaguar Classic Parts. Fortunately, with Item #7 and Item #9 on hand, the mechanic was able to work out the 3D measurements of Item #8 and find a machine shop to fabricate a set. As our X300s have clocked 20 or more years, it is advisable to order the bushings while stock lasts, and have those on the shifting mechanism replaced before they break and strand you on the street.
I was thinking that a little drop of lube on the plastic stud may make the washer removal and installation easier.
Possibly, but not very likely. The "push speed nut" isn't a friction grip, it holds by cutting into the stud as force is applied against its blades. So the harder you pry, the more it bites in and often cuts or breaks the plastic stud off, and they aren't "threaded" like some speed nuts so turning them just spins in place and cuts the stud further.
The only way I've gotten them off without damaging the stud is to gently pry the petals/brades back a bit to open it up, then it can be levered off gently. Once you loosen one petal/blade, it will come off.
Sometimes you'll get lucky though and just prying it off slowly will work, but it can be risky with old plastic.
Saw this thread https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...shings-102601/
a while ago. If your radiator is not fastened well and makes some noise when you brake the car, replacing a pair of radiator mounting bush will fix it. I replaced mine the other day.
The new bush will also improve the appearance of the engine bay.
The mounting bush is Item 11 of the diagram (MNA4241AB), about GBP6 a piece.
Replacing Valve Cover, Coil Cover and Valve Gasket
After reviving Rose from coma, she starts undergoing a long path of gradual restoration. The oil leak from the valve cover, the badly corroded magnesium valve cover,
and the oil filled spark plug wells were tackled in the same chapter, alongside with replacement of the spark plugs and fuel injectors.
I've just finished my valve cover, all my corrosion was confined to the sparkplug wells, there was a couple of quite deep pits which i filled with " j b weld " then sanded and painted with a zinc primer, and a clear top coat, used all new gaskets with a smear of gasket sealer. New coils and plugs too and a service. Its now running very smoothly. Coils and gaskets and filters all from good old "British Parts" Past its MOT with no advisories too, very pleased.
started repairing the dash center a/c vents,i used the plastic guide from a drivers side vent that i purchased for 8 dollars,i cut off two of the six plastic grips and it was perfect for the 4 vent panels on the center.i also have to do the other side,that other ebay side vent should arrive tomorrow.way better than paying for a center replacement,around 200 dollars,removing the glove box was not that difficult,a total of 6 screws.pictures to follow when i finish
Waiting anxiously Michael....maybe consider starting a new thread for your vent-works? (so it won't get lost in here) I swapped the center vent once for an eBay win of some $100-$120...with a VDP, they don't come along every day with the gold-inlays. Now the replacement louvers have gone squishy despite me never touching or adjusting them. IIRC, there is a little flat plastic strip with cutouts for a feature on the back of each vane that ties them all together, then it breaks. I've contemplated getting my old one out of the box to see if I can fabricate a fix.....looking forward to your pics. I didn't remove the glove box (Mostly because my 95 doesn't have one!) but that center vent is a bitter ex-wife to remove....have to fake a special tool and all.
Waiting anxiously Michael....maybe consider starting a new thread for your vent-works? (so it won't get lost in here) I swapped the centre vent once for an eBay win of some $100-$120...with a VDP, they don't come along every day with the gold inlays. Now the replacement louvres have gone squishy despite me never touching or adjusting them. IIRC, there is a little flat plastic strip with cutouts for a feature on the back of each vane that ties them all together, then it breaks. I've contemplated getting my old one out of the box to see if I can fabricate a fix.....looking forward to your pics. I didn't remove the glove box (Mostly because my 95 doesn't have one!) but that centre vent is a bitter ex-wife to remove....have to fake a special tool and all.
I changed over my centre and rear vents as one of my first jobs when I purchased my 95 X300 3 years ago. From memory, I was lucky to find a guy on eBay who was wreaking one in England and got them for a good price.
There are clips on the upper side of the vent housing, between the vents and dash. kinda like you would find on a stereo head unit. you have to slide something in and push them down in order to slide out the vents freely, something that was painfully obvious AFTER I had managed to pull mine out. At the time I recall reading a description of somebody repairing their vents using a tube from an empty pen and some fishing wire. Can't remember where I saw it but apparently worked a treat.
1) The horizontal vanes vertical "synchronization" breaks, leaving them lazily pointing all different directions. The internal bar that binds them together vertically somehow fails, but there is no easy way to get to it as the vent unit is welded shut around the mechanism. I looked at trying to repair this, and I'm certain it can be done, but I found an unbroken one before I embarked on that surgery. If anyone does cut one of these vents apart, it would be interesting to see how/if this can be repaired in a way that is tougher than new.
2) The metal clips located on the top and bottom of the vent that hold the entire assembly in the dash are mounted in the thin plastic shell of the vent assembly, and the stress on these clips breaks the plastic over time. This causes the entire vent assembly to often settle and sit crooked in the dash, and also rattle like mad! There really isn't any repair I could imagine for this to get it back to OEM once the plastic breaks up. So it becomes an issue of preventive measures and ingenious modifications. So with the aforementioned vent assembly above that didn't have lazy vanes, all of the top clips were mostly good with one developing cracks. All the clips on the bottom were broken. What I did was epoxy a very thin bar of aluminum across the entire length of the top over the area where the clips mount to reinforce them. Hopefully this will keep them from breaking free. On the bottom I built up the area where the clips had been with some stiff foam and a 90 degree angle strip of aluminum. So I just then hooked the bottom of the vent in first over the angle strip, then compressing the foam, rotated/pushed and clipped in the top. This has been good now for about 3 years and 40k miles. I'm hoping it will last indefinitely.
Occasionally you can find a good used vent on eBay or at a wrecking yard. I found a 100% good one at a yard about a year after the work above, and sold it to someone who needed one. If you can find a good unit, I'd recommend reinforcing the clip mounting area on the top and bottom as I described above. It won't solve the lazy vane failure, but it might forestall the clip failure issue. The lazy vane issue can only be warded off by very careful and rare adjustment of the vents I think, and even then it may be inevitable unless someone comes up with a way to reinforce them.
And BTW, the factory way to remove all the vents (side and center) is to reach in with a special hook tool and YANK them out... honestly. Although it may seem to make sense to use a tool to depress the clips, that's not how the factory did it, and frankly it would be very tough to get any tool down and back past the center vent wood fascia:
Well, juuuust about got the intake/intercooler off after several hours of above and under car fiddling. The final frustration has been Jaguar's decision to run a number of sensor wires down between the intake runners.... why oh why!? I finally got them all EXCEPT the front knock sensor. It got dark before we could get that one off, so we'll tackle it in the morning.
That still leaves me two days to get it all off, clean up the intake and throttle body and back together. That should be plenty of time if nothing goes wrong, but never get too confident!
At least I'll know how it all goes back together now, so it should be a bit less intimidating... but sheesh, what a pain.
Changed the engine oil and filter. Original jaguar filter and shell 10w40 oil this time. Used 5w30 last time and I noticed now that the engine noise is reduced with the 10w40 oil. Runs like a kitten.
