Must of been one hell of a distraction you've posted in the "What did you do to your X308 Today?" thread,never mind,hope you had a good B-H and got the job done o.k.
Take Care.
Andy

 

We had friends visiting over the Bank Holiday Weekend and we went out for the day, I used my XJ to transport us. On the way home we needed a quick stop at a shop, so I pulled into a supermarket and parked in the quieter part of the car park. I waited with the car whilst they went in, and I was treated to a comedy show.

A store "parking warden" came over and told me he was going to ticket me if I didn't park properly, despite me being parked properly. I told him he can ticket me, but I'll never pay it as it's not enforceable as he's not an official and it will cost the store more to pursue me via the courts for a case I'll win. He went on for a while and threatened to have my car towed away. I politely invited him to try it and see what happens. In the end my girlfriend and our friends returned. One of these friends is a lawyer and asked what grounds he was trying to ticket me. Apparently it was because the car wasn't fully in the space and the nose was overhanging into the road. The rear was hard up against the car behind, not my fault their spaces are too small. So we got in the car and went home, problem solved. LOL






Jags not welcome

 

Imagine his fury if you'd parked in a space that has a support in it.

 

Sweet one, did he actually 'constructively' offer how to solve the problem? Probably not ....

Reminds me of me buying my XJ8.
I was having the contract in front of me, ready to sign, when all of a sudden I realized that I had no clue about the size of my underground parking space.
Up till then we only used the apartment temporarily, we had no car there, and all I knew was that Taiwanese don't drive a lot of big cars.

Anyway, I rushed home, found they are actually 6 meter long, rushed back and happily signed the deal.

 

@Stu, looks like you parked it on a right hand exit with the car overhanging - I would have moved it somewhere a bit safer as these places can be tight for the XJ....

I had the Police called when I parked mine at a cafe/marina on a local canal once, the owner came out and started threatening me with the popo if I didn't move it! I told him where to go, so he came back with an employee thug, at which point I threatened to call the Police....they both ended up in the canal.

 

That is a common problem I have here too. Car parking spaces are wide but not long enough...

 

It's not an exit, it's a big wide area for people to collect online orders or "click & collect" as some call it. It was closed when I was there which is why I thought it would be safe and out the way. You know me well enough to know I don't like to be among others! LOL

She's currently under her cover parked out the way on my driveway. She's not going anywhere now until I get hold of a new 02 sensor.

 

Well I resisted the urge to drive the short distance to get it inspected. Trans. shop says they can have me in for diagnostics 1st thing next week so I should still have ample time for inspection & tax renewal.

 

Cursed my luck in that it sounds like the rear wheel bearing is on the rocks. Guess it's gonna be time to tackle that in the very near future. Hopefully it can last a few days until I can order parts and find a day to fix it. Only drawback with daily driving, is the inconvenience of trying to work around schedules if something happens. But I have a nice road trip coming in October, so I need to fix it before then. Was hoping it was the pads getting worn (because they are) but there's no change in sound even when hard on the braking.

 

Well...did the tensioner and chains on my '98 XJR...along with a water pump (still had the original plastic one), new thermostat, oil change, trans fluid change, new coolant, brake fluid flush, and some interior plastic parts missing replaced from my wrench's store of used parts.

The tensioners were still tensioning, but, at 139K miles on the clock, the cracks were starting on the secondary tensioners, and one of the slippers for the lower chains had cracked...so, all is updated at this point.

With the paint job done...thinking this might be a good time to put one of the XJs on the block...anyway Photos follow...




Both are cracked, not catastrophically, but after 20 years and 139K miles...they lasted this long.




Cracked slipper.

 

Car's finally in the trans. specialist's hands, my positive thinking shall will it into being a not so traumatic diagnosis & fix. He's well versed w/ the ZF & came across genuinely passionate about working on them & he's also well reviewed in the region so win/win.

One thing's for sure all of the usual suspects IE tensioners,t-stat housing,ABS solder & now transmission will be sorted in this car after this is complete.

 

All I can say is that owning these rides is not a destination, but a journey.

 

One I intend to ride for infinity lol.

 

A very loooong and sometime very emotional journey... One which will bring you to the end of your mental health and beyond! And THEN you still say "sod it, I'll keep the POS" and you smell something weird the next day and stop and can't find it and drive further but it gets worse and worse but you can't find it as the smell is bad. Or a rattle will be there. When you have time to chase it, it has gone only to appear again when you have no time. And the engine will behave in front of the workshop and with a computer attached but as soon as you get about 200 m away from the workshop it'll put the check engine light on, only to turn off when you pull up at the workshop again. And your autobox will bang through gears on somedays and others it will gently just push them in ever so smoothly...

These cars like SM I think... And if you drive one, you like it too... Saaaaaad owners

 

This is my 3rd venture in the X308 odyssey & this is my 1st transmission chapter. The other's met their demise via collision & a hurricane. The overall experience has by far outweighed the inconveniences.

 

ZF trans? My '99 has the Merc box. Just had the electrical connector leak fixed at the dealers, something I would have done myself but with no dip stick I decided to bite the bullet. After that it was a trip to a local race track with the local MG club outing a low key track day. Realised yesterday that because I was wearing fairly heavy soled shoes I didn't feel that I wasn't getting through the kick down so performance was a bit less than hoped for, still came in 16th fastest out of 49 drivers so not entirely unhappy.

 

@ Daim: I have a very different X308 experience than you, I've always found them to be reliable, dependable and strong cars. I'm on my 3rd one now and there are no squeaks, rattles or vibrations. My friend who has a 2016 BMW 4 Series remarked how quiet and refined my 308 is, his BMW has squeaks and rattles and it's 11 months old. The only time a 308 failed me was when the gearbox blew on my previous one, but that was my fault not the car's. I should've known better, but have now learnt from that error.

I myself haven't driven my 308 in over two weeks, she's sat under her cover protected from the elements. The weather here hasn't been great and I've been working a lot so I've been using the fiesta for driving to work and back. Plus I wouldn't want to park my 308 on the street where my depot is anyway.

 

I bought VERY cheap. That is why

 

Stu, your BMW comment makes me wonder these days. Not that I dispute it, far from it. But it seems like there was this window for luxury euro cars where things were just put together well, and with the new tech and refinements, some of that seems lost. I had a 2000 3-series with 225k when I sold it (it's still going with the new owners) and I also had zero squeaks in that one. But newer cars these days seem so prone to them. I miss good 'ol quality.

I washed mine a little yesterday, nothing fancy. Today it goes to work. I did just hit 180k miles on it yesterday though. And realized that whenever my gf is with me, the TB doesn't act up on me. I guess the XJR likes her more than it likes me.

Will be doing more cleaning in the weeks to come, we're taking her down through the Tail of the Dragon on a weekend getaway the first weekend in October. Ever since driving the stretch in my Saab (snow tires to boot, ugh) in April when the Jag had a bad wheel bearing, I knew I had to take it down to experience it properly. And a romantic getaway seems like a perfect opportunity

 

Drove to Verden to get some XJ-S parts sandblasted... And also met up with a new Jag friend. Just imported a RHD XJR with something like 80k miles and a really neat numberplate... Xxxx XJR - the first x's are variable... Nice car!