Where is the e brake cable again, what side of the car is it on. Also, while I am asking, the fuel filter is on the passenger side in front of the rear wheel?
Thanks!

 

Adam, if you crawl under the car, the cable starts out in the center of the car at about the B-pillar (between the front and rear doors). As soon as it leaves the interior of the car, it will have a large bar running side to side of the car. This allows the single cable from the handle (inside the car) to pull on a cable for each of the rear wheels. The cables quickly run to the outside edges of the car to the rear wheels.

As for the fuel filter, lift up the passenger side of the car. Find the gas tank. On the front edge of the fuel tank, you will see where a fuel line runs to the front of the car. Follow this line back under the car (towards the center of the car). About 18 in from the outside edge of the body, you will find the filter. It is bolted to a metal bracket there.

 

Thanks I won't be able to do the work myself, but my mechanic is taking my car to his shop on Monday or Tuesday nite and I asked him to check out the suspension and grease the e brake cables and change the fuel filter if I can find one around here. The Jaguar dealer is 28 miles, a distance I can't drive due to my handicap.

My car is only getting 17mpg around the city and lucky to make 22mpg on the highway. combined about 19mpg. So I am going to start with the fuel filter and if the mileage does not improve the plugs are next. I changed the air filter back in June.

 

Adam, I would tell you to first try pulling the negative battery cable off for a few minutes to reset the computer and then put the battery cable back on. THis clears a lot of the memory inside of the computer and it will give you momentary better mileage. From my playing with my car, what I have discovered is if you don't do extended drives, the mileage will also go down as the computer tends to run the car a bit on the rich side, leading to lower mileage. It is how Jaguar programmed the car. My car does a lot of the same things that you are seeing. Yet, if I get it out on the highway and let it cruise for 50-60 miles, the mileage will go up to 25+ MPG. Also keep in mind that doing a lot of shorter trips (less than 20 miles), a lot of the time is spent with the engine cool and the computer is running the motor rich to help warm it up. This will also lead to lower mileage.

Finally, I would say to run a can of Seafoam through the car (being slowly put directly into the intake, not through the fuel system). This will help clean out some of the gunk and free up any potential blockage in the exhaust system. On a side note, this may smoke really bad. So, if you do this, make sure to do it where the smoke is not going to bother anyone. It may also temporarily cause a CEL to come on. But, when I did it to my car, I did see an increase in the mileage.

 

In early November my son and I are planning on a trip to the Columbus Ohio area for the Mecum auction. I am thinking about selling my 36 Cord or my Cobra. This would be a great test for mileage and a good long trip from Ma.

I did the Seafoam in the gas tank as I can't physically take about the intake to get to the TB, due to my handicap, didn't do a thing for gas mileage. Also, I have reservations about pouring stuff like this into a TB. When cars had carbs that was an accepted thing to do, but my understand of TB's are they are much more delicate then carbs were and pouring chemicals into them could ruin parts?

 

Adam, you are not necessarily "pouring the seafoam in through the throttlebody". What you are doing is removing the vacuum line for say the brake booster. From there, you are adding a new line from that port on the intake to a rubber hose which you are putting in the can of seafoam (use a small diameter tube, say 1/8" ID hose). You are then starting the car and sucking in part of the can through this hose. It is going to make the engine fight to stay running and may require a bit of gas to help it, but it will remain running. After getting out half the can in, kill the engine (preferably while in the process of sucking in the seafoam). Let the engine sit for a few minutes. You can plug the hose at this point. After the few minutes (5 or so), restart the car, unplug the hose, suck down the rest of the can. Once the can is empty, plug up the hose again. If you can, remove the hose you added and reconnect the line disconnected at the start. From here you can take the car out for a drive and do some high RPM runs to help blow stuff out. The car is going to smoke. I don't mean the whisps like you are burning a little bit of oil. I am talking like a mosquito fogger. It will be tons and tons of smoke. But, after about 5 minutes of driving, it will go away.

So, if you can, try to do this away from other houses. Neighbors tend to get a little angry when you fill their house full of smoke.