frequent reader, first time poster
figured i'd share my fights with the x, get feedback/suggestions

i bought a 03 x about 2 years or so ago
loved it, wasn't familiar with problems in it.

i originally bought a extended warranty along with it, had rear bushings replaced and door latch assembly replace. a few other things replaced as well (i thought the rotors where replaced, guess just resurfaced..)
got about 2,000 grand out of the warranty

was happy loved car.

wrecked it.
insurance wouldnt cover for reasons im not getting into to protect the innocent..

damage done was to the front bumper, passenger fender, passenger door (shell only im hoping, speaker and window work, need new clips for the inner door panel). broke control arm and axle and more than likely bent the strut. ripped face of the rim off and destroyed tire. riped apart the inner fender & broke the side mirror on passenger side too. insurance company estimated at like 7,000$. no can cover.

1. got used control arm and axle, installed.

2. got new strut assembly from jaguarparts.com, had it installed.

2. two new front tires. T rated tires, old ones where Z rated. went to another garage and had tires installed and front end alligned. told i needed new front rotors. car passed inspection, beat up but on the road.

3. jiffy lube for oil change, fuel filter, and power steering flush. notice squeek from steering wheel now, and hard to turn sometime. figure its from the wreck maybe the magical 'steer-rite' fluid will work its way in.

4. read up about the TC and rear DIFF. went back to jiffy to have flushed, could only do rear. get flushed n leave.

5. notice some weird noises, drive train loud. hm. panic

6. read up on here about the TC and DIFF, go out buy some royal purple 75w-140 (can not find redline, dont feel like waiting to order ). get myself a plunger-type-device and some tygon tubings flush out the rear. extremely easy. stuff that came out - blackish greenish sticky goo. hm. put the nice purple stuff in, 1.2 litre, drive for 50 miles, flush again, drive again, flush again. get that green stuff out i figure..

7. now go to transfer case, try to fill, plug, fill, plug, fill, plug routine. this is some bull ****. look at the fluid that came out. dark dark dark black and very thing, silky but particle filled mess. got it tested by this place to see what it was. max atf fluid, not gear oil.

8. did some more reading here, devloped my own drain valve pipe system and plushed that transfer case 3 times, final flush i put 575 ml in. got alot softer sounding.

9. start wondering. decide to flush power steering fluid. remove house infront of radiator. flush fluid out with plunger thing. brown greenish crap. smelled weird too. hm. fill up with the dexron 2 (got mobil 1 brand of this, exceeds it). power steering lovely. no more squeek. decide to do oil change to. get the castrol gtx high mileage crap (80,000 miles) and bosch oil filter. drain oil, dark black and clumpy (?). wtf. put new in. engine seems (lively) again.

10. ... violent fight with jiffy lube. gimme my money.

11. drive tran still sounds a little loud, expecially when its warmed up or after driving at a high speed until it cools down again. worried about this. maybe its the used axle i installed from 02 jag. not sure

12. got some drilled /slotted rotors from ebay. installed them & my new set of mad flaps that i got for free off of jaguarparts.com for spending so much money. (inner fender, sway bar, fender, tie rod end, marker lights ect. ect.)

13. fight with back ones before they go on. sob.

14. fight with back rotor, brake line got twisted, rubbed tire, redo.

15. installed the heated seat switch, thought it would give me heated seats case i have all wires under seat, mistake. don't work i would really like this..

16. found out about global close, works with key in door, not from fob. i would really like this...

oh btw i broke the rear wheel cap (jaguar cap) because a lug nut broke. so i bought some new chrome/gold trim ones. got the smoked marker lamps too. waiting for them from ebay.

17. buffed my headlights with 3m kit, removed scratches from wreck. very happy.

18. run car, sounds good, no loud noises, no clicks, nothing. drive for a little while run some errands. drive tran gets louder. then there it is. the whinning sound from right tire. in parking garage hear brakes squeek and groan a little. figure i might need to let the pads adjust to new rotor (still have thick pads, didnt want to replace). turn steering wheel to park. odd noise. just get out, walk away defeated. come in here sit down at work and type this up.


the x has me beat as of now.

something i forgot: got used side mirror, replaced the covers with chrome ones. broke little geat on passenger side. no power mirror over there now.
can't locate a little gear for nothing and im not buying a new mirror.


figured i'd share my fun. if anyone takes time to read this and has suggestions / ideas / info i'd be appreciative.

thanks sorry its so long.

 

If it catches fire in your garage, while the wheels are off and it is unroadable - it might be covered under your homeowners insurance.

 

also noticed more smoke than usual coming out of exhaust... got a k&n air filter suppose to pick up today. but i doubt that will help such a thing. just another fight we are about to have i suppose.

 

i thought about dropping the garage door on it..

but at this point the car means a little something to me. i've been putting alot of time into it. resale is **** so i figure i may as well

 

number 16, can u give me more insight, i just fixed my locks and fob the other day, nice to see a man with so much preserverence

 

Hey jn lego....you're a legend in your own lunchtime...lol
Seriously though....what a great post about you n your X....sounds almost like a labour of love and one to the death I suspect ( hopefully not yours!! )
Hopefully some of the guys here can give you some more ideas...useful ones
All the best

 

Sorry to read about those list ,I would like to hear good news about your X Type .I appreciate your post considering you did not let your X Type down

 

maybe the work is paying off.
the groaning when brakes were applied litely is gone. stops alot nicer.
i hear a weird click sound (kind of like the predator when it is about to attack)... im taking it to a garage i like alot on friday and have the pads checked. i think it might just be a pad issue adjusting with the rotors, we'll see if it dies down.

lowered the psi in tires to 30 lots of noise and harshness removed. (found posts about that on here).

seems that now that the royal purple is getting threw the tc and diff that the drive tran is getting alot softer. barely hear it anymore. i want to replace the front passenger knuckle because i get the whinning sound here and there. seems to only be on a certain level of road not real sure how to explain.

im thinking of getting ceramic pads, just going to have garage install though don't feel like bleeding the brake system.


number 16 - the global close
i read about this on here. when you put your key in the driver door and hold it towards the trunk for about 2 seconds the sunroof and windows will all close and the car will lock up. it is supposed to work by holding the lock button on the key fob as well but mine does'nt. i read that you are supposed to take it to a dealer and have them enable the feature. i take vacation end of next month so i think im going to travel to the pittsburgh dealer (pa) and have them upgrade the flash to the transmission ecu and enable that key fob issue. im trying to make a list of what i want them to do (but not break the bank).

 

forgot - i installed k&n air filter today. car sounds much better when idle. old one i took out was beat. jiffy lube told me they checked that too... uh yeah.
sounding better is about the only difference i have noticed though. im not looking for a performance upgrade though. i just want the kitty to purr properly.

also, does anyone know how much it costs to have the dealer flush the coolant fluid and upgrade the ecu flash?

 

man you are hero lol
for coolant flush probably $50-60.

 

I read on another forum that global close was enabled for European market but disabled for the US. I also read that the dealer can enable this function for you by plugging into the computer.
However I also read this on the other forum, really dont know if it works as I am in the UK and have global closure. What this guy says sounds a bit far fetched to me though.

"My windows stopped closing after dealer had car for a fault, rang them and they said if you turn ignition on an off three time quickly you will hear a bleep which activates global window shutting, repeat and it cancels it. If three doesnt do it try 4 times"

 

You think your X is bad? My ex (wife) gets $750 per month of my hard earned money and has 3 houses, a Volvo XC90, and a rich new husband! I'd take your X over my eX any day.....

Good luck with the repairs, btw. Had to laugh a little over the title "fighting with my X"...that seems to be a hobby of mine, but in a different way.

 

deffinently sorry to hear about your x.
thats why i never sealed the deal. i have been engaged for over three years now i think. >


bolly - does he mean turn it to the 3 position ( i think, when accessories all turn on) three times or actually turn the engine over three times? i dont think i want to start and stop my engine three times that quickly.. whenever i programmed my key fob i had to do some things with switching it to the 2nd then 3rd position a couple times quickly then push a button on the fob and it chimes then u start pushing your buttons. i forget how the process went exactly im sure it is on here somewhere. if it is just turning it to the accessorie position three times i'll try it later today and let you know if it works. the closest dealer i have is in pittsburgh, so i can't just make simple trips there.

 

Jn_Lego

I am sorry but I really dont know. I copied & pasted just what was written. I would surmise though that it would be turning the key to position 3 and not all the way to starting the engine. Its worth a try without starting the engine though. What concerned me was the vagueness of the statement. " if three does not do it try 4 times"

I got it from a Jag forum here in the UK. Here is the link. http://www.jaguarforum.co.uk/viewtop...3918&start=180 was on page 13 A great thread titled "things you never knew your Jag can do" Could come in handy for you.

There is a bit in there about enabling / disabling the auto door lock feature when you drive over 5mph.

It will be interesting to know if you can get your global closure function to work using the method we have talked about. I am sure there are many out there who would also love this feature to work!

 

I have also found this old thread on this forum for you

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=8592

Does not say much really.

Just to make sure you know who it works when / if you get it enabled. You have to lock the car with the keyfob but hold down the lock button for longer then the windows will close on their own. Once they start to close you can let go. I have this feature on my 98 Audi A3 but you have to continually hold the button till the windows are up.

I do find it surprising that this feature on the X type is somehow not enabled as standard for the US market. It should just be standard full stop does not matter where in the world you are we all like all the toys on our cars to work!

 

i tried the 3 quick on off sequences. did not get a chim on 3 but i got one on 4. then my fob stoped working all together lol. had to do it again and reprogram the fob.

appreciate your help though, guess i'll just have to go threw the dealer

deffinently agree with you though - we like to play with our toys no matter where we live.

 

figured i would add to this since i have had some more fun.

while sitting in my car (parking lot outside house) was planning to leave.
turn my head and see this kid flying toward me on a bike.
wondered if she was going to stop, guess she forgot to...
broke out rear marker lamp. i .. yeah whatever i guess this kid is ok because she got up and ran off.

on my way to work, ran into construction.. fresh yellow paint all over my inner fender and mud flaps...

on my way home from work.. take different route to avoid paint. run into fresh tar'd road..

well.


got all new tires, rotors, ceramics, air filter andm ost fluids flushed.
running almost at 100% finally.

 

If you come to Pittsburgh, go to Bobby Rahal Jaguar in Wexford. Keith or Jay will be taking care of you, and they will do a great job. Request a loaner car and they'll give you one for free. Not the cheapest place around (compared to an indy) but you will get the job done right the first time. Not sure what the coolant flush will cost, I'd guess the ECU flash, if needed, would perhaps be a half hour to hour of shop time, so it will be less than $100.

It is unecessary to bleed the brakes to install new pads, ceramic or not. (oh it looks like you already got that done as I type this)....


You have to love PennDot....I end up scraping tar and road paint off of every car I own just about every year.

 

Hey man,

I had a creak coming from the rear suspension on my jag it was a low noisey creak at slow speed, when turning, parking, pulling away from a standstill, then when driving an awful grinding noise, It developed all of a sudden, and it became apparent that at speed i had lot of wheel wobble on both nsr and osr wheels, i also had uneaven tire wear as the inside leading edge of both wheels was dramatically worn down.
I took it to the garage this morning to have her looked as i thought it was a wheel bearing or brake rubbing, when when my mech got the car up on ramps he found that both the rear wheels are mooving freely as a bush on the both rear controll arm were knackered.
The whole suspension, wheel, strutt were moving top to bottom when the car had no weight on it. I have a vid of the bush moving but don't know how to post it as I am new here.

 

like vince would say get rid of it and get your self a Toyota