Thought I’d pop in and say hi. I purchased an 03 X Type a few weeks ago with 140K on the clock and have learned so much from the forum members already.
Things done so far:
New windshield and tires. How those lug nuts survived this long is a mystery. I’ve had to tear off the cover on about half of them and I even broke the hex portion off from the rest of the lug nut and had to drill out the remaining lug nut.
Oil, coolant, Transmission , transfer case and differential fluids changed.
Spark plugs changed. Inadvertently tugged on a throttle position wire which had me freaking out for a short time until I found the answer here.
New bank 1 sensor 1 O2 sensor looked like the wiring was mangled in a pulley or something.
New struts and control arms, sheared off one of the pinch bolts for the strut and had to drill it out
new Brake pads all around, all 4 were seizing so I did the adjustment to the brake booster rod that I learned here but not until after I replaced a caliper.
New forward lower control arm on the drivers rear, had to angle grind one of the bolts off.
I have never seen a car with such soft fasteners. Every job now entails soaking it in blaster the day before and then torching them before trying to loosen them.
I’m planning on the rear shocks soon but am terrified of the upper bolts, any suggestions?
Also plan to paint the bumper covers soon as the car is Jaguar racing green but the bumpers are light gray. I’ve only found one source for spay gun paint in that color, any suggestions are definitely appreciated.
Anything else I should tend to with that many miles?
Sorry for the long first post, just wanted to say thanks for all the knowledge. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of questions coming.

 

Yes-I-ar, welcome. As you have seen, lots of good information here. Keep looking. There are tons of other nuggets of information tucked away here and there.

Sounds you like you are getting the car back to 100%. Get the car out on hte highways and enjoy the ride. As for the rear shocks, I seem to remember doing mine and what is stuck in my head (I haven't owned the X-type in 5+ yeras) is that you need a fairly long (or multiple) extension to get up to those nuts. As you have found, PB Blaster is your friend. From there, they should come off fairly easy. I always found the bolt down on the lower arm as being the bigger PITA. But, if you have a torch, then you should be golden.

As for paint, look at your local auto parts stores. NOrmally one of them is an automotive paint store. If you look in your driver's door jam, you should see a sticker there and you should find on the sticker "EXT CLR" with a 2, 3, or 4 character code. This is the paint color. You go to the auto paint store with that code and they will mix you up however much paint you want and it should be an exact match to what you have now. I did some touch up work on my car and got rid of the chrome on the bumpers and trunk lid. Gave my car a slightly different look. There are pics in my gallery if you need ideas.

Keep looking around and you will find a lot of interesting stuff. IF you need diagrams and whatnot, let me know. I can hook you up there.

 

Check out Automotive touch up.com. I just got a small bottle of touch up paint for my Jag. They go by the factory color code. And you can get it mixed in a spray paint can

 

As Thermo said, a ratchet, a socket, and 3 10" long extensions will make the shocks' top nuts fairly easy. I also had more trouble with the lower ones.

 

NYCJAG2006 Yes, that’s the online source I was referring to. I believe they are a good quality company but was just wondering if that was what I can expect for pricing. It’s like $125/qt for base coat plus $45 for primer and another $45 for clear coat. That’s not terribly expensive but I wouldn’t have guessed much higher if I took the bumpers off and brought them to a shop for them to paint and then put them back on myself. I usually just pass on a car if it needs body or paint work so My guesstimates may need some work.

 

Thermo and Yorta2, thanks for the advice. I think my fear with the upper bolts is what if I snap them off or round the heads? There’s not going to be a whole lot of room for alternative methods and I’ve had some bad luck with several bolts already. As for the lower bolt, I did have to take off the forward control arm that is bolted right next to it. I used PB blaster and torched it quite a bit but still ended up having to cut it off.
I’m beginning to think this car sat at the bottom of the ocean for a few years.

 

No worries if you break them off. You can pull out the trunk rug and find the bolts there. I will double check when I get home on my parts car.

Have fun,
Dr Dome
484-903-4813

 

The problem with the rear shocks are the bottom bolts. They seize up in the metal part that is surrounded by rubber and will spread the clamp portion of the shock mount apart and still won’t come out. What I found best to do is cut the head of the bolt off and also cut the nut off ( it’s welded on ) and spread it apart enough to drop the shock out and then just replace the bolt & nut with one of the proper size.