So, I went ahead and powder coated the wheels black and had my calipers painted a bright "Tiffany blue." This has started to become a fun car to do slow upgrades to. I've created a new instagram called @theblkjag

 

Another member here was selling one but you can order them from any Jaguar dealer online.

Your car looks really sharp. I never would've thought of that color for the calipers but it actually looks good.

 

Hi added a blacked out itonman badge and a good cleaning 😎

 

Replaced engine mounts that were completely damaged.


Broken mount

Also replaced coolant expansion tank as coolant sensor sank, causing low coolant warning.

 

Did you use an brace over the top or a jack underneath to lift the engine?

 

To Nedoerr :

How many miles? Model year?

 

Dam sexy

 

I had a local shop do it for me, so not sure how they held up the engine.

 

~87,500 miles on my 2010 XJL V8 S/C. Thus far the new mounts have resulted in a considerable improvement in cabin noise and vibration. Morning start-up is much quieter now.

 

On Saturday I endeavored to replace my o2 sensors. They really did not want to come out. After a lot of PB Blaster and elbow grease, I was able to replace the two downstreams but only one of the center/catalytic converter sensors as the other side got rounded off. Not a big deal though because I'm planning on putting in high flow cats soon anyway, and while the cats are out of the way, I'll have a ton of access to get to the upstream sensors in the manifolds as well.

These are the sensors I bought:
Downstream = Denso 2344794 - $77 for the pair from Rockauto
Center = Bosch C2D23702 - $113 for the pair from RMEuropean
Upstream = Bosch C2D17259 - $114 for the pair from RMEuropean

They may be different on the Denso cars pre-2014

 

Almost forgot! I got a set of General G-Max RS tires installed on Friday afternoon. So far I'm loving them.

Here's the story:
When I bought the car, the dealer had put on a set of Bridgestone All Seasons 245/40/20 all around, even on the rears which should be 275, so they were really stretched. Later on I decided to upsize to Pirelli PZeros 265/35 front and 305/30 rear. I got them slightly used so the price was right. The wider tires introduced more tramlining but it wasn't terrible. Fast forward about 6 months to when I installed the thicker XJR front sway bar. Overall stability was much improved BUT it introduced massive understeer. So I downsized the rears to 295 but this time went with a pair of Michelin Pilot Super Sports I found locally. That took care of the understeer issue. I liked the feel and increased traction so much that I decided to put PSSs on the fronts too. That's where it all fell apart.

I don't know what the precise issue was but those Michelins were terrible on my car. I had to get them balanced three times due to vibrations. I tried every PSI from 28 to 37 trying to find the right balance between comfort and handling. Put the PSI too high and the ride quality is taut and firm but there's zero traction and the wheels skate all over the place. Put it too low and the traction is great (especially around corners) but the car wallows and rolls all over the place, even in Dynamic Mode. There seemed to be no inbetween. On top of that, the tramlining was downright scary and dangerous on all the horrible roads we have here. Those tires would follow every single ripple and line. It was a constant battle against the road. I really was not enjoying driving my car anymore. After trying to deal with it for a month and a half, I got fed up and decided to get rid of them.

After a lot of research, I decided to go with the GMax RS that was introduced last year. Its an Ultra High Performance Summer tire that's getting rave reviews on Tire Rack. They have a good looking aggressive tread and they're the right price. I also decided to go back to stock size 245/40 and 275/35. All is right with the world again. The car rides, handles, brakes, and accelerates wonderfully and no more tramlining.

Now, I don't know what would have happened if I had got a set of Michelins in the stock size. Maybe that would've solved all my problems as well but I wasn't willing to take that risk.

 

 

So replaced the front hub/bearings - hearing a slight rumble but mainly preventative as these can get seized in the wheel knuckle. Well getting the brakes/disc off was no problem but the hubs were seized and I mean seized - so much for the workshop manual "remove hub" I used the Ranchero method see his post #407 Ranchero hub removal. PB blaster, after a 24 hour soak of both front and rear knuckle/hub surfaces, is totally ineffective by itself but the push bolts work their magic - I used 1.25" long bolt/nut combination sourced from Ace hardware - they need about 3/16" trimmed off to be the best fit. As Ranchero mentions they need a huge amount of torque to get the hub to move. Eventually got a small gap



The push bolts eventually reach the end of their travel so onto a couple of chisels and a 3lb hammer with lots of PB blaster to gradually force the hub out.



One addition I made to Rancheros post was adding PTFE tape to the new hub as a barrier to corrosion, complementing the anti-seize. Hopefully this is last time I'll have to remove these hubs but just incase My X351 has 58,000 miles and I'd strongly recommend fellow forum members to replace their hubs before they seize so badly that the knuckle needs removing to get the hub out. BTW the new hub was noticeable smoother so even after all the hassles I feel good having replaced them

 

Hi wanted to share my hitch project. I do triathlon and putting my bike in the trunk was in acceptable. so i found a place to make me a hitch. worked out Great

 

Nice job

 

Very neat. I did something similar to Bride's Lexus 450h, but did you have to do an metal work, or just fascia trimming? I got lucky with with the plastic trimming.vb

 

I completed another oil change over the weekend. Also cleaned and re-oiled the air filters, and cleaned the MAF sensors. Everything still running smoothly at 115k miles (except for a tiny little rattle coming from the front end over bumps that just recently showed up).

 

You,probably need to replace the front sway bar bushings.

 

Change your rear diff fluid. If it's not been done your way over due!!
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That's always my first guess too, however I just installed the XJR sway bar this past summer, so the bushings are new.

I did that almost two years ago now, so we're good there.