If you want a job done properly, do it yourself
 

I had some hi flow cats installed by TL Jaguar last year.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...upgrade-93043/

They had issues with the exhaust clamps connecting the cats to the rest the of the exhaust system, my car had to stay with them for another day so they could fix the leak.

Anyway they called me when it was fixed and I collected the car and drove off. The sound wasn't quite what I expected but convinced myself that it sounded great due to the fact I just handed over quite a considerable amount of money, plus TL Jaguar assured me the problem with the exhaust had been fixed.

The new exhaust did sound pretty good but there was this unpleasant tinny note which sounded similar to a cracked exhaust manifold.

I inspected the installation of the new cats when I got home, everything felt solid so for the past year I have been thinking this was a quirk with the high flow cats and lived with it.

About a week ago there was a definite blowing sound coming from the left of the engine bay, especially when cold. Enough was enough, so yesterday I decided to take the cat off to inspect it. I was expecting maybe something was loose inside the cat, anyway, as soon as I got my hands on it I could see there was a very small amount of play. I proceeded to remove the cat and found out exactly was been causing this annoying sound since I picked up my car from TL Jaguar

From what I could see there had been a leak between the exhaust manifold and cat all this time due to the fact the retaining clamp was not securely fastened. The clamp must have slowly worked loose over the past year as one of the manifold stud threads had been completely stripped!!!!!!!!!

Due to the severity of the thread stripping I am absolutely certain that who ever tightened up that nut knew it must have been occurring at the time but decided not too do anything about it and forced the nut round anyway, if the stud was damaged on removal of the old cat then it should have been replaced.

After a visit to my local Jag garage I picked up a pair of studs and nuts (£20 per set!). I have just fitted the cat and took the car out for a test drive. The tinny leaky sound has completely gone! The car sounds brilliant!

As you can imagine I'm not too happy with the quality of workmanship from TL Jaguar and just goes to show that if you want a job doing properly you have to do it yourself.

Cheers

Matt

Great to hear you finally sorted it out, here is one for the DIY! Cheers! That is way I do nearly all repairs when needed to all my cars myself. Job is always much better done in all cases.

Matt,

Congratulations on tracking down and repairing the problem!

Your story reaffirms what so many of us have come to believe, that far too few "professionals" will service our cars as thoroughly and conscientiously as we will ourselves.

Cheers,

Don

Just because they are a reputable workshop doesn't mean they get it right every time
I speak from experience
At least its going to get fixed right this time frustrating thing is it was probably wrong from when you picked it up but they where never going to tell you that LOL

One thing to consider, the quality of the fasteners on our cars (bolts, nuts, screws) is pretty crap and one of the areas that costs are saved during manufacturing.

I personally have come unstuck several times due to poor quality bolts & screws stripping or breaking.

I have now taken a vow that if I ever remove a bolt/nut from my car, it will be replaced by something high-tensile & high quality; ARP, Darling or equivalent...life is too short to mess around with cheap fasteners...

Give the Jaguar obsession throughout JTIS and TOPIx with discarding fasteners after a single use, I'm surprised this doesn't include replacing manifold to cat studs.

For years I've automatically replaced manifold to Cat studs and nuts whenever they have been disconnected. It's not worth the risk and grief of broken studs / stripped threads / leaking joints by re-using the originals.

Graham

You guys are right about the quality of the fixings & fasteners, luckily for the local jag dealer carried these particular studs and nuts in stock as they told me they replace them as a matter of course when working on the cats.

I personally knew one of the finance directors in Ford that was connected to approving or denying capital spend on the Jaguar cars including the XJ8. The Jaguar engineers wanted to spend for the better and finance kept rejecting their proposals and even reduced their spending budget. Ohhh the stories I heard. This is one reason why the push buttons to all the gadgets in the car look a little old school and Ford Mercury looking, this was a direct budget control item vs what the engineers really wanted.

When my exhaust was done last year all new fasteners

Its not just a jaguar thing lot of stuff these days is one use only torque'd to snapping point by machines from the factory

And if you are like me I snap or round or strip nearly every bolt I use the X350 being alloy does not help either

That why I replace them when I repair something My dad used to go crazy at me snapping things

I even stuff ratchets up on the occasion at least I buy the ones with warranty's for life LOL

I also like the metrinch spanners and sockets they grab on the flats of the nuts or bolts instead of the corners since having these I hardly round many nuts these days LOL