So last week I brought home a new to me 95 VDP. Exterior paint and trim are in excellent condition and the body has no rust anywhere. The interior is in nice shape but in need of reconditioning. The car was a daily driver seeing gentle use. The 150 mile drive home was a good shake out cruise and gave me time to note some of the obvious things that needed attention. The car was inexpensive but as we all know, there is no such thing as a cheap Jaguar!!!

Once home, I went to work doing the basics to get a baseline. Here's what I have done so far or am planning to do tout de suite.

1. Changed oil and filter using the 'Grant Francis' method. The oil was filthy and full of gunk, I'll probably do another two or three changes in the coming weeks. Replaced the air filter too.

2. Changed transmission fluid, the existing fluid was in decent shape. Will do another 3-4 changes over the next few weeks.

3. Changed the power steering fluid, noticed a small leak in the low pressure hose that was fixed by tightening the clamp. I'll keep an eye on it.

4. Drained the engine coolant, it was very dirty and weak. The thermostat was also stuck open. Unfortunately when taking the thermostat cover off, it broke in two! Looks like someone had tried to glue it together in the past. Sheesh! New cover on order. Will flush and refill and of course replace the stat.

5. All new radiator hoses are on order as the existing are in rough shape. Very expensive compared to the XJS!!

6. Went to replace the spark plugs. Couple of the coils were loose and I soon found out why. Someone had obviously stripped the threads and tried to fill them with some rubbish putty which has disintegrated. They will need to be cleaned out and re-tapped. Two of the plug holes were full of oil that leaked in from the cam cover. In fact the whole cam cover was leaking all over the place and there was tons of red RTV all over from a poor attempt at fixing saids leaks. The plugs themselves showed a lot of corona discharge on the insulators but were otherwise fine and gapped properly. I replaced them with new RC12s and have a new cam cover gasket and boss seals on order.

7. Did a compression test and everything looked great with only a 5-7 lbs variance between the cylinders.

8. I had felt some driveline vibration on the drive home and looking under the car I noticed that all 4 bolts holding the from props haft flange to the transmission output flange were completely loose and almost falling off!! tightened this up to spec and also noticed two large cracks in the juried coupling and that the center bearing rubber had seen better days. So new coupling, center bearing assembly and U-joints on the way.

9. My under car inspection also revealed a missing undertray and the lower part of the condenser caved in, probably from hitting parking curbs. Amazingly the condenser has no leaks and the AC works perfectly. I will probably replace it in time along with the lower radiator cradle.

10. The upper and lower radiator mounts were shot or missing and in a two cases there was some radiator hose shoved in the mount holes. Works I guess but ugly. New mounts on order.

11. Apart from leaking oil at the cam cover, there was also leaks coming from the oil pressure sender and the filler tube connection that will need to be sorted.

12. Tires were in bad shape, each one a different brand and quite old. Bought a new set of Bridgestone Turanzas. Along with an alignment, the ride improved significantly. Front wheels also had a bit more play than I'd like so I repacked the bearings and tightened everything up properly.

13. Brakes feel good and smooth and pads look fine. Will replace the brake fluid when I change front pads next.

14. The door remote was not working and the remote had no back cover. I bought a used version (for a Saab I believe) and reprogrammed the system and all is as it should be.

15. Manually locking the car is very difficult requiring a lot of force to turn the key. Will need to be sorted.

16. Lower part of the drivers door panel behind the puddle lamp is broken. Obviously someone had tried to force the panel off and broke it. Found a used replacement and will replace and fix the key issue at the same time.

17. The front upper shock bushings did not have the cupped washers protecting them from the bodywork. The shock mounts were loose too. Will replace them and install new washers.

18. Engine mounts are showing their age and will need to be replaced.

19. There are no vacuum leaks but one of the vacuum hoses is fixed to the manifold using red RTV!! I imagine that someone probably broke the nipple of the manifold, will need to be repaired.

20. New belts on order.

21. Checked fuel pressure (good) and changed fuel filter. Petrol inside old filter was clean.

22. The engine has some roughness at idle that I will have to attend to but otherwise runs great.

23. When I take off the intake manifold to fix the vacuum nipple, I'll go ahead and replace the hoses and also inspect/clean the throttle body, EGR valve and ISCV.

24. There is an electrical problem with the interior lights not working that I will need to address.

25. A thorough exterior and interior detailing is necessary.

That's it for starters, I'm sure the old boy will add to the list in due course . They are really all basic things that should be attended to when owning a vehicle of this age but often seem to be ignored. Still it will keep me off the streets of a bit

 

That list should keep you busy for a while!
2 questions from a Jag newbie :
What is the 'Grant Francis' method for changing oil?
and
"Changed transmission fluid, the existing fluid was in decent shape. Will do another 3-4 changes over the next few weeks."
If the fluid looked OK why change 3-4 more times?

 

Really nice intro for the new to you Jag Allan and a really comprehensive list of jobs either done or to do.

The only thing after reading several times missing as far as I can see id a pic!

 

If the oil is that gunky I'd recommend doing an engine flush instead of just changing the oil a few more times. If you're using a synthetic oil then the solvent properties will eventually dissolved a lot of the sludge, but you'll have to do more frequent oil and filter changes. An engine flush gets it all done in one shot.

I use Amsoil products quite a bit, mostly because I order online and it gets delivered to my door. Here's what I've used for every pre-owned vehicle I've bought include my XJR:

AMSOIL Engine and Transmission Flush

You'll need two bottles as each is good for up to 5 qts of sump capacity, 2 oil filters, and whichever new oil you wish to use. Change the oil filter but leave the new/old oil as is, pour in 2 bottles of the engine flush and run it for 10-15 min, then drain the oil, replace the oil filter again and install the new oil. It's always worked well for me.

BTW, your list sounds very familiar! There truly is nothing as expensive as a cheap Jag!

 

Pete,

It's very difficult to get all the transmission fluid out. By doing several changes you effectively 'boost' the fluid to almost new quality.

I tried finding the post that Grant made about changing oil but couldn't. Essentially you add about a quart of ATF to the engine oil and run the car at fast idle for an hour. Then as soon as possible without burning yourself, undo the drain plug and watch all the crap come out. The ATF has detergents in it that help clean up the interior of the engine. You do it a few times till clean and then fill with your regular brew.

It really does pull an amazing amount of crap out of the engine! As always, Grant is full of sage advice

Jim,

Will post more pics when I get the old boy in shape but here are a couple for now

 

Ah, you've flush the engine already. Great! I confused the Grant Francis auto trans and power steering fluid change methods with his oil change method. Wise he is, that Mr. GF!

Your XJ looks beautiful. Congrats on starting to get it back to it's former glory.