What did you do to your X300 today?
 

Sometimes this type of thread can be inspiring, so I thought I'd start...

• First, washed off the thick coat of yellow pine pollen :icon_confused:
• Vacuumed out the interior and trunk
• Re-glued carpet to trunk spare tire cover
• Brushed some rust from the lower radiator bracket, touched it up
• Installed new front bumper undertray and plastic rivets
• Installed new SC belt, idler and tensioner pulley

....meant to install an "Andy Bracket" but found someone had already beat me to it! :D


Last weekend repaired the "jewel" lenses in the front & rear fog light switches, rebuilt instrument cluster and added some alloy gauge trim rings.

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Well some of the work i did lately on my XJR6 are...

• Differencial Fluid Change
• Parking Light Bulb Replacement
• Supercharger Oil Change

Still need to change that god damn fuel filter, kind of failed last time lol but i'm gonna go down there again and try it next time.
also thinking of drain n fill the tranny since i do not know when it was last serviced.

today? Monday here in NZ
Went to work, drove it like I stole it in short bursts on the way there.
Chugged home at a steady 60mph to see what economy I could get - got 25mpg (imperial) over a 10 mile trip.
I am just enjoying having my XJR back after 8 weeks in the shop.
Andy has been very helpful. The saga is complex, but I think the car is almost sorted, just enjoying it finally (owned for 5 days, then 8 weeks off the road).
The manual gearbox has noisy bearings but that is a job that will keep.
The front brakes shudder from high speed stops so may need a skim or new rotors.
Headlining can wait.
thinking of changing off the XJR sport 17" wheels for 18" Asteroids which I prefer.

Um, sold it.

Replaced it with the Black S Type, and the collector finally collected it.

Yeah, fuel filter change is on my list as well. I have it on the bench in a box, just need to get around to it.

That and SC oil also.


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What did you do to your X300 today?
 

I don't know whether you'll believe me, but fitting two microphones beneath the car trying to find out why I have spanish castanets underneath on overrun.

At first thought it might be a very noisy Rochester Valve (can't imagine why) but I've checked everything else, changed center bearing looked hard at everything else. Just finished wiring in and now raining hard. Hope tomorrows better.

What is "overrun?"

Al....what are alloy gauge trim rings?

What did you do to your X300 today?
 

What is "overrun?"

Sorry aholbro1, should be deceleration, foot off throttle pedal. Hope that helps.
Better day today. Will go out soon to try.

Alloy Instrument or Gauge Trim Rings
 

Here you go:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-rings-140338/


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New Wheels
 

I decided to go with another set of the original wheels after looking around at other styles. One set for the snows and one for the summer tires. the best deal I could find was at Rock Auto, $130/wheel. They are actually reconditioned, not new.

Dagny747, dimple wheels look good. Let us know if you're happy with the finish.

Seems like a good price. Wish I could find the XJR wheels refinished for that price, but they are just not common enough I guess. Mine aren't "bad" but it would be nice to get refreshed ones, or have mine done. ....perhaps one day :D

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I am happy with the finish, its called bright silver and is definitely painted. So, its not the silver you would get if you refinished the wheels by polishing and then putting a clearcoat on it. That said, they are straight and look good, I believe the color is the same or similar to what you would buy if you got the wheel paint for BMW or Mercedes wheels. As you can see from the picture the back has the OEM PN on it.

**** i swear i have the weirdest problem lately. I bought a brand new remote from SNG Barrat last week because my old remote had broken buttons and super weak range. The car is like totally tripping out, when i put the car into learning mode it doesn't seem to pick up the new remote signal at all? and if i don't do anything it exits learning mode after 15 second so that would mean it would erase all previous remote ? but that was not the case... my broken remote would still work, and if i try to program the old remote in and it actually accepts it . WTF! and yes they are the same frequency which is 315mhz, im like so ****ing lost. any ideas? or is this a dealership visit to program with pdu?

Today I got a four wheel alignment done. It was miles out!

Just have to wear the tyres straight again now.

Fixed a little, found a little more to do....
 

Changed the spark plugs, installed correct Champion RC12YC, cleaned MAF.

Wire brushed off some rust from the coil and injector cover bolts and resprayed with some silver paint.

In the process I discovered that the third (counting from the front of the engine, not sure how Jag numbers the cylinders) spark plug well had a good amount of oil in it. So I guess replacing the valve cover gaskets is in order in the near future.

I also tore two of the paper coil gaskets (not the insulators) so will need to pick up a set of those. Need to find the part# for those gaskets I guess....

But overall a nice quick tune-up afternoon :D

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Changed the brake fluid. Going to clean and condition all the leather in the interior tomorrow.

Over the past month or so I've changed the water pump and thermostat, O2 sensor (bank 1 Sensor 2) removed the P0139 code and extinguished dreaded CEL, changed the EGR Valve, vacuumed the drove it to Portland OR and back to Seattle.

On my return trip from Ohio the first week of this April I was pleased to discover the speed limit in South Dakota had been raised from 75 to 80 mph.

Man, would love an 80MPH speed limit here, but at least most of my hour drive home is at 70MPH posted :D

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This technically wasn't done today but it was done last Sunday.
Some of you may have seen my posts about me crashing my XJR a few weeks ago. Since then I've been trying to get it running and back on the road.

Anyways, here is a before and after of the cross member, which is the hardest part of the job. All that's left now is welding it into place and then putting in the replacement parts to make sure it runs correctly. Hopefully be running in about 2 weeks.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...dbd2ded86c.jpg

Rinsed all of the pollen off the car so it is black again and not greenish yellow, until tomorrow anyway.

Been a rainy and surprisingly cold weekend here, so not much of anything that required being outside was accomplished.....

But I took my cupholder apart and tried another black from SEM (GM Black, Classic Coat SEM# 17093) to try to match the "Warm Charcoal" of the armrest with the cupholder cover that I picked up last year that was originally some off-white color.

I also sprayed the XJR all leather steering wheel which I plan to replace my wood wheel with. It was already black, but had some scratches.

None of the off the shelf leather colors from SEM were an exact match, and I've been trying several, but this GM black seemed to be close after some testing on an old armrest I had. I'll know for sure once the cupholder cover and steering wheel are installed the car side-by-side the rest of the interior trim and viewed in all shades of sunlight.

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Finished my second rebuild of my console armrest. The original SEM vinyl paint I had used on the 2003 cup holder cover was too black and glossy. I think that was their "Landau Black" but I don't recall now. I replaced that with the same "GM Black" I used above for the steering wheel, which seems to be a much better match to the OEM black armrest cover.

I also found a nice mostly un-cracked under tray for the armrest as well, and I repaired the one crack and reinforced all the holes with some strips of plastic an epoxy so hopefully this one will last longer than the originals which all seem to crack around the screw holes.

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Tackled the rear shocks on my xj6 yesterday via the dropping of the A-frame method. Was fun.

Good job, I personally know that is a bear of a job. Took me basically two days, although the second side went quite a bit quicker.

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I got my 3.2 Daimler back today from the mechanic.
It has had a new aluminium custom radiator made, as it was a less-expensive option than importing a new genuine one from UK.
The plastic pipe where the radiator hose attaches, broke. There are no new plastic tanks available, and a secondhand radiator may well do the same thing very quickly, also being 20 year old plastic.

Now the 3.2 is back, the XJR has finally gone in to have new ICV and TPS fitted, which I hope will cure the stalling at idle..

I had forgotten how much I prefer the 18" asteroids on the 3.2 over the 17" Sport wheels on the XJR.
I think I will swap the original chromed Asteroids back on to the Daimler, and put the Asteroids on the XJR.

Renewed the left, dipped-beam bulb and the right, rear side-marker bulb.

Today I failed an MOT :(

I am impressed at the quality of the new aluminium radiator on the 3.2, and I am considering doing some 'preventive maintenance' and getting one done for the XJR - it is cheaper than a blown head gasket or worse, and all the grief that entails, should the plastic components of the radiator fail.
I trust metal way more than 1990s plastic under heat and pressure.

Did you just take a salvage radiator to a radiator shop for them to use as a model? Curious how they knew what to build so it would bolt right in.

Also, about what did it cost?

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Today I washed both the XJR and XJ6 with my foam cannon. Also conditioned the leather with Surf City Garage Leather Rejuvenator


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...7e5c3aa84e.jpg


Notice the XJ8 bumper... as a temporary until I get my original x300 painted


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...84e95245c4.jpg

Al,
I haven't had the bill yet.
The estimate was about NZD $1100, but I will let you know, once invoice arrives.
they had the old radiator, and used the bottom bracket/chassis part of mt old one, and added a new aluminium core and tanks with all pipes in the right positions.

Stuff like that is quite expensive in NZ - we are a relatively high-wage economy but low volume (only 4.5 million of us). Having said that, our really old car restoration industry is highly regarded, and Americans and Europeans ship all sorts of stuff here because of the quality and lower costs - I'm talking vntage Bugattis, top-end USA cars , Bentleys etc.

Whats a foam Cannon?
I think I want one

NL,
It's pretty much a fancy soap dispenser but with extreme suds and foam. It helps the soap stay on the car for a few minutes to help carry the dirt from the top to the bottom. If it doesn't help anymore than a regular hand wash with a wash mit then it makes up for it by making your car all white before washing the soap off. Which is shown in the pictures.

What is a speed limit? :icon_headbang:

Today: waiting for the mail guy delivering the new air filter.

What is a speed limit? (Living in Germany) :icon_headbang:

Today: waiting for the mail guy delivering the new air filter.

Nothing much special other than changing the oil. Check the water pump and believe it is getting on time to replace it. Concerned about hose behind intake manifold needing replacement. Not looking forward to pulling back intake manifold to get to it. Any suggestions also suggestions on water pump source.

Well the MOT is now sorted. The rear handbrake drums needed some attention. Had to cough up for a re-test, which was pretty annoying.

Today I went to Motofest in Coventry and parked in between an Esprit V8 and a Triumph 2000. The XJR13 was parked down the road, along with most of the rest of the JDHT collection.

Been reinforcing the radio/clock/AC bracket
 

We are soooooo lucky to not have to go through the MOT scrutiny here that is elsewhere :icon_bricks:


Here's what I've been doing for a few weeks. While I'm saving up some money to send off the radio to get rebuilt, I had the clock rebuilt, and I picked up a used radio/clock/AC bracket/bezel that had all six mounting tabs intact (well one was cracked) and reinforced all the tabs with epoxy, steel and some brass.

It doesn't look very pretty, but none of this is seen once the console is back together. After trying to find just one of these brackets/bezels that hasn't cracked, and deciding to a new one that would likely just crack again was way too expensive, I decided to reinforce this one in high hopes it will hold up better than original. It seems that all of these break over time as the ABS alone just isn't strong enough to hold up the stress and vibration over time with the weight of the radio and other modules it supports. It seems like a design oversight.

So I backed each tab with some "JB Weld" and thin steel from the "hobby" drawer at my local hardware store, filled all the voids with "JB Weld", then epoxied some thin brass at the union on the front where the tabs often break off. Then some brass washer are epoxied in the screw sockets. The "core" of the tabs are still the fragile ABS of course, but now they are at least reinforced at some key weak spots and essentially an ABS/steel/brass laminate.

What can't be seen in the photos very clearly is that the steel backing strips actually pierce beyond the edge of the bezel and into the void that exists between the inner structure and the edge where the tab begins. I then filled that void with "JB Weld", so the metal strip reinforces the whole tab past the mere edge where these tabs often break. If I hadn't extended these strips through into the body, it may have made the tab break off even more easily since all the stress would have been concentrated at that point where the tab met the body of the bezel. I'm hoping this will help add some strength. Time will tell of course.

....if this doesn't work, maybe I'll just have to get someone to CNC one out of aluminum or 3D print it with more strength! :D





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