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Downline from the smog pump there is an air check valve other than the solenoid valve inside the pump
found a X300 smog pump at a salvage yard that had water ingestion so was frozen ( so I must have gotten it open somewhat , maybe just battery charger cable direct power up but I definitely saw visual signs )
There is a diode in the short wiring section before and as it connects to the whole unit , someone in Virginia had this short external wire section the linier solid wires fried
Wondering how you were able to split the case as I toy with spiffying it up ( white paint and metal buffing ) as it is on top looking at you
Those external large plastic clips , maybe a heat gun and round toothpics slipping under to hold clips away ?
Last edited by Parker 7; Jan 15, 2025 at 02:16 AM.
Have been trying to get the car smogged since we are back in California. and it was putting out a Pending Code on the OBDII reader P0411.
I could tell the exhaust was fuel-rich on cold start, but I could here the secondary air compressor (SAC) running, so I wasn't sure what was wrong... so I went through the triage list:
Checked relevant fuses and relays - all good
Getting decent voltage at the plug for the compressor
Pulled off hoses and blew compressed air through the one-way valve till it released; seemed to be stuck or gunked up originally, so took a few tries to get air flowing... (tried to remove the valve, but gave up, esp after reading the posts on others giving up too). Sprayed some brake cleaner into ithe valve, cleaned it up, and freed it up with the compressed air. Looked much better on my camera-on-end-of-wire thingy after the cleaner and compressed air:
what the valve looks like looking down from where the hose hooks into it... kinda cool
Ran the car, no code! Until the next day; code came back. So I read some more posts, then listened to the compressor... it was running, I think, but when I pulled the output hose off there was not much air coming out.
So I waited till I had a few hours free and decided to pull the compressor off and look at it off the car. There are posts out there that say these things fail, and just to go get another one, but I happened to watch a guy rebuild a BMW SAC and I figured I had nothing to lose, esp since you can live without one if you don't need to smog the car.
So I pulled the SAC off the car... it was dirty and the bracket was bent a bit, so I figured at the very least I could clean it up and straighten it. The unit itself is a thick metal bracket with the black plastic impeller cover glued on to the front, and the motor solenoid and intake cover on the back side. I looked at it, saw the RTV goo, and realized that the plastic bits are glued to the bracket. 15 minutes of careful prying and utility knife work freed the back side cover; so cool to see inside of it!
Once the back cover came off, it was obvious that the foam air filter was way past its useful life and had decided that nasty black dust was what it wanted to be. I took the motor cover off, and sure enough the rotor for the simple brushed DC motor was clogged with the nasty black dust that used to be the foam air filter.
Brake cleaner, scotch brite, small flathead screwdriver, etc etc... I cleaned it all up, lubed what I could without taking the impeller cover off the other side, and took it inside to my bench-test power supply. Its a recent purchase that makes me a bit giddy - so cool to just dial up the voltage and amperage to whatever you need it to be! Why did it take me so long to get one? Who knows... I use it now for testing RC plane and car setups, home appliances, anything that is electric and misbehaving.
Anyway, after cleaning everything up, I also wiped the rotor with alcohol and carefully sanded the carbon brushes where they touched the rotor. Hooked up the power supply, tested the solenoid (very satisfying, hearing that click!) then tested the motor. Took a few tries, but the motor finally started moving, and really sounded like its old self around 5 volts and 3.8 amps.
Ran to auto parts store for black silicone sealant, carefully cleaned the grooves in the metal bracket as well as the lip of the black plastic black cover, then re-assembled everything, leaving out the foam air filter since its a CA car and doesn't see much use in the rain or dust. One more bench test before putting it on the car - success.
Put the SAC back on the car after the sealant set (got a nice look at the water pump and forward end of the bas**ard hose, cleaned up the bracket where I could while the SAC was off) plugged everything in, and crossed my fingers.
The SAC hummed nicely on the cold start - I could feel it vibrating by putting my hand on it, so I knew it was turning.
No Pending Codes, and the cold-start exhaust smelled much better.
All in all, a very satisfying day... and a nice outcome from reasoning that I would probably have a better result rebuilding the SAC than putting on a used one. Love knowing what is on the inside of this thing, and how it works. Just a solenoid, a simple yet strong brushed DC motor, and.an impeller to move air.
Hope this helps someone somwhere! Now if either of the other two jags get this code, I know what steps to take
foam crud in the motor! zoom in for the horror...
Don't breathe that stuff in... nice piles came out of the motor cover
Brake cleaner for the win! Motor and brushes cleaned up
Getting ready for re-assembly
metal bracket cleaned up w scotchbrite
CAREFULLY laying a bead of sealant in the groove on the metal bracket
Re-assembled and ready for start!
No Codes... success!
At the end of all this, I just renewed the NM plates online for two years for less than it cost just to get the car smogged. But! happy to have solved the problem
Excellent work, that deserves a thread of its own to make it easier to find!
There are times in life when I feel like I have achieved something of value ... @Parker 7 , you asking me a question? That is indeed an honor! I've learned so much from your posts I am not sure I can ever repay you, but it is motivation to make posts helpful to others.
To open the darn thing...
I realized that the factory SAC's are two plastic halves sealed with something like RTV or silicone to the fat metal plate. Each half has its own set of clips and is sealed to the plate with the RTV/Silicone sealant... I realized that the back half used clips I could keep propped open from their retaining nubs, whereas the front half used circular/sliding clips to hold it to the metal plate.
So I crossed my fingers that getting the bigger backside off would give me enough access to figure out what was going on.
I moved inside to someplace warm so that the plastic was not brittle, and got four of the plastic thingies that you use to separate body panels from car chassis... strong but thin plastic wedges. Worked on the seam between the back half plastic and the metal plate around the whole perimeter for about 15 minutes with a utility knife and a very thin flathead. When I started to see some movement of the plastic vs metal, I wedged the plastic thingies to keep the clips from catching on their retaining tabs, and slowly worked my way around the whole unit, cutting away the webbing from the stretching sealant as I went. Finally it came away from the metal plate, and be careful to release the wiring from the plastic too - it clips onto the shell, and you have to slide the wiring clip off the metal retainer to get everything fully undone.
The backside popped off, and that gave me access to the solenoid, electric motor, the decaying foam, and a little round window to watch the impeller (which was trapped on the other side of the metal plate and still covered by the frontside plastic piece)
That was all actually the hardest part - once the back was off, you can remove the motor cover via torx screws, sand the brushes for the motor, clean out the foam gunk, etc.
And testing the motor before re-assembly was key... shortened a video and posted it below:
Replaced rear right wheel hub which I've probably bought a year ago. Of course I had to save the ABS sensor and was prepared to cut the old hub into pieces but managed to knock it out eventually, took about an hour of constant wiggling and pushing. While there I've removed the halfshaft and confirmed the output shaft seal is leaking, sadly need a new bearing and retaining collar first as both have to be cut out before seal can be replaced. Parts ordered and will get to it again soon.
Other than that found the rear discs to be just below 18mm thickness, when 18.5mm is the minimum so that's the next job. Of course getting handbrake adjusted is still an absolute PITA job.
Fixed the seat module last night. the passenger seat was no longer going up and down, of course the drive cable came out of the motor so that was reattached and secured with couple of zip ties but even with the cable reattached I was only getting clicking from the module relay, took the seat out again, powered each motor individually and confirmed they all work as expected so took the module out, drilled the the little rivets and of course found some cold solder joints.
Had a look at the front brake hoses because they were an advisory on last year MOT, nothing wrong with them but thought I'd replace them anyways. What a job that turned into. The little nut securing the brake hose to the bracket was seized solid, had to cut the line, then break whatever left a couple of times, then eventually drilled it and retapped. Hopefully the other side wont give me so much grief, that's planned for Saturday.
Fine thread tap for this job is definitely a good idea. Also need to add bearing ground strap, just the ends left here.
I want to share my recent experience working on my beloved 3.2lt X300.
I had a very frustrating if not comical run-in with Murphy's law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
It started with me realising I had been a neglectful jag owner and my everyday ride needed, as it turned out about 4 lt of oil. Easy job right, I'll do that in about 10 min, before grabbing some dinner. (Wrong)
I placed the oil filler plug on top of the Rocker cover (valve, Tappet Cover) I turned around to grab a bottle of oil, only to hear it fall into the engine bay. It didn't however fall straight through to the ground or an easily reached part of the engine bay but had slipped past the injectors. into an unreachable part of the engine. I quickly realised there was no way I was getting my hand down there. I started off trying to scoop it out or push it out to the ground with a screwdriver, but with no luck, discovering that somehow I was shorting something out and was causing a cascade of sparks. I removed the injector cover to see if that gave me enough room to gain access, it gave a little more space but not enough to get my hand in.
As necessity is the mother of invention, I became a little more creative and straightened out a coat hanger and wrapped some tape around and around the end with the sticky side out. Hoping it would stick to the oil filler plug and pull it out. It sounded good in theory but the plug was too heavy and covered in oil. So no joy there. (I also had to cover the entire length of wire with electrician tape to avoid the aforementioned shorting sparks).
Just to illustrate the scene at this point, There I was after dark with a torch in one hand and a piece of wire in the other, one knee on my rocker cover, bent over peering into the engine trying to retrieve my oil filler plug. Making things worse was the realisation that I couldn't drive or start the engine without the plug in place, along with the horrifying thought, that if had to call a Mechanic and have my Jag towed to a shop. I would never be able to so much as pick a screwdriver again, with any level of self-respect.
As it turned out persistence pays off and after an hour or so of cursing, I managed to pull the plug out, through sheer luck, by bending a small hook at the end of a piece of wire and hooking it into a small hole on the side of the plug. Incidently a hole I hadn't realised was there until I had the plug back in hand.
Someone should start a thread titled "The ridiculous things I have spent far too much time on while working on my X300". I would include those stories of Dropping that essential, 10mm bolt or small Phillips head screw, only to hear it hit the ground. Never to be seen again.
The moral of the story, Never leave your Oil filler plug sitting in the engine bay while checking. filling the oil
1. Bled the brakes. To properly flush, which I probably should have done, would have required more than the 12oz I put through.
2. Scrubbed the wheels and tires with Hot Rims, applied NuFinish to the wheel faces and caps.
3. Found out why my RF tire has been losing a couple pounds a week, probably.
4. Finally tightened the PS/AC belt. A stubby 14mm open wrench would have made this easier. Curiously, the pivot bolts are both 13mm, but the adjuster nuts are 14mm.
5. Ziptied the heater hose away from the B bank throttle arm's arc.
After reading a post by Spud Maat re his issues with his car stalling and running rich and associated air leaks in partiular from the inlet manifold where the brake booster line fits I decided to check mine and sure enough it was loose and sucking away madly.
I searched on line for a replacement fitting and found one and placed an order, easy. P/N NBC3184AA Cartridge, it is a brass fitting with an O ring inside and a quick release collar.
On the V12 cars the part of the inlet manifold where this line attaches is easily removeable so after my part arrived I removed the manifold fitting and then wondered how to proceed and after a forum search discovered that all you really need to replace is the O ring within. The quick release collar can be eased out of the brass fitting, which remains in place, using a pair of pincers and a bit of gentle persuasion. The O ring then replaced QR collar refitted and all is good.
The old O ring I removed might have been petrified it was so hard and probably had been leaking for years and was more than likely the cause of the slight idle stumble at times.
Before I reassembled everything I went to a local hydraulics workshop with the new O ring and sourced a couple of replacements as they always come in handy. The size if anybody needs one is 12.7mm OD and 2.25mm thick.
So after all the work the idle is smoother and a surprising thing I noticed is that the first brake application seemed a little more sensitive, maybe the booster was not getting full vacuum due to the leak.
See pic of bits
Cheers,
Jeff.
Last edited by watto700; Mar 25, 2025 at 12:51 AM.
Reason: Speling!
I noticed on my car, a V12, recently that there was a black sticky goo which looked like it was leaking from both MAP (manifold actual pressure) sensors. It actually seemed to be some sort of sealing material which had suffered the ravages of over 350,000 kms and countless heating and cooling cycles and was starting to deteriorate.
I had not noticed any engine running or performance issues but in case of further deterioration I decided to replace both sensors so I mail ordered them and after they arrived it was a simple job to replace them.
As usual the car started instantly and cold idled a little faster and smoother than it had previously and once on the road no real noticeable difference.
I am thinking that these sorts of sensors on our cars do deteriorate slowly with age but the effect is so gradual that we don't notice it.
Cheers,
Jeff.
Last edited by watto700; Apr 2, 2025 at 05:56 PM.
Reason: Extra
towed it somewhere to wait in Jaguar purgatory while i find another shop who can sort it, hasn't ran in a very long time and has sat at a shop for over a year while they tried to figure out what was wrong
On your ABS sensor off the top of head without looking the ABS and speedo come off the left rear but I can be wrong
On removing the sensor Motorcarman has a suggestion to not break them , plastic and I broke the right rear and exspesive sensor
A good sensor will read 1300 ohms as a basic meter reading and if you spin tire in correct direction it will read about 1 volt AC , you can compare one wheel to another by the wire color pars in the pick hopefully will load
hope to post link to parts list , dependant on the VIN # cross over
There are 2 sets of 4 different part #s for the X300 prodution years
A left will not work on right , has to do with the target ( reluctor ) direction across sensor
Someone was able to use a X308 sensor on a X300 hub ( cast different than X308 ) as related to mount bolt hole and target going across sensor orientation
Will be editing this post # as very slow internet
Last edited by Parker 7; Jun 10, 2025 at 08:12 AM.
On your no chirp the dedicated security speaker can be bad and can be checked that it has the signal use a meter on AC low scale and see it wiggle , best on an old school needle meter and a digital not so much
Ask questions
The ABS module connector comes off with a screw in the center of connector
Last edited by Parker 7; Jun 10, 2025 at 08:44 AM.
Since weather is not that hot i've pushed myself into cooling system flush (hate any fluid replacement work as i would rather do a valve job or any electrical). Drained something greenish and filled with distilled water and Blue Devil flush. Run it around like 20 miles with heater on, let it cool like an hour, then opened the heater, cylinder block plug and radiator. Drained, flushed with water and blowed until dry. Heater have been reverse pump flushed with some extra Blue Devil solution. Then filled with Peak European Blue. Aux heater pump was tested (nothing wrong found) and approved for further service. Actually, nothing has changed except some soapy residue in the coolant tank which was the main reason for the job has been vanished. At least now the blue coolant color fits the cars.
