A few days ago I installed a NOCO Genius 2D battery tender/charger.. It uses ringlets instead of alligator clips for the charge wires....permanent installation. The battery was low (12.1) volts when I installed the charger, so I just plugged it in to see what it would do. Red blinking light signified charging...24hours later the battery was topped off (2 amps at a time) and the little Genius was sitting there winking its green "float" light. Very nice piece of equipment...$39.95. So the car is ready for extended summer layup.

Yesterday I took the car over to a local wheel shop that was just reopening after the Corona virus lockdown. I'm investigating the possibility of widening the rear wheels to accept a wider tire. The shop onwer looked at the wheels and said no problem. Then he gave me a tour of the facility. Inside were two large lathes that he uses to section the wheel. I was under the impression that they'd splice in a ring (two welds), but in fact, they use the back half of a less expensive wheel (one weld). There were scores of modified wheels on racks waiting for delivery. Next step is to check that a 15 mm bolt-on adapter/spacer will allow for fender lip clearance.

 

Charles, I love your paint job. Never get tired of looking at these shots.

 

Yes I've been running a NOCO Genius 1100 for a few years now. Really good piece of equipment for sure.

 

Maintenance wash.

 

Finally got my R performance logo from Mina gallery. Took a month just to get to me. Is that the norm for mina gallery?
Wanting to buy their intake tube and a high flow filter for more blower noise. But man, a month is just crazy.

 

Had quite a busy day with the XJR today...Replaced the rear upper & lower shock bushings, spring insulators, sway bar links, and sway bar bushings. I used the drop-the-arms method and it was easy and painless, only took a couple hours for both sides. The wort part of the job was replacing the lower shock bushing, that was a pain. Could not get them to budge with my bench vise or ball joint press, so took the opportunity to buy a stand-up 12 ton shop press, had them out in minutes.

Haven't had the car on the road yet, but definitely found the noise I was having in the rear over bumps. The shock bushings were non-existent, prety much dust at this point. Lower shock bushings were really bad as well. The originl CATS shocks seem to be in great shape so that's good news. Can't wait to get it out for a drive tomorrow and see the imrpovement. Also did front uppper & lower shock bushings, tie rod ends, and sway bar bushings/links the other day. Should ride like a new car.

 

Synthetic clay followed by ceramic wax.

 

Past couple weeks recap:
Alternator stopped working after 40min of driving (commute is 1h10...), started working on the way home then died again after 40mins. Replaced the alt with a reman Denso. Old alt had roasted its slip rings (old junkyard unit)... and as a pleasant surprise, the Denso unit had brand new slip rings in it.

Replaced FR tie rod end with a torn boot, suspecting it was the cause of my creak on FR suspension movement... Nope. Tried tracing it with stethoscope, and chassis ears, and had no luck narrowing it down past somewhere on the FR. Pulled the boot off the LBJ since the traces sort of pointed there, but it was nice and goopy with grease inside, so no dice. Argh. To make things harder, if I jack up the car to look at things, it seems to almost completely go away until I drive for a half hour or so. May have to borrow some ramps and try loosening some of the control arm pivot mounts, see if it's a torn bushing spinning inside itself...

Oil change, and oil pan gasket. Got some very slow oil buildup underneath, hoping that partially solves it. Oil changes are getting much more frequent with how much miles I'm putting on.

Ordered a replacement front left lower rearward control arm, had some delays... In the meantime, ordered a ratcheting 1 1/8 wrench to make life easier with the spring compressors. I'd heard from others that they're some chunky tools, but it doesn't quite put it into perspective until you hold it. Definitely a tool that gets hung out in the open to show off, since it'll rarely get used.


That's a full size keyboard it's next to...

 

Do you have a link to the drop-the-arms method?

thanks
dave

 

A few weeks ago I took my 2000 128k mile 4.0 liter AJ27 X308 for spirited cabin fever induced ride after adding two bottles of Techron fuel additive to a full tank.

It was during the COVID secure-at-home but drives were okay because I needed groceries. After a couple of dozen miles I returned home I parked in the driveway to let the fuel additive work its magic. Two days later I went to run some errands, twisted the key and non-start, just crank and some occasional cylinder fires, cranking like it had no compression. uhoh ...

Thinking maybe something happened to fuel pressure or I had a leaky injector, the next day I grabbed the fuel pressure gauge, screwed it on, twisted the key and instantly there was fuel pressure at 38 psi +/- and held. Cranking however was the same, occasional cylinder fire but no starting, even with some starting fluid assist.

I hooked up IDS and retrieved the DTC's, only some unrelated climate control old codes that I knew about, but nothing new for any engine management other than a P1647 I also knew about for a bad O2 heater to be fixed.

I winched the X308 back into the garage where I pulled the plugs which were lightly damp, and with them were large flakes of carbon. I ran a compression check, minimal compression some less than 5 PSI and none higher that 30 psi. UHOH again ...
Performing a leak rate on all 8 cylinders, each were aggressively blowing by the valves - intake and exhaust. Had spark, had fuel, no compression crap.

Cam covers off to inspect, Cam chains and tensioners are 100% in time and good shape, nothing broken. Go figure? Not really.

Just like my 2001 AJ27 x308, the valves had become carbon fowled after a fuel additive treatment worked too well and too quickly in blasting loose large flakes of carbon, fowling the valves quickly which then necessitating head removal to decarbonize the combustion chambers, re-lap the valves to remove carbon pitting, re-seal the valve stems, adjust the valves lash, replace water and vacuum hoses, maybe I'll get another 128K out of that engine.

So a Caveat for the books. I know others have had issues with the AJ27 valves and seats carbon pitting and losing compression as low as 30k miles. I hope it is not a problem with the 4.2 liter engines on my 2005 XJ8L X350 line ...

The X308 is now pushed back to the driveway - that is what I did with my X308 today. It becomes another project to add to the summer todo list after I replace the interior in my TR250 maybe I'll get to the x308 in several weeks and also do the U/L ball joints ...

@BobRoy I told you I'd need those valve shims on my other XJ8 before I returned them back!!

Cheers!

 

So, due to being "restricted' to home for quite some time now, and being in our busy Spring "horticultural period" where I mow from dawn til dusk, and then have to start over again, added to which we have continued renovation/modification work to the west side area of our house, which has occupied my wife and I four-six hours a day for the last 2+weeks, has meant that the Jag has been sitting neglected in the garage under its car cover.

And now that the virus restrictions have eased, as have the mowing needs, and the work on the west side of the house has been completed.............the heavens have opened up and it has poured with rain for the last two days, and is forecast to continue to do this for the next week or so.

What has this got to do with "What did you do to your X308 today"............well basically nothing, it's not like my X308 will melt in the rain but it's hard to take her out after sitting all polished and preserved under wraps for so long...........so I haven't done anything to my X308 today, or for several weeks, but here's a prior picture just to remind me what she looks like!

 

Today I switched the mirrors from standard painted ones to originals chrome versions. Additionally, I added four new wheel caps in ruby/red. Finally, the new Jaguar StarTac mobile is operating again.

 

Looks great, the rubyreds and the chrome mirrors compliment a beautiful car!

 

I was driving the car Monday morning when it started shuddering and running very badly. When I arrived home and checked the DTC code I got the P0304 code. Replacing the coil did not help and it actually got worse. That's when I got all the codes listed above. I ended up removing all the coils and checking them with a ohm meter. They all have similar resistance readings so I'm not convinced that there was a coil problem. After reinstalling them, the engine still is shuddering badly. I'm not sure if it's an injector problem or a manifold leak but whatever the problem is, the car is NOT derivable. I'm thinking of removing the injectors and fuel rail tonight and checking for any bad O-rings or anything else that may be noticeable. I ordered a manifold gasket set as well so will pull it and replace the gaskets too.
I happen to have two (yes 2) 2000 Red VDPs so I have a spare but this is the main car and I was planning to take in on vacation soon.
Any advice that someone can point to would be most appreciated.
Thanks much, Dave Warner

I may have a problem......

 

Seems you've got three, not two

Did you check the basics before digging into it?
Battery voltage (as always ...)
Fuel supply / pressure (Pump or filter)
Vacuum (leak)
Spark plugs / gaps / oil in the wells

It also helps if you have a simple app like Torque or Torque Plus, plus the OBD dongle, so you can read some other live values.
I am thinking timing (knock sensors), fuel mixture (Long and Short Term), and the MAF.

Although some of these should effect the whole engine, or at least a whole bank, I had some issues like this when a vacuum hose snapped on our SLK.

 

Well, I had three. The original one got crashed and I ended up buying two more.....
Fixed the problem. There was a very small bolt stuck in the intake valve on cylinder 4. Not sure how it got there but it must have been in the intake manifold for some time and finally got lifted into the 4th cylinder. Now that I think if it, I was taking a fast left turn off the interstate when it started acting up.
I removed the fuel rail and intake manifold and replaced all the gaskets and O rings. Put it all together and it's running great again! My son who has a 1999 XJ8 came over and we did it in a couple of hours as we both have a lot of experience on these cars. We've had five between him and me.
Love the forum and appreciate all the help over the years.

 

I'm super happy the bolt did not slip in past the valve or there would be a much worse problem! When I removed the intake manifold and looked into the #4 intake hole it was plain to see. Pulled it out with a magnet and put the car back together. I put my inspection camera in there and checked the valve and the seat and nothing looked damaged. The car is running better than before. I could see some of the manifold gaskets were leaking so the new gaskets resolved that!

 

David,
OH NOOOOO, another owner with twins!!! Mine were light Blue, a 2000 and a 2001.

How many miles?

Before you start Easter egging the problems with part exchanges chasing the codes, check some of the basics like compression, spark plug condition.

Oh reading the subsequent threads, it WAS a compression issue ... okay.

That is exactly what happened to my 2001 X308, and after chasing all the codes I went back to the basics, found had poor compression and valve blow by that I should have checked the mechanical issues first. But I did not find a bolt, only carbon. A bolt could have been catastrophic, lucky you!!!

Cheers!


After repairing the mechanical issues, I then found out my ECM was bad - Dreaded Previous Mechanic had reset the ECM by unplugging the connectors with he battery connected - dealer confirmed there were hard CPU errors in the ECM.

 

Today i thought i'd move on to checking the tensioners...


Spotted it?

 

Looks like the original plastic MK 1s.............. and looks like the top runner is missing?