IKR! The mounts are still there and no paint damage (but the car needs to be repainted anyway). These things are hard to find and expensive if you do. I am missing the cats on each front fender, the "Jaguar" and the "XJR" logos on the trunk lid. I never had any problem like this with a car accept for Jaguar and Honda.

 

That is what happens when "each according to their needs" is irresponsibly exercised, eh?

Have you found a replacement? I have the only the Leaper I recovered from my 2001 totaled X308 and I do not think I need to keep it around unused in a drawer, provided of course I can find it.

You will need the locking tab clasp and plastic nut to keep it secure in the base, and possibly a spring which all may have fallen down into your lower air deflector when the miscreants ripped the leaper off, or you can try to find a complete undamaged unit from a few salvage yards.

I do not think they can be found new old stock from the dealer but are available online searching as complete sets, CAVEAT the mounting holes are correctly located which change by part number and there are no broken mounting bits on used ones.

Cheers!

 

Luckily, the car wasn't damaged.

 

Test fitted my winter mode wheels today, a set of 17" XK8 "revolver" wheels. Not as nice looking as the asteroids, but they fit and I guess they look ok. Asteroids go back on tomorrow and I'll get the snows mounted and ready to go some time in the next few weeks.

 

Agreed on the “not as nice as the Asteroids”…


I feel the same way about my winter Pentas with Michelin X-Ice Snows.

 

Ken, your car always looks beter, no matter what its rolling on! I love that you daily it and will be driving it in the winter too though...thats why I bought mine.

 

Not at all a bad look! 👌

 

replaced a rear control arm and aligned

doesn’t take much bend to completely destroy the geometry, came in with 3 degrees toe-in and the tire was about to hit the liner

 

Xalty, how did the damage occur on that arm?

 

another car crashed into the wheel supposedly

 

I finally got rid of the rather awful leaper on the bonnet. It will be restored to where I think it originally came from - a desk plinth. The damage the PO had inflicted in putting on such a heavy piece of metal onto the bonnet meant that it was better to buy a secondhand item and get it painted.

While I love the clean look without the leaper and reassure myself that I'm not going to eviscerate some innocent but jaywalking pedestrian, I have to confess that I do miss it a little. I might look for a more lithe and safe ornament to replace it. Or maybe a nice, simple badge??


Look at that horrible base and ugly depression.

Naked!

As originally intended. I just need a nice piece of hardwood on which to mount it - walnut maybe.

 

Hi crash1121,
Don't beat yourself for maintaining a great looking x308. I see you have Colorado registration. How long have you owned that Crimson X308 beauty? I recall seeing several like it for sale from the Springs area and one in Aurora a while back, one had some sort of weird Canadian titling that needed to be sorted out. In any case, I'm in Lafayette and have a IDS/SDD w/ OE Rotunda ACM and Diagnostic Power supply if you need to get anything sorted. Who and where is your cherished Jaguar Technician?
Also the Jaguar Club in Coorado is pretty active in teh Denver and Colorado Springs area and usually turns out a nice presentation of cars at the Colorado English Motoring Conclave every September in Arvada. I recall club membership gets some various repair and parts discounts.

PM me if you want to chat off the main list.

Cheers!

 

Not x308, but
@Addicted2boost any chance you have that kit part number for a 4.2 V8 Rover? I've been looking and it is not intuitively obvious

 

Depending on what year your X350/358 is, I believe there’s an early and a late intake plenum gasket. The one pictured below is an early.

 

This part of the thread should probably go to the x350/358 Forum

Oh , THAT O Ring gasket. I recall my 4.0 in my x308 has one like that,

also different by early and late intake manifold also - early one has a paper gasket, later one has an O-Ring like that one.

In the X350 4.2 I believe one is located at the Throttle Body to Intake Manifold connection and one at the rear where the MAP sensor is, yes?
For some reason I was reading "top half" and "bottom Half" of teh x350 intake as though the intake was split horizontally and there were O rings one for each cylinder intake port. I will have a second look, but IIRC the intake manifold is a solid plastic piece with four gaskets, one each side where it bolts to the cylinder head ports with a single piece L&R metal intake gasket, one O ring on the front for the throttle body and one O ring on the rear for the plate and MAP sensor. Then each injector has a pair of O rings.

Did I miss any?

I probably need to do a pull of the intake manifold and just have a good look as I have a new set of intake to cylinder head gaskets, and that O ring, and need to replace all 8 fuel injector electrical connectors and the ijnector O rings anyway - procrastinating

My model VIN range 2005 G48653 uses separate 4 hole intake gaskets and I do note later style uses rubber two port gaskets.

Cheers!

 

silicone breather hose the old hose cracked and leak

 

Yes indeed. Silicone offers tremendous ROI. It is a shame that the fitted hoses
do not usually have a silicone replacement although there are braided covers
which look nice and keep things healthier.

 

silicone flexible and cheaper than the original plastic breather this cost me 15$
next step the coolant reservoir plastic hose is leaking will use straight rubber one

 

New NGK iridium plugs today. Old plugs ran fine, but some stumbling at idle and they look fairly worn to me. Plugs are shown in order, front of the engine is top of the photo.




Also, new armrest arrived from the UK with some nice cupholder inserts. Looks pretty good, but the inserts are a pretty narrow ID for US cups, so I need to find a new travel mug or some slightly larger inserts. Thoughts?

 

Put a set of 17" revolver wheels on from an XK8. They clear the XJR front calipers just fine. Using a set of Nokian 225/55R17. The tires are a bit narrower than what I was running with my Asteroids so hopefully they are good in a chicago snow storm. Ride quality is a little bit softer and I'm noticing the ASC light comes on a little more frequently. I got a good price on the wheels $200 for the set, the chrome is not really my cup of tea, but I cannot complain at this price.