In EU windscreen prices has skyrocketed in last three years. I replaced my car heated windscreen with rain detector. It was 500euro with job etc included. This was three years ago. Last summer screen had stud hit and it started to crack immediately. This time the price to glass only was 1500euro(1600usd). Stopped the crack instead..

 

My insurance excess on a new screen is either £75 or £100 from memory & it's not a claim that puts the price up the following year, hence planning to do it that way.

 

I drove mine to work - which I do every day it's not snowing! Just had the 150,000 mile service done at Aristocrat Motors in Kansas which included replacing the timing chain and full fluid drain. Love the car, but wasn't expecting the $9,600.00 service charge!!

 

Jesus! £10K service charge! That’s some hourly rate they’re charging!

 

Every so often, its nice to get a real world reminder of why I do 99% of my own maintenance. That service almost twice the cost of my 01 XJR.

 

Today I am putting my 1999 Seafrost XJ8 3.2L 67k miles up for sale. I have enjoyed 5 1/2 years driving my car and spent over £8k on bits and pieces including replacing tensioners and having a full respray to the original colour. But now I have decided I want a F-Type and will be going to see one tomorrow. It will be sad to see it go, but the other half has indicated one of my Jags has to go.

 

Doug, maybe you want to rethink this: A X308 is from the Ford-era, A F-Type is from the Tata-era...

Although: The idea of the F-Type started under the concept name XK180. I have been sitting briefly in one of the two XK180 concept cars back then in Coventry in 1998.
This means that basically the idea of the F-Type started under Geoff Lawson and Ian Callum - and I loved the XK180. However, I don't appreciate what the F-Type looks like now.

The XK180 and F-Type CONCEPT cars had the sex appeal of a D-Type, the Tata-F-Type, however, resembles more a Mitsubishi sports car and similar cars, which I would never consider...

 

I replaced my rear vent panel because the vents were broken. Apparently the breaker sent me a panel with 12v so that's nice, the connector was already there so it was plug&play. But upon taking out the old panel, I noticed the air vents are blocked and not going anywhere it seems? Not sure why they're even there then...





Also popped in some AliExpress gas struts so the hood hopefully can stop falling on my head while doing engine work...

 

Vents go around the center console storage box, so you should feel the vent continue towards the outside. Flow to the rear passengers is terrible though.

 

Huh, it really seems like the vents in the panel are going straight into the blocked off section behind, there's even insulation material around the block-off plate. Strange design either way. Good thing I rarely have rear seat passengers

 

FINALLY FIXED THE ABS ISSUE: After removing and cleaning the ABS sensors on all four wheels, I still had intermittent ABS light (and related traction control, etc). So I broke down and bought replacement sensors (pretty cheap on Amazon: $19 for two). Replaced the left Left Front: light returned whenever crossing some underground electric cables, particularly the in-ground gate sensors at our condo -- I have pretty well mapped the many spots in Virginia Beach where the light would be set!). Could reset the light by shutting off the ignition, restarting and rolling one turn forward). Moving to Right Front: success. Light stays off through most drives; will only (so far) come on after crossing the gate sensor field, but turns off soon after). Never turns on over the other known electric/magnetic spots. As soon as the next two sensor arrive from Amazon, will replace the rear sensors to see if that fixes the issue over our gate sensor field. Probably would have been easier diagnostic if I had an OBD reader that could read C codes (C1145, not C1155).

Trouble starting last Sunday. P0128: new thermostat en route from Rock Auto; already received a new crossover pipe and temp sensor from Barrett. Fortunately TST is stuck OPEN and it is warm enough it starts . . . should be easy; rest of hoses and water pump and TST tower look new . . .

 

It may not be the sensors only. cables to the sensor can be broken too.Cables can be difficult to diagnose being firstly very ocassional fault. I had a 4 yo car in for a abs light diagnose. It showed for both front wheel sensors. I had a suspicion about both being broken. As light in the dash did not come on always. Replaced sensors and went for the test drive. No faults no errors. Customer leaved and called back in couple of hours.. Turns out that both front wheel sensor cables were broken. Errors came on only when wheel was turned all the way to the left. What I did not test as I turned all the way to the right when parked the car after job.

 

How does a broken cable like that even happen? You would think there would be enough
play engineered into that unit to offset any chance of that happening.

 

Owing to me loaning my daily driver Volvo to my best friend for a week whilst he is without a car, I’ve been daily driving my XJR. This is really the first time I’ve had a chance to properly get to know the car, and after owning three N/A XJ8s I can see there is a big difference in the behaviour of the XJR. Aside from the obvious being speed, there’s lots of little things too.

It’s been nice driving her around, not so nice dealing with the fuel consumption versus my diesel Volvo, but now it’s time for her to come in and begin a period of renovation. I’ve got her booked in for some welding work in April to rectify some past bad repairs then I will be spending some time dealing with other small issues.

I’m still amused at the surprise people get when they try to bully me on the motorway and then end up looking a tit when the old car they wanted to pass is now a green spec in the distance.

 

Stu, you could’ve loaned your friend the XJR instead?

 

Yes, I basically re-purchased my car, but if you've ever researched replacing the timing chain and tensioners, you'd know why I had the dealer do it. My repair bill was high, but I now feel like I can cover another 100,000 miles without worry of a terminal engine failure (I've had one of those in a previous XJ8 and it isn't pretty - $13,000 for the new engine).

Half of the bill was labor - money well spent in my opinion.

 

Keep 'em on the road, and do whatever it takes to keep 'em going.
These ladies have a class that is distinctive and nothing compares.

 

He was lucky to get the Volvo to be honest, but that’s easier to replace in the event of a you break it scenario 😝

I did enjoy driving my R daily though, but unfortunately my lifestyle dictates I require what my XC70 is. Can’t go pulling racing trailers across muddy yards, carry two dogs, load up with a haul of parts or be able to do 500 miles on a single tank of fuel with an XJR.

 

Replaced the thermostat: easier ten years ago when I replace the TST Tower, water pump and hoses. Arthritis makes every job a challenge.

But done! No P0128; no leaks; no overheating . . .

Time to start using pros . . .

 

Changed out my tie rod ends. Thanks to NYs use of corrosive materials in the winter the tie rod basically welded themselves to the inner tie rod. 30 min job turned into half a day.