Aye my soldering iron needs new tips, so that's a good excuse to ignore that for now. I know where the gears are after all, so it's much less annoying than not knowing what temp the heater is set too, or how cold it is outside.

 

New water pump, secured with all bolts now.


Replaced thermostat, which was the problem all along.

Seems to be good now.

Phil

 

Running solid. That was awkward and worthwhile.

Phil

 

Sweatshirt? Nope.


Phil

 

I spent a couple of hours cleaning the interior of my XJR yesterday, as it was utterly filthy (much worse than I'd ever seen it) since coming back from welding. When he'd stripped the interior out he'd obviously just left it in the workshop uncovered. The mess was terrible & it stunk of burning. Mostly sorted now but annoyingly there's a few marks that won't clean up & damage to three door cards. I'm really not impressed as the very nice interior was one thing I loved about this car & I won't be able to not see the marks now.

Oh & spotted the radio isn't fitted square so I need to redo that, but luckily that'll need to come out to replace the blown bulbs in the heater display anyway. I won't even rant about how the clips that hold the B-pillar trims in place don't clip in at the bottom so they're loose now. Something else I'll have to look at or it'll bug me forever.

 

I feel your pain. I anticipated a lot of these problems when I had significant under-body floor pan to sill welding repairs down both sides this summer. I'd heard good reports of the garage and it looked pretty clean, but I thought it inevitable as soon as the owner said all the seats would "probably" need to come out and floor carpets peeled back to allow the safe welding from underneath . . . that my beautiful ivory leather seats would be sat on with dirty overalls and mauled by greasy hands for the 2.5 weeks it eventually took for the work.

So anticipating potential disaster, I took out the rear seat and passenger seat and gave them a detailed clean and leather conditioning safely in my front room, whilst Jilly the Jag was away in the garage. My brother even suggested to take out the drivers seat and use a "milk-stool" to get it to the garage!!! . . . and I was sorely tempted. I also very carefully removed the plastic end clips of the chromed "Jaguar" sill panels before less gentle hands applied brute force to shift 'em.

I still had to clean all leather that remained in the car AND Tcut the lower half of all outside panels for the fine particle "over-spray" of the black underseal paint and dirty marks upon her return. The welding was absolutely first class and "the perils of the garage" were a necessary evil. A bit like having a bad tooth sorted . . . it gotta happen one way or another. I recently accidentally ended up with various spirit dyes leaking onto the drivers seat when I carelessly dropped a spare length of wood on which I been experimenting with wood dye colours. The ex-wife swore that isopropyl alcohol would lift the stains and it did. I just thought she was trying to kill my new love . . but no.!!!

So isopropyl alcohol might clean your "nasty stain" but of course proceed with extreme caution.

All the best

 

Honestly, your gut instinct is correct.

Removing everything yourself that's needing to come out of an area to have work done is never a bad idea. Garage will be pleasantly surprised when all they have to do is wedge the wires out of place and remove bolts that have already been removed, greased and replaced to pull the seat out.

​​​​​​If it's all at home tucked away safely then it cannot get welding and grinding spatter all over it.

Phil

 

Lunchtime today I took the overhead console out and replaced the two light bulbs in the buttons which had ceased function, polished up the reflectors and cleaned the lenses.

It all works now, which is nice.

 

That looks better.


Found the source of the burning oil smell. Hiding under the intake pipework, rear corner of the passenger side cam cover was weeping because the whole thing is warped with age. Sealant only at the block/head joints? Nope. Full bead around the lower half. That should keep the oil in.

Cleaned the glass, added a little bit of adhesive foam to the top of the high level brake light to stop it chattering against the glass over bumps. Figured out how to set the station presets on the aftermarket radio that's in the car. Happy now.

Phil
​​​​

 

If it'd looked like that much work, then I would have done. But the original problem was a small patch that grew massively way past what I'd have thought possible.

 

Drove a 65 mile round trip, that was fine.

Went out, got a mile from home, got stuck in gridlock so sat and idled in P for 7-8 minutes. Traffic cleared, put it in D, pulled away and check engine light.

I'll go AutoZone tomorrow and get them to pull the codes and see what it's complaining about. Not sure, it's still running ok.

Phil

​​​​

 

P1571 Brake Switch Malfunction.

 

I would agree, but I put it in P and applied the handbrake. My foot wasn't on the brake.

The scanner at AZ didn't return anything.

Also, I don't recall the VVT solenoids going click click click click when the ignition is switched on. Maybe I just never heard it before now. Both do it simultaneously. (Nice to know they work I guess).

Phil

 

There’s 2 separate micro switches inside the brake switch. One for the brake lights and the other for the cruise control. I’ve seen one of the 2 micro switches get sticky before and may not have fully released while the other one did.

 

The cruise still works properly, so I don't know if it's that. I did a few drive cycles last night and it didn't clear either.

 

I'm under the impression that, if the MIL is lit, there HAS to be a code in there. I've never experienced a situation otherwise. Maybe the AZ scanner just reads basic codes and you've got a chassis code or vendor code going on.

 

Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking might be the case. I'm going to bring it O'Reilly tonight, that's a bit of a drive from here, and see if their scanner does any better.

I pulled the battery but it didn't clear the light so it's definitely written the error to memory.

Failing that, I've been looking at OBD-II tools to buy.

Phil

 

I use a Foxwell NT630 and thus far its never had a problem with any car I've connected to.

 

Optional rear panel installed, to provide the lighter socket outlet in the back.
Now, the two phone users who sit in the back have means to charge said phones. I have a USB plug-in for it.
That seemed the tidiest way to make that happen.

Phil

 

I've had that recommended independently a few other places also. I think I'll grab me one.

Will it read the chassis codes also?

Phil