Still laughing at the tag line dmg!

 

Plastic is great because it's lightweight and cheap to replicate.
Plastic is terrible because it crumbles with time or becomes brittle.
Engineers and economist struggle with these facts ad nauseum.

 

For today's fun: Drained and flushed the cooling system, refilled with 50/50 mix of distilled water and Dexcool antifreeze, installed new thermostat, new bypass hose, and replaced the plastic thermostat tower and housing with the Uro parts aluminum thermostat tower and housing. One less 22-yr-old piece of plastic to worry about. I'm sure this seemed like a good idea in 2003, but such parts are a time bomb after so many years. It only adds about $50 in parts for the aluminum housing, and it's "once and done".

 

Never a dull moment with this car.
Driving home, after a 20 mile trip I get a real nasty misfire at low RPM.
Pull out the scanner and plug in.
Cyl 6 misfire
Injection system fault
Misfire bad enough to cause damage to calayst

Pulled the lid off the left bank and pulled the plugs. One's a bit darker but mostly looks ok. Swapped plug positions. Misfire #6.

Swapped the coil packs. Misfire #7.

Replaced coil pack. No fault.


Yup. That's cracked. Bin.

Back to smooth motoring again.

Phil
​​​​​​

 

I might have to replace one or two coils to my car too in next driving season. Basic stuff.

 

My guess is that temperature swings cause cracking such at that.
Oter than a warm garage, I can't think of much that will prevent it.

 

Required a full, real-world test of the brakes and ABS system this afternoon.

Result: This car has really very good brakes.

I had the green and a guy decided that he was just going to turn left across my lane as if I wasn't there.

Fun times.

Phil

 

You didn't have the RPG system working?

 

At the pace he was going that would have caused significant collateral damage. I refrained.

Haha

 

Great, more things. Noticeable over 50-55 I've got a vibration that increases with speed, felt though the base of the seat and becomes audible about 65.

Guess my driveshaft is getting out of balance. Are these joints known to wear and cause this?

Phil

 

I know exactly how that can turn out and it’s not pretty.

 

My first thought would not be a driveshaft; particularly if it seemed to come on suddenly. I'd look for a bent wheel or loss of a wheel weight and thereby unbalanced. Also, a broken belt or other flaw in a tire may do this. Even if it's in a front wheel, you won't always feel it in the steering wheel, and if it's a rear wheel you never will.

 

Ouch. However, at the end of the day it appears the driver was unharmed and the car took the injury.
You can replace steel.

Phil

 

This was the car the XJR replaced. She had been my daily driver for 15 years. I tore a rotator cuff and my wife suffered a fractured sternum - we finally settled with the insurance companies last month after three years.

 

While the car may not be, we are glad you are still with us.

 

It really doesn't feel wheel-y, the vibration is too high pitch for that. To the point it's audible as a drone at 70, so coming to 40-50Hz. At that speed the wheels aren't spinning that fast to make that noise. Mind you, it could be a wheel bearing. I'll have to poke and see, I didn't replace the front bearings, only the rear.

Phil

 

Thanks! While perhaps "off-topic" you'll have to post a photo of the Chieftan - the first car I owned was a '52 Pontiac.

 

It's not a Jag, sorry. By request:


Phil

 

There's a bearing mount thingy (can't recall what it's called) for the propshaft, they seem common enough on here so could be that.

 

It was good when I checked it last, quiet. I'll check it again.