Changed the oil, vacuumed out the inside, and tomorrow heading to the Field of Dreams car show in Horseheads, so up early for another wash + wax beforehand.

 

Spent the afternoon replacing the secondary tensioners, valve cover gaskets, cleaning up VVT Solenoid's etc, all that fun stuff. Get to re-torque everything down tomorrow, prime the tensioners and fire her up!

On a side note, I am also going to be replacing the A-clutch drum & PCV, also ordering a new part load breather hose this week also!

 

Stock 03 with 124k miles, and a k&n air filter. Respectable, I say. That's what I did today, put it on the dyno at the car show for kicks.

 

Well, what did I do to Rusty today? Drove him 150 km (about 100 miles) to pick up a bumper and bought a new interior mirror at the same time (probably bargain of the year at €20 - with no damage what so ever!) and drove the same distance home.

Averaged 8.9l/100 km (should be around 35 imp mpg) in my 3.2l V8 just plodding along at 100 km/h (62 mph). Can't really say that is bad...

 

When I bought in May, dealer told me oil had been changed, so after 4k miles I decided it was time to change. Past weekend I changed the oil to Mobil1 5W30 (w/ Fram filter). Was much easier than I expected. Also changed air filter- didn't look like it had been changed in years & didn't look like the right size for the airbox (generic filter replaced w/ Fram filter).

Only complaint is that it takes a little effort to find filters. AutoZone had Fram oil filters on-line ($10 w/ free shipping, so can't complain). Found the Fram air filters on eBay ($15 at auto parts shop on Long Island).

 

Hmmm...let's see.

1. Vacuumed out the interior and boot. Beat the overlay mats with a whisk to get all the dusty/sandy crud out, and spot shampooed the overlays to take out a couple marks.

2. Leatherique preservative oil on the front seats, parked in the sun, let it soak in for an hour in the heat with the sun beating on it...then buffed off the remainder. Nice and clean.

3. Washed the windows 2 times to really get the schmutz off the interior from the (still) plastic and assorted outgassing.

4. Filled the tank with Shell premium. And then took it for a leisurly 100 mile cruise around the Philly and Bucks County area.

Life is better when you're cruising in a sorted XJ8...A/C working at 72F, new tires quiet and balanced, tunes on the radio, and still a week vacation to go. (My XF was in for its 20K mile service, so had some time to waste....)

 

I feel ya on that. I have an anti-Fram complex these days, though not sure why, but still, no one local actually seems to stock the filters. Ended up with the Motorcraft equivalent from a dealer on Amazon for about 13 bucks. Spent the $ on a K&N Cone filter so hopefully that lasts a million miles or so.

 

Stopped by the VW dealer this morning to pick up some diesel exhaust fluid for my SO's turbodiesel Jetta...and the Dent Wizard guy was there. Now, when I bought the car, there was a door ding on each front door, a couple dings in the bonnet...and a crease on the left front fender right along the bottom front above the bumper cover. No paint broken, but, it bothered me.

My VW sales guy (who's a petrol head regardless, not just a car shill) mentioned that the dent guy was out back...and go ask him to estimate. He did: 150 cash (dealer rate) to take out all the dings in the car.

Hour later...no dents, no dings. Those guys are amazing; the crease was about 5" long (metal was not stretched, so it came right out...), and you can not tell where the others were (except for some minor paint scratching, which came out with compound when I got home).

Car is almost nice enough to sell for a decent price now... I'm pretty happy/chuffed/smiling. It just gets better and better.

 

Well, I had been living with no electrical control of the trunk and no light.
Following tips, I inspected the loom climbing through the right trunk hinge, peeled the black tape off and, sure enough, three wires were simply cut off, as if some gorilla had pulled them apart and with no other damage:
-Red with white stripe -Black -Black with pink stripe.

No material (wire) loss, so I was able to solder them all back together and now I finally have light in the boot and I can open it from all three sources.

No big deal, but having to use the key every time gets old.

Cheers,

 

Fram filters have a very bad reputation in most of the performance car community, I think they spend more on advertising than they do on manufacturing/improving their product.

Poor or non-existent anti-drain back valves and less than optimal filter material make them last on my list.

NAPA Gold filters or Wix are good and usually cost about $15 each, cheap insurance if you ask me.
Vector

 

Replaced the check stop on the driver's door. Easy job: the old check stop had broken apart at the lower bolt. Cleaned up the door breakage on the upper bolt with a couple of washers and installed the new part. Works perfectly: the piece I bought to harden the door went into the tool box, for now; not necessary.

Still struggling with the AC: drained some more pressure, cools better; still not quite right after a half hour drive; added back some freon. Keeping fingers crossed: may yet have to go with a pro. No longer have high pressure on the low side. Cleaned all of the UV fluid off parts once it got darker, using a black light to point the way. Any advise?

 

That is how they were designed in the first place, great to see one happy owner.

 

Or you know that grin you get when you finally can stand back, take a look, and except for perhaps brushing some dust off the bonnet, there really is nothing that you have to do other than jump in, turn the key, and twist the wick up a little?

Sometimes it reaches a point of diminishing returns; that when it goes off to the breaker.

But, no rust on the body, dents out, interior done, engine fine, new tranny, new rubber...yeah, it's got 120K (50K total on the engine...was swapped in...no numbers matching car here...metal tensioners and updated (double row) chains)...it's a good one for a few more years yet.

 

Replaced rotted out, blown mufflers with resonators and tips.

One pipe was broken off at the muffler, I plasma cut the other off at the same spot, welded the resonators on and a small section of pipe, made the hangers, then clamped on the tips.

 

Just changed the rear discs and pads, an easy enough job.... But, the workshop floor was further down than I remembered, and when I went to get up there was a sudden increase in gravity!!!

 

Started her Thursday and oil warning light came on despite oil fine.. then turned her off, restarted her no oil light but she just felt like battery was on the way out.

This morning tried starting her.. she almost caught then died, then turned over very slowly on the key with the battery warning light constantly on.

Brought a new battery for £88 on sale just now so happy with that.. then found earth battery terminal screw mounting broke.

Typical for me .. :-(

Any simple job.. Jaguar spares closed so physically screwed it to the contact and after a load of smoke and rough running she seems ok again. Will leave her till tomorrow now and check she starts ok.

Meanwhile the old battery went to full charge on a battery charger in minutes.. So either she has another issue or the battery is well gone. Have had odd abs errors now and again recently so was suspicious battery on its way out.. She turns over fine with the new battery today so am pretty sure it is it... Will know for definate tomorrow morning gulp

 

Replaced both rear anti sway bar endlinks on my XJ8... No more clunking now! Nice and quiet! And only €10 for both... And not a "no name" brand

 

I like the look of those resonators! How has the sound changed?

 

Today will make a week on this newly acquired 308, oil,tranny fluid change & wheel balancing going down this weekend.

 

Thanks, the resonators are 2.5" in/out with no piping which made the transition from stock to 2.5 real easy.

Sound, I can't really tell inside the car and the only major notice form the outside is at high idle. Nice and mellow, similar to the ftype.