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It doesn’t rain much here in the Arabian Gulf, but when it does, it buckets down.
Changing the wipers should be a 5 min job. Should be.... not here. Previous owners had mastic/superglued the wipers on! WTF! He didn’t have the right fittings so bodged it. Now I’m paying the price.
Couldn’t get the wipers off the arms and didn’t want to get the BFH out as I could damage things working above the windscreen.
Had to take the wiper arms off to pull the old wipers off. Relatively straight forward so long as you have a Centre puller.
Changing the wipers should be a 5 min job. Should be.... not here. Previous owners had mastic/superglued the wipers on! WTF! He didn’t have the right fittings so bodged it. Now I’m paying the price.
That's a new one. I'm surprised it lasted very long. No hits on Amazon for "windshield wiper glue".
Jamming duct tape into the gaps until it stabilized, however, would have been genius.
but it wasn't easy, even with my girlie hands. Lots of patience required. The HP hose from the bottom of the power steering pump is cunningly placed to make the wiggle room really tight as well as obstructing the upper front compressor bolt. The workshop manual procedure includes disconnecting this line, but I don't possess a suitable crowsfoot.
I needed the 1/4" drive set (and around 18" of extensions) to get to the inboard compressor line as the 'suction silencer' on the compressor return line and the power steering line obstructs anything fatter. Thankfully, the 8mm bolt wasn't in there tight.
The outboard connection to the compressor (on the line that folds forward and has a flexible section) wouldn't come off until I could juggle the compressor forward slightly to clear the motor mount about 1/4" away from the pipe.
Gus managed to get the compressor out front first, but I had to rotate it pulley upwards and drop out backend first as the anti-roll bar was in the way.
Now what to do with those damn trans cooler lines...
Tried figuring out a pop pop creak sound when my driver's door opens. Took the door card off. Greased what I thought was making the noise, but no good. I looked on here and found about the bolts on the hinges loosening up and tightened them up. I then sprayed them with silicone spray. Still no good. It's kinda embarrassing when you pull into a parking spot, have someone looking at the car only to open the door with a fairly loud creak pop creak pop. Oh well I'll figure it out.
Tried figuring out a pop pop creak sound when my driver's door opens.
You may have to take a hard look at the way the body-side hinge is still attached to the sill. It has been reported many times that this are is prone to cracks and typically needs welding repairs. Fortunately, the hinge bolts are (somewhat) accessible from behind the wheel liner. Best of luck, keep us posted.
Timeisrelative,
“Tried figuring out a pop pop creak sound when my driver's door opens”.
I think you’ll find your door retainer strap is loose, that’s the small metal strap that restricts the opening. Look carefully at those small bolts retaining it to the body. Mine were loose and I got that strange popping sound when the door was opened or closed. IIRC it took a 1/4 drive socket to tighten them.
Last edited by White Bear; Dec 24, 2019 at 10:31 AM.
I just got my new Coventry Whitley wheels installed, and changed the oil and filter on my new to me, XK8 convertible. I like the new wheels much better, than the OEM ones. I don't know how long it had been since the oil was changed, but it seemed a bit dark. Next I think I'll do brake fluid flush.
I just got my new Coventry Whitley wheels installed, and changed the oil and filter on my new to me, XK8 convertible. I like the new wheels much better, than the OEM ones. I don't know how long it had been since the oil was changed, but it seemed a bit dark. Next I think I'll do brake fluid flush.
what are you doing with the OEM wheels ? Want to sell them ?
For once this turned out to be much easier than I expected although, since the primary goal was to renew all the rubber, I had the luxury of being able to cut the hoses away from their connections on the firewall. The one to the water valve must have been weeping for a while as the pipe end will need some attention with sandpaper/wire wool to remove its crud coating.
Once the octopus connections and instrumounts were released I was able to remove the bracket complete with both pump and valve by pulling upwards and tilting anticlockwise (looking toward the rear). This meant there was no need to fight with the electrical connectors.
I see from RD's pictures that there's an A/C hose in the way:- that hose routes slightly differently on my car which may account for the lack of drama. The bolts attaching the valve to the bracket are 8mm if you do need to detach it.
JEPC shows a 'water valve heat shield' (MJA6731AA) which is basically just a U-shaped metal? pressing. This wasn't present on my car so it either went AWOL during an engine replacement or wasn't fitted in the first place. Has anyone encountered one?
Last edited by michaelh; Dec 28, 2019 at 06:10 PM.
Reason: grammer
My 1999 XK8 had a semi-annual droopy overhead console courtesy of a half **** bodge job from the previous owner aka mastic, paper clips and Velcro! Yep! Wouldn’t believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes.
I had a recent overhead annoying squeak and the unit then drooped again so I decided to take a good look.
It’s suppose to be held up by 3 plastic tang clips, 2 rear, one in front. The front tang was missing the clip and the rear mounting bracket on the car was missing entirely. 2 brass screws with broken plastic around it.
So the previous owner had put a mastic “plug” on the rear of the unit onto the rear view mirror to hold up the back of the unit. Yikes!
I rooted around my box of spare bits and found a clip for the front plastic tang. Simple temporary fix.
My heater this winter has given me notice that I too may have to replace the auxiliary heater pump if it won't clear by way of a back flush so can you fill us in on just how you pulled this off with resorting to violence?
I previously replaced all of the under intake hoses as well as all of the octopus hoses leading up to the pump but did not do the pump as it had not been giving me any trouble. Figures doesn't that not 6 months later the pump decides to start giving me trouble.
With the wet weather season coming in the Middle East, I knuckled down to spray the convertible top with Ragg Topp sealant. First was a vacuum hoover, gentle shampoo wash, let it dry then hoover again.
Easy job, but needed to mask the car up first to prevent overspray.
All done in approx 2 hours. You have to wait for 15 min between Ragg Topp coats. I went for 3 coats. Can said it needs 24 hours to bond.
At least Ragg Topp said there’s UV protection as I’ll see more sun then rain in Bahrain.
Received a new CAN bus recorder (CANEdge 1 from CSS electronics), so we were 'driving around trying it' in the sunny, perfect 22 C (72 F) day. Not clear how well the recorder worked because I'm still logy from the sun.
My heater this winter has given me notice that I too may have to replace the auxiliary heater pump if it won't clear by way of a back flush so can you fill us in on just how you pulled this off with resorting to violence?
I previously replaced all of the under intake hoses as well as all of the octopus hoses leading up to the pump but did not do the pump as it had not been giving me any trouble. Figures doesn't that not 6 months later the pump decides to start giving me trouble.
Murphy strikes again!
You will need to remove the TB and the coolant reservoir. Removing the two hoses that connect to the firewall fittings is the hardest part normally, from what I've read. I elected to cut them off as i) I was in there to change the rubber and ii) I didn't want to put a lot of stress on those two pipes since any damage there will likely mean getting to the heater matrix. They also make a handy place to backflush the heater core. You might get away with leaving the outermost hose (the one with the non-return valve) in place on the firewall.
A month or so ago I replaced the front sway bar bushing for the 2nd time after about 50K miles of use. Thinks were getting just a little clunky pulling into the driveway, but then again I am really picky about ride quality.
Anyway that made a big difference as would be expected. However there was still some movement that I could feel in the front going over RR tracks or really rough road.
So I decided to go ahead and replace the upper control arm bushings again. That set had about 50K miles on them as well.
When I removed them I was pleased to see that they had held up pretty well, a confirmation that the copper grease I used was a good choice. The bushings were still in way better shape than the originals that went the first 50K miles.
While I had the control arms loose it was a good time to check the ***** joints...all still fine with 100K miles on them. Lower control arm bushings still solid and zero cracks. Florida is so kind to rubber bits.
After this replacement the front end feels really solid now.
So with all that being done I took the time to sort out an annoying "knock/rattle" that was coming from the driver side front somewhere whenever the body flexed a certain way. Was most noticeable with the top up. I tracked it down to a steel line that was able to move a bit. Was really surprised that by moving it very little it sounded like a hammer tap on the body. I solved it with a small section of rubber hose wrapped around the line so keep it insulated from the body.
Was surprised to find that a couple of the plastic retainers for the steel lines had broken apart from age on the passenger side. Fixed those with zip ties so the lines are secure. Forgot to take a pic of those. Sorry.
Over the holiday's..........
Finely got round to changing my front anti roll bar bushes and drop links.
(should read Finally..and not as if i have a mechanic called Finely) ha ha.
I changed the bushes to Powerflex poly and used Meyle drop links.
The old bushes when removed and examined had crack's around the out side edge's
Also the bottom part of the bushes had worn very thin.
It was a right pain to change the bushes but well worth the effort.......
Last edited by XKR-DAY; Jan 4, 2020 at 02:25 PM.
Reason: spelling............
I have finally gotten around to this thread. I am doing some major renovation to the interior, and eventually the exterior of my '06 XK8. WIll get some pix up as soon as I take time to add to my computer.
Christmas Eve had a notification to check gas cap, shut off vehicle, removed and replaced gas cap, thought all was good, less than a mile down the road went into limp mode. Pulled off the road, couldn't find an issue with a flashing light, so I did a hard reset. Didn't know the different things that need reset when that is done, reset the parameters per a thread in the forum and it runs pretty well. Now I can't find a scan tool to clear the evap leak code. Mine can't communicate with the vehicle 2001 XKR, 2016 Bosch scan tool. Oh, and a new AGM battery.
Windscreen wipers
