Just noticed the typical steering shake when doing 120kph on the freeway. Had to drop down to 100kph so next time I stopped, I looked at the wheels and noticed a clean spot, where the adhesive weights were, on the front left. I never leave these problems as the repercussions, on a powerful rear wheel drive car, is not just discomfort but excessive tyre and suspension wear. So headed off to my local tyre shop for checking wheel balance.



As expected, front left needed 30. All others were fine. Job done.

 

Further to my temporary fix (in post #492 above), I finally got all the parts for a permanent Renewal & Replacement (R&R) of this unit. Previous owners had made a real mess in this area. But it's getting tougher and tougher to source some of these plastic trim parts.




This is my starting point. 3 plastic tangs on the console unit having holding clips. One was broken completely and the mounting bracket was missing entirely. As this mounting bracket part no. HJA2057AB was No Longer Available (NLA) from my usual sources and, as it's plastic, I wanted a new one so I got it from an eBAY seller GBP20 who shipped from Lithuania to Bahrain. Cost of shipping was as expensive than the part. The replacement console part LJA2630BA came used/pre-owned from a breaker, Pristine Classics in Co Kerry, Ireland EURO 25. Kudos to my wife, who is Irish, for spotting this.


This picture compares the two units. I made sure I had the same glass breaking sensor model no. and the same connectors, before the purchase. Pristine Classics were great at communications to make sure it was right. They posted to my wife in Ireland who then carried it to me in Bahrain.

First thing to note was the old unit was held up by a mastic/glued mess off the rear view mirror cover. Next thing was my overhead rattle was due to the melted plastic fittings holding the map light units down onto the unit. Some of these plastic blobs had broken and the plastic lense was loose.



This is how the mounting bracket should fit onto the front 2 clips. I strongly suggest you bench test it first as the clips need slight adjustment to fit. It should be secure but not too deep otherwise the open clip lip will push through and it won't come off without breaking the plastic bracket.



Then it's was a simple case of securing the mounting bracket first with the 2nr T30 torque bolts and offering up the unit. Note I kept my bigger clip on the rear tang. i don't want a repeat of my droopy overhead roof console!

Lubed up the clips just to be sure and tested that the roof console could come on/off without incident. Job done properly.... finally.

 

Well done. And yes, these various plastic bits are becoming more difficult to find with each passing year. I try to remember to treat every piece of plastic in this car as if it is made of tissue paper....

 

Spending the Sunday removing surface rust from the area above the rear sub frame, since I have the frame dropped from the body. From the pic below you can see the rust spots, no hard work to remove it. At the same time I inject rust protection into the various semi-closed spaces of the body shell in the same area. Next week I plan to paint the sheet metal that I removed rust from

 

just an oil change and cleaned/polished the chrome rims as they were looking quite grungy. Will need to replace front rotors/pads in the next month

 

Well, it was a chilly 16degC (60degF) when I set off early in the morning. Put the cabin heater on, for the first time in living memory.... guess what.... no heat. Still wasn’t that necessary at the time.

Later I had some time in the garage, so started checking the no cabin heat problem.
1. Fuses ok
2. Relay ok
3. Heater pump is whirring, but who knows if it’s pumping as it’s a magnetic coupling between motor and impeller
4. Onto the heater core flush.

Access isn’t too bad, but the coolant expansion tank needs moving just a little to make room.




Made little plugs from wine corks, so not too messy. Recently got a box of coolant hose tools, so easy enough to remove the 2 hoses from the firewall.




The u turn hook tool is fabulous to break hoses free to pre-empt the alligator wrestle with removing hoses.

You’ll need 5/8” dis hoses to connect to the plugs to the firewall. 1/2” is too small

Put the garden hose on the inlet (previously checked it was the hot one when I ran the Jag) and .... nothing.

Tried upping water pressure.... nothing... cycled hose on max/off for 3 seconds.... nothing switched inlet/outlet.... nothing. Definitely plugged.

Had to button up as my wife wanted another house job done.

Need to get a strong chemical flush and plan to hit this again .... to be continued...,

 

And this, ladies and gents, is how you stay married.

 

Mostly finished with the leaky/broken bits on the most recently purchased one, now polishing/coating.


Before. Swirly. Must have visited the automatic carwash thousands of times.

After. Polishy. Waiting for coating. No automatic carwash for you.

 

Dale - looks good. Good pics of before and after. A lot better than before.

Has anyone had any experience on nano ceramic coatings? Seems to give a deeper shine, but how durable are they?

 

Thanks, yes, magic.

Bit the bullet about 6 months with a ceramic coating (Ctechniq CSL+EXOv3) on my first, and it's still going strong, wheels too (Ctechniq C5). Fairly easy to apply for us 'civilians' if you want to do it yourself. Worked great, even on black, especially on black. The best things are fewer washes to have heads still turning, easier washes, especially for the wheels, no waxing and it's still very very shiny. Only two of mine have garages, the third sits outside, generally. It was coated three months ago and still looks great. So, as of now, worth every penny and expected to last a couple of years with regular washing.

That's what I'm going to do with this one after I finish polishing. Polishing takes a bit of time, however.

 

That came out fantastic! I spent an afternoon paint correcting my 2004 a few days after I brought it home, followed by a ceramic coating. Pleased with the results for the most part, but I think you have me beat!

 

Well I did not exactly work on it today, but I did get my very first CIL and a few codes. It was bound to happen eventually - especially now that I crossed the 100K milestone.

Recently I had noticed a misfire a few times when idling. I cleared the codes and they did not return. Neither has the misfire.

Battery was just replaced last week. I did get my last tank fill at a spot away from my usual trusted pump so it could be just sh!tty fuel quality since it was different cylinders having the same issue. I topped it up today in hope that will solve it.

I am guessing that I could have some work to do soon somewhere.

 

Well, my last 'virgin' rear view mirror finally made itself inoperable, and, in between polishing bits of car, I decided to take it out to send to the appropriately-talented Global Battery-Sybesma, who fixed the last two.

The last two mirror removals were relatively easy, and so I tried to do this one in the shadows without looking. It didn't budge.

With light, it turns out the mirror had been 'shimmed' to keep it in the mount like below (the mirror is extremely loose without it so, some kind of shim will go back in). I'm grateful that they left a bit on the outside so I could remove it. Will do the same when I reseat it.

Shimmed mirror

 

Replaced a couple of tail/stop light combination bulbs. Barely qualifies as "work", really. Ordered a couple of Hella 7528 dual filaments, 5W taillight and 21W stop light. Two thumb screws to remove the cover, and another thumb screw to pull the assembly. The electrical connector easily comes off by pressing the wire lock. The bayonet bulbs twist off and the new ones go back in just as easily. And yes, the message center told me about it (Check rear bulbs), and this time it was not the brake switch!

Hella 7528

 

Well - time for my blocked cabin heater core to get a chemical hit - both ends - inlet and outlet - slowly done using a syringe to avoid air trap.



Leaving it to soak overnight.

 

Geez,

The chemical flush did the trick and cleared the blockage. It’s not all good news though. Did a test run and still no heat in the cabin. Tried tapping the water valve solenoid but no luck.

Well onto checking pipes’ U turns aren’t causing a blockage, then need to check one way valves and then the dreaded water valve solenoid.

If it’s not one of those then I’ll be diving into the Valley.

 

I think a XK8 does not have the extra heater pump like the X308 has, right?
In the sedan a broken aux. pump is the 2nd most common reason.

I guess though that the one-way valves might be a good second target, I can see some gumming up there.

Finally, your weather conditions are a bit the same as mine, I hardly, if at all, use the heater, and so did the previous owner I guess.
My heater core was blocked when I bought the XJ, I flushed it clear when doing some other coolant work.
Since then, I run the heater every once a while (nice when it is 35C outside ....), and it has been working ever since as a result.

 

Well,

The Bahrain temperatures during winter are lovely for convertible top down driving and my hydraulic roof system has been getting a regular work out. Recently noticed a whistling from the rear left quarter window and rubbing in the roof seals. It's annoying especially as it's by your left ear.

Got worst, to the point where the door window and quarter glass didn't sit right any more. Plus the rear quarter window was wobbly as I could move it a little (1/2inch) just by hand. Then I developed a rattle..... So I had to do something about it. I knew well what I was getting into, as I changed the music speaker here and the hydraulic hoses at this location.


The entire back interior of the car has to come out. Looks worst then it is as it's relatively a straight forward strip down.



All this to access 3 nuts holding the window regulator in place. These 3 mounting points provide location and adjustment for the regulator and window.


Bottom right (by the bottom of the seat belt) was a bolt that was superglued in place. To be fair this was tight.



Top right, by the strut, was a loose bolt whose movement had chewed the base steel.



Middle Left, by the top of the hydraulic cylinder ram, was a really loose corroded bolt. Needed a lot of wrenching to get it to seat.

Checked the window alignment, adjusted the bolts a bit x2, and all seemed right and tight. Buttoned up and went for the test drive. No more whistling, but a rattle was still there. So took another look.


The rear left curtain rail (??) for the hood headliner, on the side of the parcel shelf, had worked loose from the plastic fixing. Popped the rail back in and should be good again.

 

I sacrificed a cow on the Jaguar altar.

See what I did with this in my working thread.

 

Did the 50,000-mile routine service on my wife's daily-driver 2015 Lexus RX350. Does that count?