had some fluid on my garage floor. When the Jag was up on lift, fluid was traced from bottom up to the leak. Saved another 'Low Coolant' msg.

 

I am asking if you used a guide or procedure to replace the tank and crossover line and if so can you please link to the guide

 

Replaced the godforsaken left front ABS sensor cable tonight, was much quicker than nursing it through another 2 1/2 years of intermittent operation. Now with blue cable ties.


Now good for another 20 years? Better repair the spare just in case.

 

1.8L diff oil swap on my 1999 convertible with 164000kms

l took the sway bar off as i was replacing the bushes and end links at the same time. l cannot see how you could do it with it on.....................and stock at 22 years old they were past their best. l also moved one of the cross braces out of the way.

The plug nut was a bear to get out, in the end it took going a bit rural with a 2' adjustable on some bar stock to shift it. l sucked about 1.8L out and used the same pump to replace it with my fluid of choice.

Getting the plug back in was a fiddly PITA

 

Trying to be ahead of the game, decided to start by thoroughly detailing my ‘97 xk8. Because mornings are still best time to wash, I started at 7am. Washed with micro wash mitts, bucket of car wash soap, bucket of clear water, a pile of drying cloths, and a soft wheel detail brush.
okay, watched a long Youtube video(a guy had such a big enclosed space, he could wash a car INDOORS). And I had ALL the right products. Okay, I am OCD...LOL.
Washed car thoroughly, dried car thoroughly. Then, FIRST TIME EVER did the clay bar. Wowzer. What a difference! Carnauba wax will be later today, but the use of clay bar made a huge difference. I didn’t think it would shine like that until I waxed it. I was wrong. But will finish the outside today.
Big smile.

cindy

 

I applied the 303 Fabric Guard to the convertible top. I last did this 3 yrs ago and when I washed it, it was still repelling water.

 

Anything in the video worth sharing the link?

 

Hey Roseville, that red Jag of yours looks great! It's ready for the top down cruise on PCH. .

 

Except for using all kinds of lovely soft, long handled brushes(if you were a woman, I’d say “blush brushes”), probably nothing you guys don’t know. I just Googled “detailing a ‘97 Jag”. Made me envious of his inside space. Admit that I bought a set of soft “detail” brushes, great where a cloth or mitt won’t reach: past chrome on wheels, front grill..and inside vents, etc. Main take-away was lots and lots of micro fiber dry cloths, change often... he had black cloths for chrome, separate ones for tires only, and yellow for car body.. to keep em sorted. And throw away the clay bar if you drop it(I had two, dropped one halfway through..)😬
Sorry , I google so much for “how-to”.. if I find the video again, I’ll post it.

Now waxing...

 

Looking even better with wax....
and you know we’re gonna have rain, right?

 

I changed my secondary cam chain tensioners (over a couple of days). The car is Y2000 and so will have had the first edition tensioners on delivery but the ones I removed are second edition tensioners and both were cracked as below.


RH tensioner which fell apart on removal

LH tensioner which was pretty solid

Looking at the design while it's never good to have cracked casing there is a metal sleeve inside which actually does the business of hydraulic pressure.

Has anyone actually had the experience of the second edition tensioner breaking up in use?

Anyway a job that had to be done and now I know why people say the side with the dip stick is the hard side

 

Spun a rod bearing and found it best to just swap the motor. Found a junk yard doner for $700.00 which I jumped all over, after shopping online and seeing most for nearly double the price and this one was local.
Win Win
I will break down the other one just to see how bad the crank is but I suspect it will be lost.
New engine: oil pan was crunched, the sump was for an xj without an oil cooler and the timing cover was cracked. But I just swapped every thing from the original. So there were some concessions.But! It also came with a power steering pump, a/c compressor and, AND THE COMPLETE THROTTLE BODY THAT I TESTED AND IT WORKS!! And the the engine runs flawless. Very pleased to be back in it.

 

Truly win-win. Well done on some hard work. I am always impressed by the skill and determination you guys have.

 

Replaced both Right & Left Tail lens due to cracked surround failing gaskets with above average Used Units > Very easy Job both look &work as new!
The amber lights were so old the coating was flaking off.

 

Things are gettin' experimental in this house.

Last winter in the midst of a lockdown haze I bought one of on a whim.
It's an 8.8" IPS LCD screen 1920 x 480 @ 60Hz, runs on USB power, it's very bright and does not feature touch,


The form factor seemed fascinating to me - 8.8" of incredibly wide high-res, bright, vibrant IPS picture. I mucked around with it for about a half hour... but couldn't think of anything to do with the screen so I shoved it back in my nonsense drawer. I figured I'd get around to tinkering with it again at some point (once I had an idea). I had a cool plan to put it behind a mail slot for Halloween but I don't have a mail slot so...

Then, last week, out of boredom, I picked up a broken triple-gauge cluster, similarly just to tinker with. And then it hit me.






So what's the plan now?
Perfect the 3D-printed bracket, make it fit behind the fascia properly - so I can screw it in place and permanently affix it to the car if I decide to. Get it rigged up with a Raspberry Pi 4 with power so that it powers up/down cleanly with accessory power.
And then put it in my nonsense drawer until I think of something to actually do with it, lol.

I like the idea of putting OBD-II gauges there (so that they're actually useful) and it'd also be cool to wire it into my head unit so that I can stream Australian radio over the Internet in the 'states. I've got zero experience with Pi-OBD though so if anyone has knowledge and wants to chime in, well, I'll make the finished bracket public here too.

 

"Check Rear Lights" message popped up on a Dunkin Donuts run and of course there were THREE local constables behind me at the drive thru with one tailing me for most of the drive home. I couldn't tell which light it was until I got back home, but they were kind enough to ignore it and turned away a few streets away from home base. Saw it was the driver's side brake light, found one of appropriate size and replaced it. I saw the condition of the amber bulbs (the amber film was all cracked inside the bulb) so I'll replace those soon too. So my first three "issues" with my 2005 XK8 have been the oil pressure sending switch, the mirror switch, and this bulb. I only hope that they remain relatively minor and easy to fix!

 

Glad you didn't get a ticket. Is there a "Check Rear Lights" message on first gen cars?

 

Indeed there is, although it may display as 'Bulb fail rear' (I don't have cruise control). It's frequently caused by a bad ground on the rear lamp cluster(s).

 

Thanks. In my car, one of the brake lights burned out. No display on the dash. Pleasantly surprised how easy it was to install a new bulb.

 

Nope, did not work on front foglight or rear window seal, but trying to get estimates on the two. My understanding is that the access to the foglight assembly is behind a panel in the wheel well, requiring removal of the wheel. Laughed when I read the fellows description of the process as “easy, a few minutes”...And my hands do not work to get rubber back on window, possibly with recommended adhesive. And BobRoy is still tracing down that annoying front end leak.
Of course, there’s the whole coolant issue with PO using wrong coolant(now also looking for flush and fill).
Simply trying to feel comfortable really getting on the road, and hyperventilating the whole while.
I realize these issues are going to happen, especially in an older car.....Wondering how old the ‘97 is in human years, because it reminds me of my own medical tests/issues. So am I 24 car years old or is the car 70 human years?
From what I’ve read on the forum , the “oh my God, what have I done?!” Syndrome is quite common.