Bought the car in 2006, has been great other than problems created by my driving (Pacific Blue, White interior, now about 44k miles)! Just discovered the forum today by "asking my computer" how to fix my power headrests, best solution was Reverend Sam's totally excellent 2 part youtube video! I was so entertained I had to watch a few more of his videos and almost forgot to try the fix before it got dark. ( I especially like the closed caption countdown for the foul language in the transmission fluid video, and I think in one of the bushing series the break for "30 minutes later", and then "Another 30 minutes later").
This was my first ebay purchase of anything, and I bought it for less than a new Honda Accord. I have nothing against Honda, but no contest on which I'd rather drive. It was my second Jag, first was a 1976 XJS. I loved that car, unlike many "real Jag afficionados" who for some reason saw it as not a real Jag. BUT, it's reliability was pretty bad. "Lucas Electric" was a term I came to dread, might as well put a vacuum cleaner head on your wallet! I'm sure I replaced every fuel injector at least twice during the time I had the car (big money on a v12!), also replaced the steering rack, inboard rear disc calipers (outside my apartment in Colorado in winter!), to name a few of my more memorable repairs. Alternator, battery, air conditioning cam system. Lots of fun, lots of money!

To other newbs who are more newbie than I am, don't be scared by the problems you read about here. A lot of cars will not see a lot of these problems, and at least you probably own a more reliable car than if you had a 70's era XJS! My XK8 has been super reliable, and it's also gets the highest mpg of any car I own (someone eventually did something about that leaky fuel injector design, I guess).

At any rate I attempted the seat headrest fix on the driver's side today (both sides need it). It turned out I was running short of time, but had no shrink wrap tubing, and didn't want to go Sam's initial duct tape route. So I stuffed the cable back in as far as I could, put everything back together without even removing any of the outer cable, and it works! Might not last, but if it doesn't I now know how to go back in and do the whole enchilada if I have to. Without Sam's video, I wouldn't have known where the motor was and probably would have broken some of those seat clips before figuring out they were there (My JTIS isn't working since I have W7, but I see someone has posted a fix for that so I look forward to trying that as well). Or probably would have just stopped when I couldn't slip the carboard insert out!

Thanks already!

I am a little worried about hydraulic fluid spewing from the top reservoir after reading a lot of posts about that. Hopefully it won't be hard to fix, because top down weather is in full swing finally in Ohio.

Pat Clark
2003 XK8, Pacific Blue convertible, white interior, 44K miles

 

Welcome to the forum Pat,

Nice Intro! I'm glad to hear that the XJS didn't dull your enthusiasm for Jags.

You will find there's plenty of discussion on the green shower for you to wade through.

 

I was a shavetail USAF Lt when I bought the XJS in 1982, really had no business doing that with little money and no garage. As much as I love Jags, it was pretty tough having that temperamental baby as my only car.
My favorite story about the XJS was definitely not fun at the time. I was driving from Boulder, Co to San Antonio to visit my folks, only had the car a couple weeks. Just west of Tumcumari, NM some guy in a Mustang blew by me, and uncharacteristically, I decided to give chase (hey I'd never had a car that I COULD give chase with before, the temptation was too great!). I buzzed by him probably at about 110 mph (the roads are really straight and smooth out west, or they were then) - very satisfying moment. Ten minutes later I exited to get lunch at McDs. When I got back into the car it wouldn't ignite (cranked just fine). No one in town was qualified to look at it. Had a guy with a flatbed tow it to the local fleabag motel (I could afford that), I knew I was going to be in Tucumcari for awhile.
I had thankfully bought the factory repair manual and started reading. Since everything was working fine before I stopped, I assumed it was electrical rather than fuel oriented, and decided to order an ignition amplifier, since discussion with Jag/Albuquerque said this might be a strong possibility. A day later (no Fed ex in those days), the bus delivered the part, I put it in the motel parking lot, no joy! Back to the manual. On the third day (is this a resurrection story? Guess the 3rd day makes sense), I agreed to pay the tow guy to load it up on his flatbed to take back to Albuquerque. No vacation for me, I thought.
An hour before we were going to meet to load the car up on the flatbed, I reached the very last page of the manual (I didn't read a lot that wasn't relevant). I just about knocked myself out hitting myself on the forehead when I saw what was on the page. When I got out of the car at McDs, my leg had knocked off a piece of plastic in front of the door just inside the car. I had jammed it back on and it stayed in place. The manual called this the "Fuel Inertia cutoff switch", and it had a button on top that disabled fuel flow in case of an accident. I had apparently disengaged the fuel system by hitting this button!

I ran out of the motel, reset the button, and YAHOO! San Antonio bound!

I made a point of not stopping in Tucumcari on the way back to Boulder! Not superstitious, but 3 days in Tucumcari was enough for me!

Pat
'03 XK8 conv, 44k miles

 

welcome Patk, sounds like you'll be an appreciative owner, and knows how to address most of the little stuff that is bound to need addressing on the 8 year old car...believe me, Sam and I both know this well.

Enjoy your stay, lots of good stuff to learn and share in return. No pic of the blue xk8...that was my initial preference for color, but couldn't find one when I was looking!

 

Welcome to the site

 

Thanks Matt,
I was pretty lucky to get mine with 22k miles, a small dealer in PA got a bunch of XK8 lease turn ins that were all in great shape (I would've bought two, but my wife was ready to kill me as is for buying something that expensive on ebay). I definitely wanted the blue, but every one of any other color I saw I thought would still be the best looking car I ever owned!
I've already read a bunch of posts of yours in looking through the forums and trying to keep straight all the good advice in my head how to find them when/if that issue ever crops up with me. I can tell already this forum that it's going to be a blessing as my XK ages either gracefully or not!
I'll get pics up as soon as I can, I thought that was restricted till I get a few more posts.
I work from home as a software consultant, my wife's already commented that discovering this forum is hurting my productivity. I told her how much money I probably saved with Sam's headrest info! She caught me laughing uncontrollably last night when I was watching Sam's transmission fluid change. Anyone that's been in one of these "repairs from h*ll" cycles has got to love that, pretty much seeing a mirror image of yourself. It helps knowing others are going through it!

 

Thanks Keith!
British Racing Green!

 

Hello Pat and welcome to jaguarforums.com. I know that you are anxious to get started and we are anxious to meet you and talk about your car. We have a baseline / criteria that must be met before full access can be granted. Please enjoy the forum and be patient once the baseline has been satisfied full access will be granted. Please continue to post and accept my welcome to the forum.

Oh one other thing you need to put your car details in your signature. I am speaking of the Year, Make & Model. Without it you may not get the input you are looking for.

Please take a moment and read the information provided to you explaining the rules. Be patient and enjoy the site.

 

Hi there Pat welcome aboard the forum, good to have you here
EXCELLENT intro and thanks for the info too......Glad we could help some!

Some great guys / DIY'ers and top techs here all friendly and willing to help if able.

There's also more than a few laughs and plenty going on in the Off Topic sections + the regional areas, so check them out.


I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can immediately enjoy all the benefits this site has to offer, enjoy the site.

 

Thanks, Jim! This is an awesome resource, I wouldn't have discovered if I hadn't been trying to figure out the headrest thing, been lucky not to have other problems so far. Kind of weird that it took so long now that I think about it, since I work with computers and the net all day long!
Thanks for keeping the site "under control", I only ran across a few conflicts, and those were pretty tame. Mostly to do with the hydraulic vs. electric pressure reduction technique. I was surprised to see the posts against the electric camp. Being an electrical engineer, it seemed like anyone who's used a blender at different speeds could appreciate how this could work. Toying with Lucas Electric systems is a bad thing, but this "isn't your grandfather's Jag". Just like most other systems, the electric is much better than it used to be. Not sure about where Tata will take the company. I've got an Indian friend who said because of the crowding and bad roads, there are very few places where you can drive faster than 35 mph in India. What kind of Jag would that make?

Always wanted to visit Scotland, I guess if all the girls are wearing the t-shirts in your sig block, I should have visited when I was a young single guy!

 

Welcome to the forum Pat, you will find that we are a pretty easy going bunch and don't take ourselves too seriously. That's not to say we cant have some lively discussions along the way.

 

Hi again Pat...we've got alot of engineers running around these forums, apparently we're attracted to jags?!? Anyway, you may have noticed several of the aforementioned engineers are EEs...myself, well I'm a civil, and got a C in my electrical class. As such, I'm not as comfortable, nor as capable of understanding the electrical solution. But, I do understand valves and fluid hydraulics, and thus I lean in that direction. Logic like that is typical in humans I think.

Anyway...still waiting on a pic in this thread buddy...don't make me place you on my 'moderator watch list'

 

Picture of my son in the car at my brother's house after letting him drive it back from a soccer tournament in Evansville, IA. That'll definitely put a smile on a teenager's face!



A different photo! Rear view mirror shot. Driving yes, with the top down and windows up ("not cool, Dad", says the same son! But I like the stereo better that way, especially when its cold and speed is high - but those heated seats are nice also!). And yes, I am wearing a Harry Potter hat my kids gave me. I know I need to up my fashion sense, but family says it's way too late for that kind of intervention.



Out the front window view. Honestly can't find the mass of pictures I took when I first got it, in a digital backup somewhere I guess.

Matt, it's funny in the last couple years I've wished I would've looked at CE more closely as a major. When my roommate at USAFA was in it, he was always talking about sewers and concrete, and I wasn't that interested back then. But now, bridges, roads, buildings, amaze me a lot more than they used to.

Aggies rock, but not as much as Longhorns! I was born in San Antonio, once a Texan, always a Texan!

The top fixes are both cool. I was ready to hop on the hydraulic fix myself till I saw how simple the electric one was. It may be a little more iffy with the ignition off, but I've been covered in just about every kind of fluid imaginable with the XJS I had, so my tendency is to not open up any lines unless something's already leaking. I think we're incredibly blessed to have these guys put together two fixes to choose from that we can do without expensive tools! I know its self bleeding. But one of the guys ended up having to remove the pump to get the torx bit out of the plug, and sounds like that was a little more than the self bleeding could handle. With one person, bleeding can be a real pain for brakes, not sure how this would be done here since I don't even know if there are good bleed nipples. Yes, my son should be helping me, but he's away at school. Even for me as a EE, electricity is still magic, but if I can get Sam's plug inserted in 10 minutes, I'll take that magic!

I know I'm tending towards very long posts, I promise to reform!

 

Thanks, Richard!

 

Pat, I didn't know you were Translator's father.

Translator:


Your son:

 

Oh yeah... glad I could help with the headrest fix. It's going to break again, so you should go ahead and buy yourself some of that fancy heat shrink tubing with the adhesive stuff inside. Regular Radio Shack heat shrink won't last. You can buy the fancy stuff at West Marine or online. Just google "adhesive heat shrink tubing".

And if my videos make you laugh, this thread will have you rolling on the floor. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/o...ination-40572/

 

Hang on a sec... I was confused. That second picture is YOU! Doesn't this forum have a rule against alternate identities? You and Translator look like brothers... twins even.

 

Great looking car I don't know what it is with all of you people at Texas schools, aTm and TT aren't so bad, but those Shorthorns, yuk I went for Architecture at Nebraska (Go Huskers ) so I got to deal with Civies (a little) and Mechies as well as Construction Management people.

 

Sam,
Richard/Translator and I were offered the roles in the movie "Twins" before they selected Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was supposed to pick Richard up in my '76 XJS and drive out to the set in California, but the car wouldn't start, and the rest is history...
Keith , I want to make sure I point out I wasn't a UT grad. My Dad was a Longhorn and brainwashed me for years about the correct way to treat Aggies. I've learned to be civil in spite of that! Only experience I've had with any Texan is they're smart, generous, and best of all patriotic!
I grew up in Colorado, and hadn't ever been to Nebraska. My Dad bought me a "Ski Nebraska" poster that pictured a guy standing in a corn field looking for a hill! I've spent quite a few business trips since then going to Offutt AFB, enjoying Nebraska steaks from time to time!

 

Sam, you bring back fun memories! From time to time I find myself recalling this post and laughing at Translator... or is that laughing with him at his search for the solution to this dilema! And BTW, I agree that they appear to be twins separated at birth.