[QUOTE=Quietgiant;2405986]
I agree! Leapers are classic.
Yo, Grizzley. I agree that Leapers are cool too![/QUOT
I might have walked right passed it without it, it's what caught my eye...should have been standard issue.

 

Ahh, the Great Leaper debate! Hood ornaments are illegal in most countries unless they fold flat on impact with a pedestrian. The Jaguar leaper would quite easily rip out a pedestrians intestines, *********, liver etc.

The MB thing folds flat, the RR Spirit retracts into the radiator, the leaper is a blunt knife. If you could find away for it shear off on impact,,,someone would steal it.

wombat

 

 

Funny!

When I added the last car to our insurance (USAA), I specifically asked if I had a hood ornament, they said they would happily insure the car, just not any damage caused by an after market add on. I read that as injury to a pedestrian from a leaper would be from my pocket.

I happen to like them, just not willing to take the risk.

Each to their own.

wombat

 

[QUOTE=Grizzley1;2407558][QUOTE=Quietgiant;2405986]
I agree! Leapers are classic.
Yo, Grizzley. I agree that Leapers are cool too![/QUOT
I might have walked right passed it without it, it's what caught my eye...should have been standard issue.[/QUO
I can't believe that having the leaper on this model is a rarity, I also would not have bought it without it. As a matter of fact the fact that it was whatever they call this blue, caught my eye, (I was on the way to the BMW dealership when I saw this on the lot,so I pulled in) After a test drive on the highway I told the salesman I had to have it, my wife was in the back seat and turned beet red,as I was going about 95,with no effort, and the leaper cinched the deal. True story, I came out of 7-11, there was a guy looking at my car and asked why mine looked better than his, I looked and told him first you need the leaper, and that mine was blue and not black like every other one,he looked and then agreed, telling me that he was going to pop for the $800 for it. Whether he did or not I don't know, but the look on his face said he was.

 

Looks so good. I really like the color, do I see a grayish tint to it?

 

Thanks @EresCuloFace . I just noticed the grayish tint in the pictures, I think it's just because of the time of day and maybe reflections from the asphalt that make it look like that.

 

Today I addressed a few things. I see that my supercharger boost bypass actuator is cracked and crumbled away at the base. I cut the end off and plugged it back in but need to replace this later this week, no codes or missing boost conditions as I think it's normally open and I don't WOT every day.

Fixed a front end clunk, lower drivers banana arm was a bit loose in the nut. I added about 40 lb ft and the play was gone and so went the clunk. The bushings themselves are fine, I think whatever tech touched it last didn't final torque to spec.

Noticed a potentially major problem. Checked oil level before work today, and it read underfilled. Typically this is a large amount. I keep LiquiMoly on the shelf for oil changes and spare oil/filters. I topped off 1.5Q and it read full to the 8/8 bars. I later pulled up live oil readings on my Autel and it showed roughly 5.25L on 6L capacity. My understanding is this live reading is more of a rough ratio. So it seems more likely that the oil is indeed full and I did have some loss over the last 2/3 months. This much loss is unusual so I took the underbelly trays off. No oil at the brake vacuum pump (I replaced gasket 4 months ago).

The only oil stains I could see were where the bell housing mates. I am hoping this is just an old stain and that my starter is not getting flooded with oil. I tightened the fasteners about a turn each just in case. Cleaned it off completely and will UV dye it tomorrow. You can see my starter below.

 

That may be the rear main seal. Mine has been slightly weeping for years. Hasn't gotten any worse.

 

That's my guess as well. But a quart or two every few thousand miles is a bit concerning to me. I am starting to monitor now that I've noticed it. It's mostly toiling because this is on a salvaged motor, so it could have been exceedingly easy to replace it as cheap insurance when I had it installed.

 

I forgot about this thread! Lots of stuff going on with my out-of-state move and all that. Here's a list of things I've done over the past few months:

-Velocity AP 200 Cell Cats - My OEM passenger side cat was fried thanks to the injectors on that bank failing last year. I needed to get rid of the CEL so I could pass state inspection. I ordered the cats during VAP's Black Friday sale and didn't get them until early March thanks to all the materials and manpower shortages around the world. The cat pipes are slightly different on the post-2012 XJs, I believe, in that the entire unit extends and bolts up just in front of the first resonator, while the earlier versions (and VAP's version) cuts off much sooner. So I had to measure and cut the pipes in the right spot and use a bit of muffler sealant along with some heavy duty clamps to get them secured, but it all worked. No leaks at all. I was surprised that the actual volume of the exhaust didn't increase, it just changed the note. It sounds quite nice.

-While working on the cats, I noticed that the driver side rubber muffler hanger in the rear was beginning to tear. I called up my new local dealership and they wanted $80 a piece for them...so I got some off ebay for $8. Removal and replacement was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, had to loosen up the muffler clamps and use some WD-40 to lube up the stiff new hangers.

-While I had the car straight and level up on jack stands, I thought it would be a good idea to drain and refill the transmission fluid again (last time was summer 2019). I used Redline D6 again. Also did another drain and refill of the diff oil (last time was spring 2018).

-Installed the IDCORE Carplay unit from Unique Auto Developments. I ordered the unit on a Monday and received it from the UK by Thursday. Considering I had never taken apart the interior on this car, the installation was quite simple. The wireless Carplay works perfectly, very pleased with this upgrade.

-I saw a thread where some of the XF folks were putting specialized LED strings in their interiors, squeezed between pieces of console trim, etc., in a color that matched the OEM lighting. So I got some off ebay in an "ice blue" color and installed it outlining the center console from the screen down to the armrest cubby latch. I hardwired the string to the wires powering the ashtray/cubby-thing light. The color matches and it looks cool but it may be too bright. It kinda makes the clock and everything else look sorta dim in comparison. We'll see if I keep it.

-I installed an universal fit 3-row heat exchanger/radiator/intercooler/whatever you want to call it under the crash bar upfront. I fabricated some brackets to bolt it to the crashbar and plumbed the hoses from the supercharger pump. The idea came from forum member Terrance39. I haven't yet gauged any improvements but the system definitely takes more coolant than before. It fits perfectly behind the bumper and looks cool behind the lower grille.

-I decided I wanted to go back to OEM style wheels. My car originally came with the 20" Mataivas but I replaced them all with aftermarkets after one of them got bent. Not long after that, I upgraded the brakes to two-piece rotors with 8 pot calipers, front and rear (6 pot in the rear). I believe that that huge reduction in weight coming from the new brakes and the much lighter aftermarket wheels negatively impacted the car's ride quality and handling. It never drove the same after that. I understand that reducing unsprung weight is the goal if you want a faster, more nimble car, like if you want to track or drag an F-Type or something. But I'm of the opinion that the XJ's steering and suspension was specifically tuned to match the heavier OEM wheel setup. The steering is already so boosted and light from the factory, you can imagine what it felt like with so much of that unsprung weight lost. The car always felt a bit twitchy and jittery, and somewhat unstable at high speeds, depending on the road quality.

Over the time that I ran this setup, I tried 3 different sets of tires, and countless roadforce balances and alignments. Never got rid of that overly light feeling or the slight steering wheel wobble at 70mph. The wheels were confirmed to be straight and true many times, and I was sure to run the right size hubcentric adapters. Well, I finally decided to do something about it. After much research, and the luck of having a decently-priced set pop up for sale here, I pulled the trigger on a set of OEM "Storm" wheels from an F-Type, which are forged but still quite weighty. I decided to go with those because they were made specifically to fit the carbon ceramic brake option on the FType, and I needed something that would fit over my similar big brake kit. I also decided to finally give the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s a try. I was leery after a bad experience with a set of used Pilot Super Sports a few years back, so we'll see what the fuss is all about. If these tires **** me off like the PSSs did, I'm never wasting money on Michelins again.

The problem with the Ftype wheels are the offsets. The fronts are 9" at 55 offset, which puts them too close inward to the XJ steering spindle/knuckle arm. For reference, the OEM Mataiva fronts were 9" with 49 offset. I put a 265/35/20 PS4S on the front Storms and the tire rubbed against the spindle arm. A 15mm spacer made it work perfectly. Its a beautiful fitment, almost flush with the fender. Just perfect. I drove around my neighborhood last night with the mismatched front and rear wheels, and so far so good. Ride quality and general driving/steering feel was excellent, due to either the new tires or the new wheels or both. Braking also felt improved.

Now, we have the same issue in the back but this time the Storm rear wheels are 10.5" versus the 10" Mataivas. The rear aftermarket wheels I was running were also 10.5" but had an aggressive 25 offset, so I had no choice but to use a slightly stretched 275 tire so that it would still fit nicely within the fender, and with plenty of inside clearance. I decided to go with 295 PS4S on the rear Storms this time, which should arrive and be installed tomorrow. The question is what size spacer will I need? Storm 10.5" rear offset is 38, Mataivas were 10" at 46. I bolted up the Storm wheel without the tire to check fitment and it seems like the inner edge of the wheel will again be too close inward, this time due to the extra width of the wheel. I'll try it again after the tires are installed and actually lower the car off the jacks to see, but I suspect I will need either a 5mm or 10mm spacer both to clear the inner fender and to get the perfect outer fitment. I've ordered both sets of spacers from H&R, which both come with longer studs if needed, and I'll return whichever I don't end up using.

Ok, well, I think that's it for now!

 

Wow big list of stuff accomplished, congrats!!!

If you ever want to test out more wheel/tires I have an extra set of 20” Kasugas with Michelins in SoCal just sitting in my backyard. Happy to let you A/B test them if it helps you figure out your handling issue.

 

WOW! Great bunch of work and thanks for posting.

Had to laugh at one of your comments as I had a huge battle with those rubber exhaust hangers myself and did NOT know about the special tool. Hated to buy it just for that but it does work as advertised and makes it very simple to get those rubber hanger off. Don't know if you had seen one before or not?



Muffler Hanger Removal Tool
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Great update XJ8JR. If you have a moment, do you mind sharing a video or audio clip of the exhaust note and what your setup is?
I'm playing around with a few possible exhaust options in the future, and the prefabricated nature of the VAP cats is appealing.

All the audio clips I can find out there are either incredibly short flybys or installed on an already heavily modified exhaust.

 

Ha! Nope, I've never seen one of those before. I'm struggling to imagine how it works. I was not expecting such a huge battle with those hangers.

Ok, so the current setup is as follows: VAP Cats > generic Xpipe > Totalflow brand resonated x-pipe > Borla ProXS mufflers. So I guess that means I have pretty nothing remaining of the OEM setup except for some bits of pipe here and there.

Here's my exhaust(ive) journey:

1 - First thing I did was cut out the two OEM middle resonators. Put in the generic Xpipe and straight pipe to the OEM mufflers. Really no detectable change in sound or performance
2 - Something possessed me to cut off the OEM mufflers (which are gigantic btw) and straight pipe it. WORST IDEA EVER. Horribly loud and droning. I put the OEM mufflers back on the same day.
3 - Tried the Mina Gallery mufflers and they were a bit too loud for my tastes at the time. In retrospect, they probably would've worked well in conjunction with the Totalflow resonated xpipe that I put on later. I put the OEM mufflers back on the same day.
4 - About a year and half later, I decided to try again with the Borlas, which I ended up getting from a fellow forum member here. I liked the sound and the volume but there was a bit of drone inside the cabin.
5 - The next day after installing the Borlas, I had the Totalflow resonated xpipe installed in between the generic xpipe and the Borla mufflers. That knocked down the drone to an acceptable level while still retaining the nice sound of the Borlas.
6 - I went back and forth for a long time trying to decide whether I wanted to replace the OEM cats. I had done so on my old X350 and there was a definite increase in volume that I didn't necessarily want this time. But when my passenger side OEM cat needed replacement, I decided to go for it, and I'm glad I did. I am very surprised that the actual db level didn't increase that much but there is a nice positive change to the overall exhaust note. So, I'm very happy with the setup now.

 

UPDATE: I got the 295/30/20 Michelins put on the rear wheels today. One of them required no balance weight whatsoever. I've never seen that happen in real life. The other 3 wheels required very little weight at only one position per wheel.

After cleaning them and getting the old weight tapes off, I mounted the rear wheels and discovered that no spacers were necessary. Outer fitment is just about perfect, the inner edge is a little close but there was no rubbing during my fairly spirited test drive. The car looks great and feels great. That jittery jiggly ride quality is gone. Feels very planted, sturdy, and smooth.

HOWEVER...the steering wheel still wobbles just a bit right around 65-70mph. I don't know what on earth could be causing that still after all these years and after 3 different sets of wheels and tyres, lots of suspension work, alignments, etc. If anyone has any ideas no matter how ridiculous, please let me know!

Regardless of that issue, I will bask in my victory for the time being. I've got good-looking quality OEM wheels wrapped in big quality meats back on the car. I'm happy (except for the fact that something somewhere in my new aux radiator install has a small coolant leak, so I'll have to pull the bumper again sometime this week...but I won't let that bother me for now).

 

Yes I am a Michelin man too and I really did not want to be. But running different brands over the years and I am once again back with MPS. Want to run the super sports but they wear out fast. Now I do see Michelin is advertising 30K miles tread warranty (300 tread wear rating). So next time I will consider the Super Sports instead of the Pilot Sports. For street use I try to go no lower than a 300 tread wear tire.

One thing I have found is the XJ rides so good that any problems I thought were in the car turned out to be all related to road conditions. I have had the steering wheel wobble but then got to some decent pavement and all was good? Maybe your feeling the road??

The tool I posted uses the center pin to hold the muffler hanger solid and then the pliers action pulls the rubber off the pin.



As you noted those rubber hangers are tough!
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For steering wheel woble i suspect front lower suspension arm inner bushes. ("banana arm") These are known to soften sometimes already after 45k miles. (Lemförder are OEM and best)

 

What size tires do you run, Club? And what pressure would you recommend?

Also, since we're now in roughly the same part of the world, can you recommend any good alignment or balance shops in the area?

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Those were replaced about 27k miles ago but with aftermarket Eurospare units. I wonder if you may be on to something...