I thought "loominated" tread plates were standard on the Portfolio. They are a coveted fitting on mine.

 

on my order sheet from Jaguar they were an option on my 2011, i really wish the previous owner optioned them, but he never optioned tinting either.

 

They are standard on the Autobiography - other than that I think they were an option (I'm not sure about the R)

 

They, also, are standard on the SuperSport and Ultimate. Also, there are two versions or the plates, the earlier one was in stainless steel as is pictured above and a later one in aluminium/ The SS ones are as pictured above and the later ones have a different lettering script.

 

I don't know but my window sticker lists the sill plates as an option ($1700) on my 2014 XJR.
But I have never seen an R without them? Again it is a very rare car so it's unusual to even see one!
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Very true that the X351 R is rare. I think I've seen one in the wild maybe just once. The X350 R I still see a lot.

 

clubairth1 you are referring to the illumination package that included the illuminated air vents, tread plates, and illuminated trunk plate.

 

I love the air vents . . . as well as the tread plates. (Don't have a picci of the boot (trunk) plate.

 

Same here with the window sticker showing as an option and I've never seen one without them.

 

That's OK - I do! (Devilish hard to photograph with my phone, though!)

 

Yes I do have all those too.
The window sticker lists it as "Illumination Pack" Option Z46B.
So I guess I am not sure what is included in that option?

I have never seen any XJ without the blue vent lights so I thought they were standard across all models? Nope I just looked they are part of this package as well.

XJ Options
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I've got all the tread plates but not the vent lights

 

With all this downtime and not needing the car for the daily commute, I decided to finally do the big jobs I've been putting off: spark plugs, rear coolant crossover tube, knock sensors, supercharger oil, supercharger torsion isolator, and intake cleaning. I'm thinking of adding the front upper control arms to the list.

Over the weekend I got the driver side plugs out and removed the intake manifold cover. A big thank you to the write-ups from Big Will and others who have done this before. Re the driver side plugs, that rubber/plastic cover is indeed a pain to remove. I intend on making some modifications to it to make installation easier. Passenger side is easier to remove. Removing the low pressure fuel lines and the chassis brace, along with moving aside the coolant tank a bit, frees up a lot of space. Removing the wiper arms and cowl is a given of course. Once all that was done, the hardest part really is undoing the bolts on the coil packs. Once unbolted, I was able to jimmy the coils out without too much trouble. And using an assortment of wobble extensions makes getting the plugs out no problem at all. We'll see how it goes on the passenger side.

However, unfortunately, I ordered the wrong plugs: NGK DILKAR8A8, which turns out to be a colder plug for the V6. The proper colder plugs for the V8 are ILKAR8H6...which turn out to be a good deal cheaper. So those will arrive by Saturday...good thing I don't need to go anywhere!

Re the supercharger stuff, now that I've gotten the coolant drained, I believe I need to remove the front coolant crossover tube in order to have the clearance necessary to pull the supercharger. I may get to that this evening.

Not having the stress of needing the car done by "Monday Morning" is a game-changer. Take as long as you need and do a little each day. Wonderful.

 

Congrats XJ, it certainly is nice to be able to get the time needed without rushing and complete your tasks at a more leisurely rate, as opposed to madly trying to get things done because you need the car running for the next morning commute.
While I wish I could say the same about having time it is not to be for me and my role, so its normal life with a bit of a substantial twist at the moment.

Alas......... got a few items off of my list today and I am sure the X351 appreciated.....well some of the things completed. Today was the first time I have been able to checkout fully the underside of my XJ since purchase back in late November last year.
I need new engine mounts, front upper control arm bushes are split open so full replace and rear tied rod bushes are split open so complete replacement there too.
The left engine mount has black staining around it, but there is no visible flex on throttle input but assume its dead anyway.

First up was a trans oil drop followed by new ZF mechatronic plug seal and valve body seals, full flush, new ZF pan filter, ZF pan bolts and new ZF lifeguard re fill. Hmmm does not sound like much when you can write it up in one sentence.

Next on the list was replacement of the gearbox mount....well that was easy, I have to say that the old one was showing zero signs of damage and looked perfectly fine on inspection after removal, replaced with the new Jaguar part anyway, as I was hearing a dull knock the moment I release the throttle to coast, so hoped that this maybe would sort that.

Next inspected the prop shaft flex disc. Well it looks like it just came from the shop but has never been replaced, despite having a Febi part on hand decided to leave it be for now.

Installed the VAP cats and crank pulley, having problems with the Vtech, no file found after uploading, no mod file record on vetch either, uuuuggghhh had to have a hitch somewhere.

Test drive time, gearbox is flawless, shift changes perfect and that annoying clunk thud thing has been eliminated when getting off the throttle. pretty happy there, low end torque is massively improved even without the tune, gorgeous note too and a little more noticeable charger wind up, more pops on decel over stock cats too, from 4th to 3rd,3rd to 2nd. But no codes....huh????even without tune.

So pretty big day really, did the drive home 68 kms still no codes, no CEL, well I guess I will take that until I can get this darn vtech software file sorted.

 

XJ8JR is that rear water manifold original?
I have replaced the front plastic manifold when the water pump was replaced. I have the rear plastic manifold along with all the gaskets for when I change the SC snout.

But the snout is making a very minor clunk at 42K miles and I plan to leave it for a while. Not sure if I am on borrowed time with that plastic cooling system piece in there or not?
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Lightspeed, congrats on a few jobs well done. Re the engine mounts, I've read that some AC hoses have to be disconnected in order to service the driver side mount. I'm hoping that's not the case, as I'll be doing mine soon as well.

Clubairth1, I really have no idea if the water pipe is original or not, but I would guess it is. I don't know if they fail catastrophically or they just start leaking bit by bit.

I only did a little more work last night on the Jag. I got the front water crossover out and the throttle body off. I've sent an email with photos to Maxbore to see if its a good candidate for boring. Re the supercharger, its stuck on there pretty good so I'm out of action on that front until the engine lift brace arrives. Maybe I'll try to address the passenger side plugs tonight.

I'm about to place an order for some Thermo-Tec heat barrier insulation to place under the supercharger and side intakes. That should help a bit with intake temps.

 

XJ8JR, RE: the engine mounts, after inspecting yesterday on the hoist, it does look like access should be ok, but like all things until attempted I am not really in a definitive position to say. You are making great progress with yours, love reading your updates so keep em coming.

Had some success today after emailing Chris with my vetch issues, he resent the stage 2 file and I was able to upload successfully and take the XJ for a quick run.
All I really can say is wow, like driving another car, even after the cats and pulley were installed with no tune there was a remarkable change in torque, now with the tune the little 5.0 just keeps pulling incredibly.
Tried sports mode and switched on dynamic, omg traction control kicking in all over the place even on 3rd gear change.

pretty happy I guess, if you don't have 200 cell cats, you would not regret the fitment, very noticeable change in the exhaust note and I think the little 5.0 really appreciates the breathing space, when you look inside the stock cat, you can only wonder how any exhaust gas makes it through.

stay safe all

 

Throw some Michelin Pilot Sport 4Ss on that baby, the larger 265/295 sizes as I have done and that baby will bite hard!

 

I settled on General G-Max RS in the stock 245/275 size, myself. I absolutely love them. Incredible performance for the price. But they seem to run big for the size. I'm running a 10.5" wheel in the rear and the 275 tire sidewall bulge still has a nice meaty look to it.

Lightspeed, keep us posted if and when you decide to go through with the engine mounts.

More progress yesterday...I got all the passenger side plugs out. But it wasn't very easy. First, there's a short coolant hose that connects a vertical metal pipe to the horizontal plastic pipe which houses the coolant bleed screw. In my estimation, there would be no way to get the last two coils and plugs out without removing that hose. But I'll tell you what, that hose did not want to budge. I eventually just decided to sacrifice it and saw it into pieces. I was then able to remove the end that connects to the vertical pipe but the other end (the end that connects to the bleed screw pipe) still refused to budge. It turns out the hose had somehow become bonded to the plastic pipe. I had to peel and scrape and cut and pull for a long time to finally get this hose off (see the pics). Once off, I took a look inside the plastic pipe and saw that it looked like it was starting to disintegrate, so both that pipe and the hose will be on order today.

Once that ordeal was through (probably took a whole hour), I was able to unclip the plastic wiring loom that conceals the coil bolts and get to work. Those torx bolt heads do indeed like to strip easily, so you've got to be real careful. There's plenty of room for the first two coils and plugs to come out but you'll have to be more creative for the last two due to the fusebox bulkhead being in the way.

So, now we're waiting for the new plugs and the engine brace to arrive.

 

I just found that the hose and bleed screw pipe is actually sold together as C2D5710.