Lazarus Has Risen!
#1
01-09-2017, 11:08 PM
Lazarus Has Risen!
Ok, so Maybe Lazarus isn't the best name. Christine might be the most appropriate, but it's not British enough.
For those of you that have checked out of commented on my last few posts, you'll know that everything that I've posted thus far has been about a project 2007 XJ8L that I purchased as a project car with 'significant electrical damage and will never run or drive again.' That was the previous owner's description of what the Lake Bluff (Illinois) dealer told him when they were unable to resurrect.
For those of you that haven't seen my story - at the end of October I picked up an '07 XJ8L (HGZ/ SEL (I believe)). I was looking for a front bumper cover for my '03 XJR and ended up buying a whole 'nother car instead. The price was too good to pass up and I felt that, given the description, it was fixable. It also came with a brand new OEM ECU direct from Jaguar.
The condition of the car was rather upsetting - the car was a victim of the clogged cabin air filter box. When I got the car, it was full of maple leaves and white pine needles. Go figure... So all of that garbage clogged up the drainage tube and it backed up into the ECU. The original ECU was included with the car and was terrifying - significant amounts of rust all over the inside, board-level components destroyed, evidence of multiple short-circuits on the internal pins of the ECU connector. Just a mess. Even worse was that the dealer had simply wrapped a carpet protector around the ECU connectors and they had generated a significant amount of moisture.
So a few days later, I had my Jaguar Racing Green XJ8L dropped off at a local storage unit. After a few days of figuring out what was there, what was missing, what was broken, I'd developed a rather minimal list of bits that were required to bring the kitty back to life - properly. One thing that I cannot tolerate is a car that is half-assed, and my Jaguars always get OEM replacements (except for my EBC dimpled/ slotted rotors and YellowStuff pads on my XJR) when things go wonky. A couple quick calls to Buzz over at Terry's Jaguar had all of the replacement bits on order and delivered rather quickly.
Over the next couple weeks, I spent maybe 5 hours tracing the bulk of the electrical connections and all evidence of anything that was disconnected to get the car back in neutral as it was in park when delivered to Lake Bluff dealer. They had to dismantle the center console to release the gear selector lock, but despite putting it 'back together,' never reconnected any electrics.
By this point, I had spoken to the service adviser whom was very familiar with the car and he had indicated that it needed a new fuse box in the passenger footwell as it was also damaged by moisture. $55 on eBay later and I had a working spare of the same model number and revision on my doorstep. Everything on the spare checked out and it was installed with no issues.
One thing that I did while waiting for parts and installing all of the new parts was to order a gallon of silica gel and cotton bags to absorb excess moisture. Given that my car had suffered from a soaked ECU, there was excess moisture underneath the sound deadening material lining the bulkhead under the carpet. A couple weeks of cycling through these bags had absorbed all of the moisture; at that point I was ready to proceed. To clean up those dirty, wet, ECU connectors, I ordered up a can of CRC contact cleaner safe for plastics, mounted the ECU and hooked the sucker up.
Sidenote – the gentleman that I purchased the car from had initially taken it to his local shop (wait for it…) who had misdiagnosed the problems and had started stripping back wires at the ECU to try to diagnose a wiring fault. Temporarily I had fixed with marine heat shrink but I’ve also purchased some white liquid electrical tape as I can’t stand half-assing the wiring repairs. Nothing was cut, just insulation stripped back.
Once I had figured out how everything went back together, I got it all wrapped up and had it hauled over to Lars and Danielle at Lars Worldwide Automotive in Mokena, Il. I honestly cannot say enough good things about Lars – he literally is the Jaguar Whisperer. I’ve got a couple Jags and I’ve recommended him to some others at work that own Jags and he’s taken very good care of them as well. But what set him apart in the past is why I took my Lazarus/ Christine car to him – he’s brutally honest with what’s wrong with the car and he makes sure it’s done right. Not long after it was dropped off, Lars had it pulled into his shop and got to work. The car came with a new ECU when I got it, but obviously not programmed because of additional electrical issues. Lars not only programmed the ECU but also paired all electrical systems to the ECU so that everything was fully functional.
Long story short – I picked up a car that a legitimate Jaguar dealer had said was dead and would never drive again. I installed the new ECU and ordered up a new fuse box as well as a bunch of plastic clips and covers that were damaged by previous ‘fixes.’ I also ordered up a new battery and once hooked up I had full functionality to all electronic systems. That was the turning point – I knew that I had electric to all systems and it hypothetically needed an ECU flashing.
Lars’ shop was the one that I had trusted with my ’03 XJR for a couple times and having resurrected my ‘dead’ ’07 XJ8L, I’ll gladly recommend him and his team for any European issues that anyone has. Lazarus/ Christine has been resurrected! My jolly green giant (seemingly so compared to my '03 XJR!) has risen from the dead!
But the problem is – I now need a name for the car! It’s got to be British and mean something similar to reborn or riser from the dead. It can’t be Phoenix because that was a POS built by Pontiac. And it never rose from the dead. Any ideas???
For those of you that have checked out of commented on my last few posts, you'll know that everything that I've posted thus far has been about a project 2007 XJ8L that I purchased as a project car with 'significant electrical damage and will never run or drive again.' That was the previous owner's description of what the Lake Bluff (Illinois) dealer told him when they were unable to resurrect.
For those of you that haven't seen my story - at the end of October I picked up an '07 XJ8L (HGZ/ SEL (I believe)). I was looking for a front bumper cover for my '03 XJR and ended up buying a whole 'nother car instead. The price was too good to pass up and I felt that, given the description, it was fixable. It also came with a brand new OEM ECU direct from Jaguar.
The condition of the car was rather upsetting - the car was a victim of the clogged cabin air filter box. When I got the car, it was full of maple leaves and white pine needles. Go figure... So all of that garbage clogged up the drainage tube and it backed up into the ECU. The original ECU was included with the car and was terrifying - significant amounts of rust all over the inside, board-level components destroyed, evidence of multiple short-circuits on the internal pins of the ECU connector. Just a mess. Even worse was that the dealer had simply wrapped a carpet protector around the ECU connectors and they had generated a significant amount of moisture.
So a few days later, I had my Jaguar Racing Green XJ8L dropped off at a local storage unit. After a few days of figuring out what was there, what was missing, what was broken, I'd developed a rather minimal list of bits that were required to bring the kitty back to life - properly. One thing that I cannot tolerate is a car that is half-assed, and my Jaguars always get OEM replacements (except for my EBC dimpled/ slotted rotors and YellowStuff pads on my XJR) when things go wonky. A couple quick calls to Buzz over at Terry's Jaguar had all of the replacement bits on order and delivered rather quickly.
Over the next couple weeks, I spent maybe 5 hours tracing the bulk of the electrical connections and all evidence of anything that was disconnected to get the car back in neutral as it was in park when delivered to Lake Bluff dealer. They had to dismantle the center console to release the gear selector lock, but despite putting it 'back together,' never reconnected any electrics.
By this point, I had spoken to the service adviser whom was very familiar with the car and he had indicated that it needed a new fuse box in the passenger footwell as it was also damaged by moisture. $55 on eBay later and I had a working spare of the same model number and revision on my doorstep. Everything on the spare checked out and it was installed with no issues.
One thing that I did while waiting for parts and installing all of the new parts was to order a gallon of silica gel and cotton bags to absorb excess moisture. Given that my car had suffered from a soaked ECU, there was excess moisture underneath the sound deadening material lining the bulkhead under the carpet. A couple weeks of cycling through these bags had absorbed all of the moisture; at that point I was ready to proceed. To clean up those dirty, wet, ECU connectors, I ordered up a can of CRC contact cleaner safe for plastics, mounted the ECU and hooked the sucker up.
Sidenote – the gentleman that I purchased the car from had initially taken it to his local shop (wait for it…) who had misdiagnosed the problems and had started stripping back wires at the ECU to try to diagnose a wiring fault. Temporarily I had fixed with marine heat shrink but I’ve also purchased some white liquid electrical tape as I can’t stand half-assing the wiring repairs. Nothing was cut, just insulation stripped back.
Once I had figured out how everything went back together, I got it all wrapped up and had it hauled over to Lars and Danielle at Lars Worldwide Automotive in Mokena, Il. I honestly cannot say enough good things about Lars – he literally is the Jaguar Whisperer. I’ve got a couple Jags and I’ve recommended him to some others at work that own Jags and he’s taken very good care of them as well. But what set him apart in the past is why I took my Lazarus/ Christine car to him – he’s brutally honest with what’s wrong with the car and he makes sure it’s done right. Not long after it was dropped off, Lars had it pulled into his shop and got to work. The car came with a new ECU when I got it, but obviously not programmed because of additional electrical issues. Lars not only programmed the ECU but also paired all electrical systems to the ECU so that everything was fully functional.
Long story short – I picked up a car that a legitimate Jaguar dealer had said was dead and would never drive again. I installed the new ECU and ordered up a new fuse box as well as a bunch of plastic clips and covers that were damaged by previous ‘fixes.’ I also ordered up a new battery and once hooked up I had full functionality to all electronic systems. That was the turning point – I knew that I had electric to all systems and it hypothetically needed an ECU flashing.
Lars’ shop was the one that I had trusted with my ’03 XJR for a couple times and having resurrected my ‘dead’ ’07 XJ8L, I’ll gladly recommend him and his team for any European issues that anyone has. Lazarus/ Christine has been resurrected! My jolly green giant (seemingly so compared to my '03 XJR!) has risen from the dead!
But the problem is – I now need a name for the car! It’s got to be British and mean something similar to reborn or riser from the dead. It can’t be Phoenix because that was a POS built by Pontiac. And it never rose from the dead. Any ideas???
Last edited by 03_jagXJR; 01-10-2017 at 07:17 PM.
#2
01-10-2017, 02:22 AM
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Don B (01-10-2017)
#3
01-10-2017, 02:43 AM
#6
01-14-2017, 01:44 AM
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03_jagXJR (01-15-2017)
#7
01-15-2017, 08:31 PM
Thanks for the ideas guys! I really liked the suggestion of Lucas - the Prince of Darkness. And it kind of goes along with a Jaguar Racing Green exterior! Electrics killed the car, new electrics fixed the car. Even though it's not at all feminine (not always bad, my SS/T is appropriately named Truckasaurus), I can't think of a more appropriate name than Lucas!