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Since i already had a Pioneer subwoofer from my old car, (the flat variety, TS-WX710A) i decided to route some RCA's to the boot, even though i've heard its not optimal, due to the fuel tank isolating most of the sound.
i'll probably mount a parcel-shelf woofer instead at some point, but i would have to saw a hole in my non-premium sound parcel shelf cover, and ditch the sunblind, so i'm sticking to the boot-sub now.
as for cable routing, it was a bit of a pain finding a suitable route from the centre console, so i routed it underneath the trim next to the handbrake, then underneath the seat, and under the carpet from there.
after that i routed it through the fusebox, under the rear seats along with the loom.
(under the drivers seat)
as usual all work was done on a public parking lot.
the car also finally got its Norwegian plates after a long wait (had to wait three weeks for an appointment due to corona restrictions) and some original black floor mats, though i forgot to take photos of that.
unfortunately, winter is right around the corner, so the car will soon be stowed away in the garage until spring (the roads are very heavily salted through the winter)
...
luckily, those two jobs fixed most of the leaks, though there is still a small leak from the seal on top of the rack, where it connects to the steering column.
i have added some power-steering stop leak, so hopefully it will soften the o-rings enough to seal it, or else i will need to buy a rebuild kit.
...
Nice looking car. Check the rack leak while car is running (and turning the wheels) and there is pressure on the power steering, it might show it´s true amount of leakage then. I had also leak on the rack input shaft seal which was pretty minimal while engine off and pretty much of geyser while engine was running.
yeah, it had a geyser of fluid coming out of the old high pressure line when turning the wheels, but the rack-leak is quite small, so i can live with it for a while.
Though if anyone knows where to get a rebuild kit, i would be quite happy, as i suspect the stop-leak wont be enough to stop it completely.
Nice car toshi - i guess you probably dont meet many other XJ's when you are driving around!
i see yours is RHD - is it an original japanese market car, or imported?
Mine seems to be an original japanese market version, as it has japanese language on the sun-visor stickers and japanese-market only options in the trip computer.
I guess someone though LHD was more exotic than RHD and went for that when ordering it, practicality be damned
in other news, i decided to change my fuel filter today - what a pain in the ***!
Access was way worse then i though, and getting the old filter took a long time, as i could only move the wrench a centimeter at a time, even after releasing the rear exhaust hanger.
The fasteners were also some kind of non-metric kind, but i could get a loose grip on them with a 17mm wrench.
got it off in the end though, but i'm glad i probably wont have do that again anytime soon
Its so nice crawling underneath this car though - everything is so nice and rust free.
Definitely not used to cars in this nice condition over here.
While i had the car up on stands, i also connected my voltmeter to the various ABS sensors and spun the wheels to see if the voltage changed when spinning - it did on all four, so i fear my TRAC fail is due to bad solder in the ABS controller.
Oh well - at least i have all winter to pull it out of there and resolder it...
You will never regret not buying the XJ8. The V8 engine is the worse engine I have ever encountered. That is the same engine in my XK8. The cam timing system is the problem. Hundreds of engines have been replaced by Jaguar. And lots of maintenance in that area. It is so bad none of the local independent shops will NOT work on the cars with the Ford V8 engine. I am about ready to almost give mine away after modifications of the tensioners. As far as I am concerned the last of the great Jaguars were the 95,96 and 97 big six cylinder cars. And I have a 95 XJ6 with 156,000 miles on her.
Nice car toshi - i guess you probably dont meet many other XJ's when you are driving around!
i see yours is RHD - is it an original japanese market car, or imported?
Mine seems to be an original japanese market version, as it has japanese language on the sun-visor stickers and japanese-market only options in the trip computer.
I guess someone though LHD was more exotic than RHD and went for that when ordering it, practicality be damned
In JP foreign car market LHD was more common, BENZ, BMW or LINCOLN, all LHD.
So some people wanted to perches LHD foreign car though Jaguar was UK car.
Mine is RHD and was sold by genuine JAGUAR dealership.
I think JAGUAR JAPAN, at that time, prepared both of them.
You will never regret not buying the XJ8. The V8 engine is the worse engine I have ever encountered. That is the same engine in my XK8. The cam timing system is the problem.
I have both as well, 308 VDPSC and a 300 XJ6L. V8 isn’t hard to work on but you can tell it was rushed out the door, took them 6 years to fix all the cooling system and timing gear problems. Transmission on the non supercharged cars is really the worst part, I would never buy a regular XJ8.
The interior of the 300 looks like it’s straight out of the 80s old but it’s a lot more intuitive and driver focused, I want to have a talk with whoever put the valet button in the middle of the dashboard on the 308 🤦♂️
I have both as well, 308 VDPSC and a 300 XJ6L. V8 isn’t hard to work on but you can tell it was rushed out the door, took them 6 years to fix all the cooling system and timing gear problems. Transmission on the non supercharged cars is really the worst part, I would never buy a regular XJ8.
The interior of the 300 looks like it’s straight out of the 80s old but it’s a lot more intuitive and driver focused, I want to have a talk with whoever put the valet button in the middle of the dashboard on the 308 🤦♂️
Yeah, i looked at a lot of x308 cars before deciding to go for a XJR6, and i got the impression that the ZF transmission was guaranteed to have problems and need a refurb before 160000km.
same with the timing chains and thermostat housing.
spotting an uprated thermostat is pretty easy, but once a car has changed hands once or twice, finding out if it has the uprated chain guides, or a flushed gearbox isn't always so easy unless the owners kept all the garage reciepts in the car, making a used example a potential ticking timebomb.
I also felt that the v8 was a bit too smooth and silent compared to the aj16.
you couldn't really hear it, so it almost felt like driving a thirsty electric car, which kind of defeats the joys of owning a big V8.
As for the interior, to me its one of the x300 is its biggest strength compared to the x308 - at least in the XJR cream/black colors it just oozes style, and the straight lines suit the car a lot more then the curves of the x308
I do have a soft spot for the first year pine colored interior option on the x308 though, but it seems i'm pretty much the only one who feels that way, as it seems to be a super rare option.
I had to wait forever for some parts to arrive, so the pulley install took some time, but its finally done.
The new pulley is a lot bigger then the stock one, so it needed a new and shorter AC belt for the AC idler to clear the pulley.
The instructions suggested a 1 cm shorter one (so a 4pk1010) but to me that still seemed a bit to long, so i ordered an extra 4pk1000 just in case.
of course, it turned out my hunch was right, and the 1000 was spot on.
Im also glad i ordered new tensioners and idlers, as all of them had grindy bearings, and needed replacing.
I then used the Hutchinson Easy tension app to sett the tension via frequency, and that seems to have worked great - no slipping or squealing.
just hold the phone mic close to the biggest span of the belt, twang it like a string, and it will tell you the resonance frequency.
target is 111-113Hz for the SC belt, and 167-173hz for AC belt
Took the car out for a drive, and the car feels really strong at low rpm compared to before, and it really wants to light up the rear wheels.
Before adding the andy bracket and lower pulley, it felt like you had to break the speed limit and keep the revs up to have some fun with the car, but now its super nice to just give it a quick blip of the throttle and feel an instant push in the back.
Money well spent!
Spring sure is late this year, but it has been pretty dry this week, so in the temporary absence of salt brine, i hauled the battery up to the car and took it for a quick spin and a wash.
Proper spring is probably still a couple of weeks away, so it will go back into the garage for now.
I also managed to snag a new used 1 din stereo - the legendary DEH80PRS.
Not exactly the latest tech, but you cant beat it for sound-quality
Are you a photographer too, Bjarne? Nice compositions.
Nope, but i am a classical animator, so i guess you do pick up a thing or two about compositions that way - wish i had a better camera then my old iphone SE though, maybe its time to pick up a proper one
Took the car on a second run, and the car seemed to run a bit rich after it warmed up - the exhaust smelled like gas, and the idle was a bit lumpy.
connected my OBD scanner, and even though it doesn't show any codes, it does give a live reading of the lambda sensors - seems like one of them has died, as it reads 0v, while the other pulses as it should.
guess its time to order some parts!
maybe i'll order a new water pump while i'm at it, the old one is probably the original one...
10-02-2020, 11:51 AM
