Rose's AirCon wasn't working. Was worried that the AirCon system would be a costly fix. The mechanic diagnosed it to be a blocked receiver drier, but couldn't find where it was. The Parts Diagram from JaguarClassicParts shows the drier bottle (Item 4) sits just above the condenser in front of the radiator, and can only be accessed from the top.



Got a new drier bottle from British Parts (MMD7410AA; GBP32), and had it installed the other day. The AirCon has been working fine since .

Also took the opportunity to replace the two mounting bushes on the radiator bridge. See Post #288 above.

 

Removed the winter wheels and tyres and put the summer Pirellis back on. Noticed that there is some corrosion spreading under the lacquer of one winter wheel.

 

Spent the weekend disassembling the entire intake tract of the XJR except for the SC itself to clean it of 20 years worth of crankcase breath'd oil.... which turns out to be a TREMENDOUS amount. I spent 30 minutes running degreaser through the intake manifold/intercooler and it looked like chocolate pouring out continuously. Even simple parts like the post SC intake elbows flowed a syrup of oil even after several cleanings.

I'd post a photo, but we've all seen an AJ16 with it's intake tract removed, so just picture that


I've cleaned everything except the throttle body itself, but that's on my bench and should be the easiest of the bunch of parts.

To be honest, this has been pretty intimidating. There is a rat's nest of wiring and hoses disconnected, not to mention the puzzle of of parts. It isn't really that complicated, but I'll have to be slow and methodical in reassembly so as not to miss a step because that would require a lot of backtracking if I did.

Next weekend is slated for that task.... but I look forward to what surely must be some minor performance increase losing all that gummed up oil in the intake, and no more worrisome random throttle sticking.

Is a big job, but it will be worth it.

Plus, once done, I'll have a lot more understanding of how that half of the engine is put together and in what condition everything is, and more confidence to take it apart again if I need to.

.

 

Will watch how yours goes with the SC removal. Am planning to do mine to service the SC to take care of the noise and also see what can be done while the SC is out of the way - the throttle body, throttle position sensor, idle speed control valve, etc.

 

Al, if you've got the intake manifold off, do yourself a BIG favor and renew the water rail gaskets while it's easy!

 

No plans to remove the SC any time soon, so can't help there. But the Eaton M90 is used on a lot of cars, especially Ford and GM, so fortunately there is a lot of information out there on servicing and rebuilding them.

There are also several shops that rebuild, port, etc Eaton SCs

.

 

Normally I am a fan of preventative maintenance and fixing things "while I'm in there", but I'm trying to minimize the number of variables with this particular effort since I've got so much apart.

The rail isn't leaking and I'd hate to disturb it and then have a leak after since this is so hard to get to. I've had bad luck with leaking coolant gaskets in the past because it is hard to get the mating surfaces totally clean of coolant, old gasket material, etc.

So I'm also a fan of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

Is this a typical leak/failure point?

The main coolant pump to water rail and octopus hoses were replaced about 3 years ago by the previous owner, but I don't know if he replaced the water rail gaskets. Surely he would have, but who knows.


.

 

There's a lot to be said for, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" for sure. I replaced all the coolant hoses on the lad's 96 in Jan, 2016, @106k mi when we identified a t-stat stuck open.
I replaced the practically new bypass hose in Oct, 2016 @110.5k mi. Why i didn't record it, I have no idea, but it sprung a water rail gasket leak somewhere in between. Best I recall, about 108k. The only synergy gained by going after the rail gaskets while changing the hoses is that you have the coolant out. I don't think the average bear would do rail gaskets as part of a complete hose change. I didn't....X2!


On my 95, I renewed all the hoses in Sep, 2013 @137.7k
Had to renew the water rail gaskets a couple weeks ago (end of March) @211k. Because my 3 year old hoses were Uro, which is what failed on the 96....AND because the bypass hose wasn't easily pliable, I replaced it along with the rail gaskets.


No matter which way you go, you'll be heavy-hearted and crestfallen when the rail starts leaking. I think removing the intake on the NA is a total bit(ter ex-wfe!) so can only imagine what it is on the SC!!! I'm just saying....you are already there.....I'd feel better about my chances with new gaskets vice old.

 

My XJ6 is out of commission currently but I am still trying to keep up with it. Put a new battery in (Group 93 instead of 47, seems to work fine... Way higher CCA!) the other night. Sat down in the car yesterday and my chair moved itself upwards abruptly. Got underneath the seat and reattached that spindle for the up/down movement and moved the front down and that seems to have fixed it for now.

Getting the torque converter rebuilt sometime in the next few weeks should put the car back on the road. It's still driveable, but there's a weird metallic rattling coming from the TC and I really, really don't want to risk anything worse happening on the road. Luckily I have been driving my brother's Hyundai for the past weeks since he's off in college a few hundred miles away, but... It isn't my Jag!

Unfortunately there's a huge crack in my windshield now... Hopefully it won't be too expensive to get a new one.

 

Snow and salty roads are unfortunately the standard here in Norway so I've treated my previous cars with fluid film and I've been amazed at how well it manages to stop any rust and prevent new attacks. As long as you do this every 2 years the car will most likely never suffer from rust. It's also about 1/3rd of the price of regular rust treatment and it only takes 1 hour.
A total of 6 litres was used today to fill sills and all doors and boot. An 8mm hole is drilled into the bottom of the doors and sills underneath and then replugged with a rubber cap.

Automotive | Fluid Film

 

Well it wasn't today but this week I have changed my rear lights for later X308 ones and sorted out a squealing on my brakes. Frankly I am amazed they were stopping the car at all after seeing the state they were in !

 

I am changing my ac pulley and belt today.

 

test wrap a/c side vent for possible entire trim wrap


the individual peace looks good,but i am not sure if the entire trim package will look good,the interior is black

 

Phew.... what a job..... just to get TO the throttle body and clean it along with the entire intake tract and intercooler/manifold was no minor task, especially without a shop or lift. And the amount of oil I extracted from all the parts beyond the throttle body was simply shocking. It's no wonder the throttle would stick, and it is a wonder that things like intake air temperature sensing was even working with the sensor globbed up in old thick oil... and perhaps is wasn't. Although the part was officially no longer available, I was able find a new old stock air temp sensor from a vendor in the UK who miraculously got it to me in 3 days.

.... as discussed here: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...r-what-178651/



But it's finally all clean, so tomorrow I'll start reassembling and figure out an oil breather catch can separator setup so this oil ingestion issue is hopefully avoided in the future. And hopefully I can get it all put back before the rain hits tomorrow, and I didn't break anything. If not, I may have to wrap it all up next weekend.


BTW, during this process I had mentioned I was thinking about installing the Maxbore throttle body I had bought a few years back, getting the TPS "adapted", etc but with a new TPS and dealer visit, that was going to add another few hundred $$ to the experiment, and introduce some uncertainty. And after re-reading some posts by the previous owner of the Maxbore TB that indicated it might not be well suited for everyday driving, it didn't seem worth the effort for me. I also did some CFM calculations and the stock TB seems to be right in the neighborhood of the correct diameter/CFM for the XJR6 supercharged setup, even if a larger 10% lower pulley were fitted. So I've decided to sell the Maxbore TB and maintain the stock TB.

If interested, the Maxbore TB is listed in the Classifieds:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/p...e-body-180474/


.

 

Took the snow tires off and put the summer tires on, now I have to figure out if I have a bad tire, thrown wheel weight or rim that needs to be straightened, and I hate the f#$^N lug nuts :-( and need a new set of those

 

Found a local garage that actually let's you rent the place by the hour for a ridiculous cheap amount. Lifted the car and changed the transmission oil easily. Almost 4 litres came out, and it looked pretty dark and nasty. Felt immidiatly an improvement in shifts. I'll repeat the process in a few months.

I have the filter and gasket but did not change it this time. A local transmission garage that specialises in flushing trannys said that it's normally not necessary to change the filter. : "if the filter is so bad that you need to change it, you really need a complete new transmission as well..."

Not sure if I trust in that so I'll probably do the filter as well the next time..

 

[QUOTE=Tcasmarcus;1670084]Found a local garage that actually let's you rent the place by the hour for a ridiculous cheap amount. Lifted the car and changed the transmission oil easily. Almost 4 litres came out, and it looked pretty dark and nasty. Felt immidiatly an improvement in shifts. I'll repeat the process in a few months.

I am very jealous that you have a garage that would let you rent, I would definitely do more of my own work................

 

Ever since I've had the X300, I have had problems with the radio aerial. I bought a new mast, installed it and the problems persisted - the retaction was irregular to say the least, and I needed to get out , and gently twist the mast to get the aerial to retract. A few weeks ago, it came to a head in, or just at the entrance to a car wash, when due to the failure to retract and my stupidity, the car was driving forward, with no driver into the brushes. Not funny. So today, I replaced the complete assembly. Fairly straightforward but a lot of boot/trunk parts to be removed to get access. Result is a perfect operation. I decided to dismantle the original assembly and found that part of the plastics activating mast had broken and was preventing proper activation. So now I have a perfectly use able spare.

 

Got 4 brand new bridgestone Turanza t001 tyres . Very quiet and comfortable. No signs of any tramlining. I also purchased new 6.5 speakers for the doors as I've realised that the 5' speakers I installed were too small and without any bass.

 

I have been having problems with my radio aerial. Sometimes it retracts, sometimes not, but a small twist of the tip, and down it goes. I tried a new mast, but no change. Then a few weeks ago, I got stuck at the start of a car wash with the mast up and the car in gear moving slowly forward with nobody in the car. Not funny. So today, I set about replacing the whole assembly. Fairly straightforward, but a lot of boot/trunk panels to be removed to gain access. Once completed, I dismantled the old assembly and found a small piece of the mast rack broken off causing problems during retraction. So, now I have a perfectly good spare. The Jaguar world is happy!