new plugs, new coils, new paper gaskets for the coils... seems to run more smoothly and a bit peppier, but an hour or so on some twisty roads with a Miles Davis narration will be the true test. Nice OEM coils from Jagbits for $100 each - thanks Jagbits!

 

those coils look very suspicious, definitely not OEM diamond made in japan. jagbits is peddling a $20 lucas aftermarket coil because of the logo on it. i’d return them and get QYLs

 

"Made in G.B." ah well... must go find my warm beer now (thanks for the heads up, though; hard for a newbie to make intelligent decisions on cost vs longevity vs functionality vs authenticity)

 

• Got the car up on the ramps with help of my lovely wife and frantic hand gestures urging me to give it more gas
• Replaced both belts (used Gates device to measure tension since this is my first self-maintained vehicle belt change ever), took off idler pulley and cleaned it up and re-greased everything
• Changed the oil and filter (Mobil 1 full synth high mileage 10W30, good for climate in Santa Fe)
• Removed oil bypass, cleaned it, and replaced o-rings (see pic, if you ever question if this is a good idea on every oil change, just do it... pretty sure it leaked here in the past as I found crackly o-rings and some black RTV around the surface on the bypass that touches the engine)

I am not sure if I should be happy that the bypass had RTV on it (they cared enough to stop the leak) or unhappy (why not do it right?? maybe they didn't have o-rings handy)
Also, the washer on the oil pan plug was not the right one; it was full metal and smaller than the spec one. Hard to get off, but happy to get the right metal+rubber one on there

To all of the folks who post here, I cannot thank you enough! I will make a nice donation to jaguarforums in celebration of finishing some major new-car work, with this forum's collective wisdom as excellent guidance.

The car is running much more smoothly (plugs and coils?) and quieter (new, probably heavier W oil since it was in Las Vegas NV before). Very happy.

Next work will be taking a look at vent on rear diff, inspecting suspension grommets, and replacing the front and rear shocks with Bilstein B6's (thank you Shock Warehouse). All this after I recover from feeling old while laying on the cold ground wrenching at weird angles.


ahh ramps... just enough room to work AND feel claustrophic. better than jacks though


front side of idler pulley


back side... at some point, the rod will have to be replaced as the threads get a bit sketchy here and there, making for hard adjustments when its on the car


just nice to clean this up, inside and out. pleases my OCD soul.


two of these grommets are not like they should be... they came off in chunks and had the consistency of two-year-old fruitcake left outside.


ahhh... now they all match


cleaned, lubed w new oil, and new grommets in place. yay!


cleaned out the receiving bits prior to re-install


just about all buttoned up and ready for cruise into town!


just satisfying to see the proper washer on the plug thank you again jagbits!

8 litres of oil (not quarts!) and the cruise into town was a quiet lovely success. Belts within tension parameters, oil volume at just below max, and happy ears.

 

Time for some restoration...

All new parts from new engine mounts and shock absorbers, to all new bolts and silentblocks.
Will keep old springs for now because they look even, but I will repaint them.
Removing all paint, treating any rust that I can find on all parts.
Also restoring brake calipers, cleaning up wheel arches, painting them and coating with antigravel

I had registered to this forum long time ago, but only to read some threads. This is my first post, so I want to ask, if I have some problems, should I create new thread or bring back old threads, from years ago, and continue conversation there?

 

Glad you have engaged! As to threads, I think it is your choice. A couple of thoughts from a somewhat frequent poster: It is easier to find a thread you initiated 3 or 4 years down the road when someone posts a question you've already solved, by using advanced search for threads you initiated with a keyword you'll be more likely to remember, vs. the same search for posts you've made to all threads using the same keywords. So there's +1 for starting a new thread.

On the other hand, the forum itself is more useful and efficient if you search the entire forum for an issue you are having, let's say "Starting problems" and only 1 hit comes up and it has the answer you need in the first post! Naturally, this never happens. One helpful thing I try to do when starting my own how-to thread, is try to link as many threads as make sense that I found when I first started searching for the answer to the problem that I solved and have started to post about. This may be a collection of 14 threads asking the same question that I'm answering - even if some are 14 yrs old, and/or it may contain links to 6 or 7 alternative solutions that are how someone else solved it, perhaps differently than did I.

So dealer's choice, but just think about your purpose in posting and whom you envision as your audience and your direction will come into sharper focus. Whatever you decide, pics are always great!

 

First posting in a while. I replace a bad fan in Ruby with a fan from an X308. I did a full write-up if anyone needs it.

 

Me again...
Today I finished restoring front brake calipers.

 

Over the past week:

(1) Replaced radiator top and bottom grommets, condenser too... radiator grommets were basically an aluminum washer; all the rubber had dissipated with traffic (thank you to the forum folks for recommending condenser grommets at same time)
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(2) On thursday night, since the grill was off to replace the grommets, I took it inside and carefully cleaned and polished it... one day I might swap the Vanden Plas scallop for the smooth one
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(3) Converted the cigarette lighters to twin USB QC3.0 chargers, permanently... seems that the lighters are on a 20amp circuit, so max 10am USB chargers should be fine, even if both are in use at the same time. Took some careful dremel action to widen the holes in the ABS by a mm or two; was fun to do that to the wood veneer too and smell actual wood instead of plastic. Decommissioned the bulbs that lit the green clear plastic surround, and the +/- leads plugged directly into the USB back end. Now I have a numerical voltage reading if I want one. If anyone wants the actual lighter coil insert, let me know. I saved the bulbs and mounts and the one coil. Oh, had to make new foam for the interface between the vents and the air ducts in the center console... the old foam took one look at my face and fell into five pieces, then dust.
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(4) Replaced the J-gate bulb with a green LED, replaced S/N switch bulb with blue LED (thanks Oubadah for the guidance that has not aged with the years!) I have gotten good at taking the LED lights apart and re-winding the wires around the existing bases.. resistor is on the positive lead, diode on the negative
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(5) Reinforced the radio/ac/clock bracket with JB Weld and metal... the posts that held the screws for the LCD unit were almost all in pieces, one screw bracket was gone, and two were missing pieces. Also, the thin plastic ramp between the Clock and AC unit was kinda trashed, so I lined that on the back side with JB Weld and thin gauge metal.
Preview attachment image3.jpeg


(6) Sent the LCD clock for ribbon and light replacement to ModuleMaster ($99 on ebay)... thought about doing the ribbon replacement myself, but erred on the side of paying a professional to do it properly [didn't feel like finding/buying the t-shaped tool for the business end of the soldering iron, etc etc).

Next week, maybe: Front shock dampers (bilstein b6) just arrived from ShockWorld, and I have some power steering fluid to replenish... looking forward to a stiffer ride without the occasional clunk from the missing drivers side damper grommets. Oh yeah, and waiting in line to see if the DMV Gods will grant me a license plate from NM.

 

After all of the work I have done over the last month on the 1996 VDP, I decided that a trip to Texas for a COVID vaccine was a good idea. Left early in the morning, got stuck on Interstate 40 in snowy slush surrounded by parked semi-trailer trucks for three hours, complete stoppage. Missed my appointment, cringed at every little rock or piece of road ice that came my way, drove home, skulked around for a while, then washed the car in temperatures not too far above freezing as a corrective emotional experience. Car did great, everything else was not so great


note the angry spring clouds in the backround

 

Sounds like a terrible journey, nice colour car, good job washing that!

 

For NerijusHawk, a little more detail on the Cigarette Lighter to USB conversion; see this video if you want a walk-through of where my cigarette lighters are - front one at 7 minutes in, back one at 14 minutes

(1) USB units from Amazon: "Quick Charge 3.0 Dual 12V USB Car Charger, Aluminum Socket with Red Digital Voltmeter, Waterproof Car Outlet with Power Switch Button" They come with n-line 10amp fuses, so even with quick charge these are a smaller current draw than the lighters they replace.
(2) The factory jaguar lighter openings are 1 to 2mm smaller in diameter than what you now find online, so prepare the Dremel with small or large sanding barrels so that you can carefully increase the diameter and keep the opening round. Note also that there will likely be interference on the hidden/back side of the opening, and you will have to cut away (carefully!) some ABS structure to get the back side locking ring working effectively. For the front ashtray I cut away structure and used the lock ring as it was; for the back lighter opening, I had to cut away a flat spot on the lock ring and then turn the USB unit until things were tight... thankfully "tight enough" and USB being oriented properly were one and the same
(3) To get the rear USB charger flush and looking nice, I also had to CAREFULLY dremel-sand away some of the wood grain veneer, but I think the final result was worth it.
(4) I carefully removed the factory plugs from the plastic fitting that kept them together, and once the +/- leads were free, I could plug them right into the back of the USB units. The lightbulb that lit up the green lighter perimeter was removed, and I just wrapped the bulb lead to the +/- leads with electrical tape.
(5) Finally, I kept the rubber caps that came with the USB units but freed them from the rubber washer they were connected to... much cleaner to fit the unit into the opening that way. I might lose the caps at some point, but at least everything fits.


USB charger installed in front ash tray, rubber cap off


Flush-mounted USB charger in rear-facing cigarette lighter, rubber cap on

 

That's the prettiest Jaguar on the whole block

 

Pulled the ‘96 VDP out of mothballs. It’s been in storage for 2.5yrs but driven around every 3-4 weeks.
Drain/filled coolant, quick oil charge even tho it only had 300 miles on the oil. Detailed outside and in. Cleaned and Treated the leather, shampooed the carpet. Replaced the 2 PS hoses from the PS reservoir. Long day.... also, Found the right rear power door lock not operating.

 

I have spent the odd hour(s) here and there over the last three days reading about coolant usage on Jag forums. What an incredibly complex topic for something so... common.

Observations
(1) IAT + OAT = oatmeal in your coolant loop. Green and orange mixed is bad.
(2) OEM spec green coolant for X300s D945? isn't manufactured anymore, and was replaced with something like D542 which is yellow. Don't mix those either.
(3) Check what is actually in your car, out of the reservoir in the sunlight, before doing anything. Very important to extract and view! If it is green in the sunlight and your car was born before 1998, you can stick with green (but check carefully for additives in the new stuff you might add to make sure you have just IAT and not some additive-addle green goo sold for more money)
(4) You can switch from IAT to OAT or IAT to HOAT or xx to yy as long as you fluuuuuusshhhh your system thoroughly. Yeah no I don't trust myself to be that thorough. Not yet anyway.
(5) Carrying three gallon containers of distilled water in each hand for 150 yards across a Smiths parking lot in the northern new mexico air makes my arms hurt and me breathe heavily.

My conclusion
For my 1995 XJ6 and 1996 Vanden Plas, both of which appear to have green stuff sitting in the reservoir (confirmed by extracting an oz or so and viewing in a clear glass in the sunlight), I will continue to buy the green stuff and flush as per forum recommendation.

For the record, I settled on two options for my upcoming coolant flush:
Prestone Original Prime Antifreeze Coolant
or
Zerex Original Green Antifreeze/Coolant

I will flip a coin to decide which to use first when I have both of them here at the house and can read the labels more carefully than on the interwebs. Unless some long-timer here has a strong opinion on which is better, or that I just wasted my money and should use green kool-aid. And if they are both equally suitable, then I have that other car to flush too (I think the red one goes first).

And maybe this weekend I will contemplate the complexity of a rear shock damper change, then just go on a bike ride instead of wrestling with spring compressors.

 

Autozone has 2 types of spring compressors to borrow from their tool loan program

https://www.autozone.com/tools-and-e...LAT-Suspension

 

just flush till you get clear water and put blue (BMW) G48 concentrate in. low silicate IAT coolant sucks, is unavailable anywhere outside the US, and it's still not equivalent to factory fill. chances are your car already has had a universal OAT added in at some point, mixing coolant types rarely causes sludge.

rear shocks is a super easy job, no compressor needed. won't take more than 30 minutes a side.

 

Hey Cafe Flyer,
Would you mind reposting that coolant info, and any followups, in a new thread? I was baffled by the coolant situation after reading through old discussions, and it would be nice to have your summary in an easy-to-find place.

Meanwhile, here's what I have been up to of late. Cleaning up after POMIL (Previous owner, my late mother-in-law) and her 25 years of smoking continues; I'm putting in about an hour a day just scrubbing and vacuuming. I installed the replacement leaper that I had bought for her in 2013 (!); she was afraid it would get stolen like the first one so it has been resting in the glovebox ever since. The rear driver-side door latch mechanism is on my workbench, in the hopes I can fix the electric lock actuator rather than buy a whole new latch set. And finally I have started deupholstering the headliner and associated bits, including removing the fabric from the sun visors.
-Thos/MA

 

Happy to - I'll consolidate and start a new thread this weekend or sooner; have a lot of forum links collected on this subject

Good luck with the cleaning! My silver XJ is a POFIL, with a bent rear wishbone and salvage title both discovered after the fact... but a nonsmoker so that was a plus.

 

The attached Coolant summary I recently completed may either assist or confuse you -

John Herbert
(1996 XJR )