Top 2 pix are of the front left shock connector and bottom 3 are of the ECU connector. The main reason why we took the system out was because the PO had a stability control fail light on at all times. Pulled the ECU out and nstalled new Bilsteins. It also had about 180K miles on it then.

 

Well...took fotos of both my 98 and 00 front shock mounts. must have been a senior moment; both are the same. Back to rock auto and order a second set of upper mounts. both have deteriorating upper bushings. So...might as well make it a saturday afternoon (or a day between Christmas and New Year, when I have off for holiday leave) and do both cars.

In other goings on...

1. Noticed that the backlighting and position lights on the shift mechanism in the XJR were...um....not as designed (iow, out). So, dug around at the wrench's shop, and he had a j-gate sitting on the shelf. Talked him out of it with the promise that he'd get one back with all the lights working. So, going to take this one (it's the plastic shell with the j-gate, not the whole thing), take it apart, replace all the lights, put it into the XJR (making sure it works...I know about the microswitches in the base...), take the one out of the XJR, replace its lights, put into my XJ8 (which has no backlighting), and then take the XJ8 one, rebuild it, and hand it back to my wrench as a working spare for his shelf. Figure it will just cost what the bulbs cost.

2. Was digging around online last night looking for a console arm rest...in the usual places. List price from JLR (and even our forum sponsors) is a little out of reason (close to 700. USD? Really?). Anyway...found a site www.aaupholsterer.com, who advertises a leather replacement cover. List was $115, but was (supposedly) on sale for $69, in the proper color, in leather. Figure, what the heck, it's probably an hour long job to do, and if it actually is right, then it's a good thing, and haven't spent a fortune (the local shop quoted me 200. to recover in matching vinyl.). If not, then I really haven't spent a lot on it, right?

3. Adjusted the tire pressures. The XJR seemed to be a little harsher than I thought...pressures on all 4 were 38 lb...think that 32 is a little more reasonable, given the weight of the car, they are 45 series shoes. I'll look at the tag in the console to make sure, but I don't think I'm off too far.

4. Box of leatherique came in with the AGD tint dye. May take out the passenger seat, bring downstairs in the basement, put it on my bench, and start the process of renovating the front seats. The rears look like no butt has ever sat in them; they're pristine (guess the tinted windows helped, right?).

Off on the next Jaguar renovation quest, right? My SO says I need to have a project to work on it seems...always a car, though.

 

I believe the XJR recommended pressures were 32f/34r and then they had some really low/mid-20's numbers for "maximum comfort." With a grain of salt..

Does the base include the microswitches? The XJ8 J-gate will have both a park and neutral safety switch, while the XJR only has a park one. Also while the backlighting is just two micro incandescent bulbs, the position indicators are I believe surface mount LED. So, much more difficult to replace, but also much less likely to fail.. worth considering the wiring or connector going to it as possible failure points if all position lights aren't working.

 

No, just the plastic cover, sir. It had passed my mind that it might be the wiring, too...it has that 'occasional' on thing going on...could be a cold solder joint or bad pin or crimped wire...or even loose or grimy plug. I'll look at the wiring diagram and attempt to suss it out. I have an SMD rework station, so, if I have to replace the LEDs, it shouldn't be a problem. That woulld lead to an interesting thought...replace the P with a green LED, R with red, N with blue, and D with yellow or some such. Nah...will just sort it out (perhaps the new old one will only need the incandescent bulbs done).

Really enjoying getting to know the old gal. Haven't begun to work out why the cruise puts it into reduced performance...on the list of things to work out, as time goes on.

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

Both my XJ series rides...parked on my side street...

'00 XJ8 in front...'98 XJR behind. Missing is my '13 XF

 

Other than color, I have the same configuration. My wife drives the XJ8 occasionally while I drive the R daily. That's a good looking set of twins though.

 

Sweet, sounds like you know what you're doing with electronics. Most mechanics I know get confused when things start getting into electrical theory..

I've never tried SMD soldering except for emergency fixes with a pen soldering iron. Is the reflow station a heaterizer-style mini heat gun, or something else?

With the diagrams, keep in mind the CAN stuff. The network wiring is buried far towards the back of the electrical guide, but there's a lot of useful stuff there for understanding what does what in the network. I believe the pos indicator connects to the instrument pack, on which I've been dealing with loose connections, so that's worth a look as well if nothing else works.

 

I have both the pinpoint heat gun, heated solder sucker, as well as a microtip soldering station. Depending on the density of the board, as well as my eyesight, I'll use one or more in the course of doing something. I prefer through-hole stuff, though. But, with most (all) of mechanized circuit assembly these days, sometimes that is just not practical.

I'm going on that assumption, though, from the number of wires (one ground, one lighting circuit, and the rest, I'm going to assume, are the logic sent to the chip on the board to determine which LED to light, since there is no connection between the shift lever and the display; that means that the transmission controller is talking to the board to tell it what gear is being selected by the shift movement of the cable to the transmission...talk about a complex circumnavigation just to light an LED! Ah well, in the end, it's what it is.