Put it away for the winter. Winter that lasts for 7 months.

 

Misfires on Cylinders 4 and 8, so new coil packs all around. Found 'em for $21 each on the Amazon with 4.9 star rating. Beats the hell outta the $140 each OEM packs I came across. I also siliconed a seal around where each bank of coil wires exits the plug bay....there was a hint of water infiltration inside each at the lowest point by cylinder 4 and 8. Coincidence?

 

Converted my factory fob from membrane to clicky buttons, after the pad restoring glue stuff caused the unlock button to start randomly unlocking my XJR as it sat in the driveway. Come out and see the interior lights on, think "who the hell unlocked my car," lock it, repeat several minutes later.



click click click

Write up may come soon, since this mod is so often mentioned in passing, but with no instructions. Got a lot of other things going on these days that pull me away from wrenching on the Jag.

 

For the past few days I've been going over my recently acquired '03 XJ8 Sport to get an idea of it's deficiencies(there's a few) and devising a plan to correct them with modifications in an effort to keep this car running hard and strong for many more miles. Something I do with any vehicle I buy.
This included ordering a cam cover gasket kit to fix from what I can see is a chronic oil leak issue on these cars. Especially the spark plug tube seals.
More importantly designing and ordering parts for a better crankcase ventilation system that will put an end to these types of oil leaks, eliminate any carbon and nasty combustion byproducts in the intake and combustion chambers, restore octane levels, improve engine longetivity, and free up significant horsepower/torque.
You can follow this project Here in my my ultimate crankcase breather mod thread.
This should be of special interest and importance to those of you with boosted engines where oil in the intercooler is especially problematic but any internal combustion engine would benefit in more ways than one from this mod.

 

Replaced the right side cam cover seals. Spark plug seals were leaking. The rear 2 especially. Tomorrow I'll tear into the driver's side. Saved it for last as I'll be working on my crankcase ventilation mod as well and may take out whatever is filtering the small orifice if it looks like it is or may clog and rely soley on the catch can. I don't want it interfering with ventilation if I can't get to it easily.

 

Installed an electric vacuum pump to better vent the crankcase under load and keep thev full load breather an air in only.
Waiting on a dual port catch can to complete this mission.

 

I read and erased code P0333 (again) on my 2000 xj8. It had stayed off for about 5000 miles. I thought I had the problem solved. I guess I get a new knock sensor and look again for vacuum leaks.

The car was parked all summer. ( I was in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago)

Maybe that has something to do with it.

Jeffxj8

 

I have been chasing this problem off and on for a couple of years one of my 2000 VDPs. (This one I call J3 as it's the third red 2000 VPD that I have owned. Currently I have two; J2 & J3. J1 is in a junk yard somewhere since a truck crashed into the side.)
I changed the intake manifold gaskets, all the O-rings on the various plastic hoses and the dip stick. Replaced some of the hoses though it did not appear that they were leaking. Tried another throttle body & gasket, etc. At times the long and short throttle trims would settle down but invariably I'd get the P0174 code and sometimes the P0171 too. About a month ago I was checking the oil and when I removed the oil cap, I could see some sort of residue on one side of the opening. It appears that my oil cap has been leaking and I'd suppose sometimes it was sort of sealed and at time not so much. Of course the gasket/ O-ring on the cap is 20 years old and hard. Bought a new cap and it has not thrown this code for a month so I'm relatively confident it's finally behind me! Should have changed that months ago!
Best, Dave

 

Thanks Dave,

Ill give the oil cap a try.

Funny how more often than not the problem is something simple. Why does the mind first look for the worst case.

Thanks

 

@XJRfan

You might consider a different insurance carrier like Hagerty who specializes in collector vehicles.
Your car is old enough to qualify and you can have an agreed value so an adjuster is not saying your car is worth less than trade-in $800.

If you have other cars covered on your main home/auto policy, consider a realistic agreed value that is in the range of full replacement costs considering your - closer to more like $10k-$15k which is still low, but reflects closer to reality.
And Hagerty is a no quibble insurance that I have found on several occasions to be lightning fast on response with the adjuster, you determine who does the work and they get the check into your hand, plus follow-up if the costs change. They will even chase down parts and get them delivered to the shop if you are a member of the Hagerty Drivers Club.

You will find that the Hagerty plans are even less cost premiums than traditional auto insurance and have a lot of other great benefits.

Another option is to talk to your Insurance agent to see if they will do an agreed valuation as opposed to bluebook, some will happily insure your car for more than its bluebook value.

Cheers!

 

Apparently 88 mph in a 60 zone. Saith a state trooper whom may not get the joy of a X308, fall weather,sunroof open w/ Def Lepard Hysteria blaring,,,we'll see if the judge does lol.

 

I did that too to my primary fob. Used same buttons too. I angled buttons straight not angled as you did. Works great.

 

Nice. Yeah I angled them the way I did to limit the amount of trace cutting/jumper wires/repositioning while allowing the buttons to stay centered under the pad. The way I set them up, I only cut 1 trace per button, scraped just enough soldermask to solder the legs, and ended up using only 1 jumper wire in total (on the lock button, seen in photo). The component bodies are small and low profile enough they don't interfere with the rubber pad body.

Anyway, for today's jobs, I replaced a sway bar end link to try and solve that darn FL minor knock over bumps (sort of improved, the link bushing was definitely shot though, but noise still there). Also, I tried a kludge fix to solve a couple long time issues...




Sandwiched a couple of 1/4 thick neoprene rubber cutouts between the front subframe rearward bushings, and the body of the car (somewhat difficult to see in the photo above, but they're there). Not a perfect fit since I had to cut them to install without dropping the subframe, but if I decide to do it right that's going to be the path.

These shims were an attempt to solve 2 issues:
1. The known tramlining sensitivity, and a slight pull that follows my tires. As in, swapping FL/FR wheels, it'll pull slightly the other way.
2. Vibration at 50-60mph and somewhat noticeable above.

The initial drive afterwards seems to show very promising results... The pull isn't really noticeable anymore, the vibration is there but dampened slightly, and no negative NVH effects noticed. If anything, it seems to be much calmer NVH wise. But more testing is needed, it may just be the Jag behaving today, or that it's a nice day out, etc. If it goes well on my work commute after the car sits a couple days, I'll probably drop the subframe and go about doing this the right way, and on both sides (only on driver's side at the moment).

 

I have too thought and raised the car on a lift to see is it possible to insert any rubber to test exactly same thing that you have just done. One way what I had in mind to fill current bushes up with "bodyglue". Elastic glue . To make an home brew polyurethane bush. But instead of all of these I have just driven the car and bought other set of tires what reduced issues i have a lot.

 

King Charles, I got an 80 mph ticket ($500) whilst rocking out to "Surfing With The Alien". Joe Satriano., so I feel your Pain.

 

Don't you just hate those "speeding" tickets in a car designed to do 150mph+

 

Crushing Day is awesome driving music !

 

K so I pulled the washer resevoir and enlarged the hole the spout came thru for my 3" carbon fiber tubing to fit thru. Just have to tidy up the edges a little more maybe find a boot then mount the air filter on the bottom side where the washer resevoir was mounted. This will be a true cold air intake and not the typical hot air.
Thanks to addicted2boost for giving me the shove I needed to do this the right way.

 

I did NOTHING to any of MY Jaguars, but it looks like someone has been busy?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/30417832516...oAAOSwORFhX5u6

 

I think that's a cross between sacrilege and grotesque!