Yeah, I kind of wondered about that. I put a piece of those little nerf arrows in there I was good for a while but I think it wore it away. It's pretty loose now. Is there a specific part number> I might try a heavy neoprene O ring. Thanks.

 

I understand your love & not so lovely Jag "Relationship".

Before I go further, I have a 02 RAV4 I bought used for 7k & it has only 80k in it, never a issues, not even a drop of oil burned .

I love My 98 XK8 & my 87 XJ6.

The XK8 even my WIFE loves, never before is she into anything, she does not like my old Vette either.

My XK8 has a non fixable trainee issue, After 100 miles it faults into "N". to reset it needs to be stated again.

After 4k of "Repair", no cigar. The Head Gasket blow recently. Hove no idea why ? I just warm it up for 5 Min. monthly, Temp always fine.

So sadly, I'm going to sell it.

My Beautiful XJ6 , not sure but Head gasket blew also & Rear Diff needs rebuilding. A great, sold driver , no issues for 4 years. Beautiful T, Grey, Black interior, Wires, Always garaged w/ 11k !

For years, I warmed up my BMW 2002 we bought in 71 in Muchen & an old Alpha
The same way, never a head blown.

Maybe you guys can give me the reason ?

I use Continental Motors in Oakland CA for my repairs, =The Best.

JOHN at JOHN'S JAG in SF is really poor. He was great till 3-4 t]years ago, drinking issues. Gives best. he can't recollect, ends up 200% more, poor diagnosis, his repair guys rolling there eyes etc.

Needs to retire. Good for heather fix, sunroof moldings only.

I spend 4 k on "Fixing " the trannie. Not fix & other guys said, they didn't get it at all.

 

Hi All,

Well was having a pretty good season of driving until I heard a pop from the right rear window regulator a while back. I did some research and this one seems as it is going to be fun. Found a really good right up done by an owner doing his that make me think it is going to be a full day of fun. I have been putting it off for a while but killing me not to drive the car and as luck has it I found a good price on a used regulator on ebay this week. I plan to give it a good cleaning and a little well placed lube prior to installation, but it looks pretty clean.
Mine mine may be an easy fix but just didn't want to tear into it without the parts. I also ordered a cable kit that comes with the cable winding spool and plastic end to end connector so I could make the decision of which to install.

pretty clean used part arrived from a 98 donor car

I will add some experience notes and pics when done.

 

Hey Chibi,
Sorry I didn't see your posts earlier, the previous owner of my xk8 had to have a trans job done due to no maintenance I assume. Anyway they got the trans from Portland Torque and then had it installed locally. It has been a pretty good trans so far.

I think I read somewhere that these are the same transmissions used by some other manufactures so there probably is a fair number of used transmission in the picker yards if your handy.

Sorry to hear about the head caskets if that is indeed what the problem is, that sounds like on hell of a bad streak of luck. With both engine and trans issues I can see why you would think about selling. Be great if you could find a person with a rear end crash total to either buy and fix yours or sell yours to them. A direct engine and trans swap wouldn't be so bad to do if you had all the right tools.

 

Tex, A 1997 with 120K needs New Chains, Tensioners, Water Pump with the metal whirl-a-majig, Belts and Hoses pretty soon, unless the previous Owner had them changed recently. Those things are just waiting to blow! Check the Radiator for leaks and drain the entire system a couple times before putting the new Anti-freeze in. Don't forget the Oil both Motor & the Mercedes 5 speed Tranny....Good Luck Tex!

Billy Clyde in Texas

 

bcprice36,

only did the upper tensioners, left bottom and chains for now but all the other stuff mentioned done already

 

Well I got my window regulator in this afternoon with the help of manual info and this guys write up , http://www.jagrepair.com/images/AutoRepairPhotos/Rear Window Regulator Replacement-2.pdf

I won't even try to beat that write up because it was really a good one. I will offer what I did differently.

My cable had broken and jammed on spool so window what stuck in the almost up position. First thing I did was to cut the cable allowing the window to move up and down.

When taking the regulator loose at the 3 adjusting bolts holding it on I removed the nuts, push back to get the bolts out of their holes, then allowed the top bolt to move toward rear of car to the hole next to it that is larger, take a measurement of how many turns in it takes to adjust all the way in and write that down so you can put it back in the same spot when installing later, then remove the bolt from the regulator completely. This will make regulator removal easier.

At the point of disassembly where you need to take the bracket off that holds outside seal, you should have the regulator loose and let it fall into cavity a bit. The three bolts are then fairly easy to get at.

When removing regulator from car I was then able to move the window up through the opening rotating top of window toward the front of car a little and the regulator motor will just squeeze out the hole in front of the convertible top bracket. So I didn't have to take the top bracket loose at all.

You are going to need a length of wire to operate the window up and down when installing. I used some appliance cord stripping and jamming into the window connector. Put my jumper cables on the battery and ran them over to the door, so I could clamp one end of wire and then touch the other to operate, swap the positive and negative to go the opposite direction. Not worth rigging up something more to make a few passes.

Since I used all the same adjustment positions it was just a matter of fitting into the holes as you tighten up the window to get final adjustment up-down and forward-backward. What I did was roll up the door window to see if I had the basic alignment and once I had a nice line between the windows and across the top edge I was good. I don't think it could get any better.

Not going to sugar coat it took me about 3 hours to disassemble and put the regulator in and get it water tight. It is an honest 2 hours if your a little better at keeping things in correct order than I was so you don't do stuff like back track because you forgot the out side weather strip bracket and had to take the regulator back loose. Probably another hour to complete the interior but called it quits for the night as I need to do some interior clean up before putting it back together and do some deep leather treatment to the back seat while it is out.

 

Dirty head liner fixed.
So when I was doing my cleanup after the rear window regulator change I thought I would try to clean my head liner that I was sure was going to be an ugly mess until changed. When I bought the car it was dirty on folds and some spots all over. I used the house vacuum that has a brush attachment, and could tell a slight change as I gently brushed. Next step was I read that Jaguar suggested using Rubbing alcohol, so I pulled out a brand new micro fiber towel and soaked an area big enough to put a couple of fingers under and gave a spot a light as possible rubbing. It was rather amazing the spot was transferred to the rag. I kept it up for probably almost an hour cleaning all the way to the lower edge under the rear window, was a good thing I had the back seat out and have long arms. I also gave the carpeted area the top folds into a very good vacuum cleaning since I think the head liner touches this area when down. The end result while not new looks pretty good for 20 years old. Heck I know my skin aged more than my head liner since my car rolled off the line.

 

Broken center console drink holder
When I bought the car one side of the hinge was broken and if you even looked at it wrong it would pop open as the one side slipped out of position. I finally had enough and pulled it last night. Thought it best to disassemble to make the repair and was surprised a the number of screws being in the 20 range to take it apart, both phillips and small torx needed. The part that was broken being made out of ABS plastic has a low met point and can be successfully welded using a soldering iron (one that you can regulate the heat is preferred since you will go from melt to burn if not careful which leads to a weaker joint. I used some donor plastic from an old computer part and melted the seams together. Reshaped with fine file and one of my wife's emery boards. While I had everything apart I found many other cracks that needed repair as well as the front corners of the part that is the inside of the lid (screwed down with torx) and fixed them as well. All worked out well and we will see if it holds up over time.


Repaired hinge.

Before- Broken hinge after disassembled.

 

Time for a new battery, can't believe it died. The warning bell speaker died and the first time I came home late I didn't turn of the lights and killed my 9 year old battery.
The PO bought it and it proudly wears a 7/08 tag can't believe these cars have such a bad charging system.
Okay, yes I am joking about the battery and couldn't believe how old it was when I looked. That is just about as old as any battery I have ever had last, I put a charge on it but will only produce about 200 cranking amps so time for a new one. It was a AZ battery the 2 year warranty level with 850 CCA, so guessing Johnson Controls and I have to say I am impressed as it has been starting the car with no problems. AAP with coupon has a 900 with a 160 reserve so just a small step up and also a JC battery for $109 with online coupon so I will go pick me one up tomorrow morning. Could spend a little more and get an AGM, but if I can get another 8+ years out of a standard battery I don't think it is worth spending another $25 bucks.

New warning speaker will be here Tuesday, so if I can keep myself from killing the new battery for a couple of days I will be home free with all my warning bells to save me.

 

Good to hear from you. I'm glad you are still working with your Jag.

 

You bet I am still working on it, and better yet driving to work several times a week. Any $1500 20 year old car will need love on a regular basis. But it ain't my first rodeo with an old car, heck when I say 1997 it seems like a relatively new car to me my last new truck purchase was 2003 still doing great at 200k+ miles. I was driving 60's cars when they were just known as old cars and nobody thought it was cool...well except for the 68 convertible stingray that I paid $1500 for in 78, that poor thing had a rough life prior to me. My 97 XK8 is so much more refined than the vette was that it is no where close, the xk8 gives me flash backs to the vette while cruising they are amazingly close feel. Upside to the vette was I owned it when I had hair and the chicks thought I was as cool as the car, now at least they still like the car. Fun driving a car that stands out in the crowd. Wrenching is a great hobby that gets me off the couch and helps you bond to your love.

 

Came time to replace the master window switch. I just couldn't get regular normal function out of my mirrors. Couldn't find a circuit board error when testing my switch so I think it may have been the rubber that actually makes the switch contacts work on the circuit board. They must come with some type of electrostatic coating is my guess. Anyway the new switch restored all the functions to my mirrors so while sad to pay $158 with shipping for a new switch I think I am better off than buying a used switch that was some 10-15 years or older. I still have to button it all back up so I will get some photos as do a quick how to and post.

 

I had a bulb out for some time and did the change finally. Used a video and a few posts to help understand the process. Not hard to do and I have good lighting on the RPM gauge now. Used standard bulbs like OEM sylvania long life 3W bulbs 2821.