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Jaaaaaag XJ40: Game Over - Death by Alfa Romeo


Broadsword

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The locks are behaving better now. I might have used the valet key by mistake at one point which probably didn't help. Yes the lock button on the dash messes everything up if you press it. At the moment I've got it back to three doors working on central locking with the key in the driver's door. Nearside rear (which was originally a problem) will not unlock (tries to). The fuel filler car will not unlock on central locking nor will the boot. I went and lubricated the lock barrels which helped a lot, particularly for the boot. One key works better than the others so I will just use that for now.

 

Today saw some good progress despite the poor weather. I started with the boot as it was very damp. Pulling out all the crap showed the true state of affairs, there is surface rust all over the floor, but everything is solid. No holes. The aerial mast rubber grommet had been letting water in freely. I used a bit of bathroom seal as a temporary measure just to stop the torrent of water getting in. The nice spare wheel turned out to be not so nice when I saw a massive bulge on the back. I've left it out in the shed for now. It has the original jack, ratchet thingy and wheel nut wrench, and what seem to be the jack kit from an X300 as a spare set.

 

Four rubber grommets from the back of the boot were out. Three retrieved and reinserted, one has a plastic bag for now. Hopefully the boot wont leak now, but I've cleaned everything up to a certain extent and removed all the mouldy and needs a good seeing too. The right hand side carpet is missing along with the carpet for the bootlid. The boot needs rust treatment and painting. I had a good prod in all the nooks and crannies, looks pretty solid for its age.

 

Next I tackled the wiper. Valeo Silensio for the blade. The problem with wiper not parking turned out to be the 7.5 A inline fuse as Magnificent Rustbucket kindly pointed out. Thanks again for that.

 

Next to remove as much as the giffer tat as possible. All the interior stuff was easy enough. Things were just stuck on with adhesive strip. Soon it was in the bin. On the outside I found the stupid reflectors on top of the originals would twist off (they were just stuck on). The glued on badges on the wingmirros popped off leaving some epoxy residue which I will fix tomorrow. The leaper is now gone, but it's base will have to stay for now as I fear there is a nasty hole(s) underneath. The thing in front of the leaper popped off but took a small amount of paint with it. It will touch up ok.

 

Next was a another quick look at the oily bits. Underneath definitely looks good. Still no leaks. Steering rack gaitors not bulging with power steering fluid. I will have to tackle the transmission fluid as the box isn't quite as fluid as it should be. There is no catalytic converter by the looks of it.

 

Under the bonnet I had another poke around. Cleaned out some of the gunk in the oil filler neck then discovered there was no air filter!!! Luckily I had one waiting which promptly went in. Then I found a loose spring on the inlet manifold. This appears to belong to the throttle cable assembly which may explain why the cruise control wasn't working. I put it back and will test tomorrow.

 

Finally quick preliminary wipe of the interior and that was it for the afternoon. More tomorrow weather permitting. All in all, still no horrors and the car looks better now.

 

As a bonus I took a deep breath and had a peek under the driver's side scuttle panel. Have a look at the photo.

 

Today I drove past the car I was probably going to buy had it not been sold a few hours before getting to the seller (this was a while before this car), a brilliant white G-reg Citroen BX 1.6 Pilot. I stopped to have a look at it as it was on a car lot. I knew it was up for sale at £1000 previoysly. I called the dealer who said it was amazing and he is putting it in auction with a £1500 reserve.. and it's on Gumtree for £2000. Kind of annoying as I think he is being a little on the greedy side, but boy oh boy is it spotless. Does anyone want to relatively rust free 57 plate Ford Ka for a BX? :PI know, thought you wouldn't.

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There was enough junk to fill a wheelie bin in there. There kind of is a wheelie bin in the boot anyway. A large black plastic boot tray which appears to be a genuine Jaguar part. Not much info on it, but there is a mention of it on the XJ40 forum. It seems to be quite rare and gets XJ40 people quite excited by the looks of it. I still think the boot layout is just mad. Look! Another video.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpeyMvSrq0&feature=youtu.be

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Well, I've been driving around in the Jag this week and it has been quite nice. The handling is excellent although for my taste the steering is too light and lacking in feedback. I understand Jag designed a certain amount of slack into the steering rack bushes, but there are ways to do away with this. Although all the tyres have plenty of tread, it ought to have a new full set. This would probably transform the driving experience. Fuel consumption is a bit high at the moment (low 20s), but the weather has been horrendous to be fair and I haven't done a service.

 

I've decided to tackle the transmission (its jerky going into drive and 4th seems to come a little belatedly) by buying a Silverline fluid extractor pump and 5 litres of Dextron II. I'll see what difference comes of sucking as much out the dipstick hole and replenishing. Later I will replace the filter. This time of year it is still a bit much to be scrabbling on the driveway without a garage. Another annoying discovery is the lack of anything holding in the battery. True madness. I have an ugly and temporary solution to hold it for now. Cruise control still not working despite reattaching a spring, but I did discover a mystery disconnected hose and seemingly nowhere to connect it.

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I am just about to go out so cannot check, but the vacuum pipe looks like the one which fits on top of the inlet manifold under the rear fuel damper (the round passivated zinc coloured thing on the fuel pipe at the rear of the engine.) 

 

Down between the inlet pipes, on the flat top of the manifold should be a narrow metal nipple thing about 1.5 cm tall - black coloured like the manifold - which the pipe presses on to. It looks like this one. It supplies vacuum for the HVAC system. 

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Glad you noticed the battery being loose.

 

This happened to me in a CX once.  Garage offered to fit it for free, so I took them up on it - saved getting my own hands dirty.  Shame they didn't bolt it down really.

 

The car was fine for a couple of weeks until I pulled up at a red traffic light and smoke started billowing from under the bonnet.  I tried to turn the engine off and pulled the key out, but it kept running.  Ran round the front with the fire extinguisher to find that the battery had slid up against the engine (which has all the spinning fanny type bits facing the battery on a CX) and shorted out, well, everything.  The smoke was the insulation burning off the red-hot wiring loom.  I managed to pull the earth lead off the battery and all the badness stopped.

 

While scratching my head at this god-awful mess a gendarme pulled up and issued me a bollocking for blocking the traffic.  I explained the situation and asked him to help me push the car off the road, at which point he drove away quite rapidly.

 

Well bought though, I think these are great-looking cars and I am more than a little jealous.  They rust for fun and the complex bits can be unreliable, but I've just admitted to having owned a CX...

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Wow that sounds scary. On the upside your CX is one of the few cars which can beat the ride quality of the XJ40, but being on fire is a bit of a drawback admittedly. I continue to forgive all the stupid things that are wrong with this as I know its always going to be a solid car with a good engine. It's a bit like my previous XJ6 in reverse. All the little things that are wrong with the XJ40 were perfect on the X300, a really usable car, but rust was going to take hold of it. I mean it was still solid, but things could only have gone downhill. And the LWB is just too long. I'm going to be on the lookout for a breaker car. One good raid from a donor car would put a great many things right on this in one fell swoop. It went dark before I got to the bottom of the loose vacuum line. Even with a torch, I couldn't find my way in there.

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Today I used my new fluid extractor setup to empty as much transmission fluid as possible. This is now my favourite tool. 2.75 litres of ATF extracted without any mess or lifting up the car. What I learnt was that inspecting the condition of the fluid on the dipstick is deceptive. What was in there still looked fairly red (on the dipstick). When I got a load of it out, it was quite a dark red. The Dextron 2 is clear cherry red.

 

This made things a bit smoother, but not massively so. I still have plenty of Dextron 2 left so the next time it will be off with the filter.

 

Also I started cleaning up some of the light lenses. Side repeaters and number plate light lenses were extremely dirty. All the bulbs work, but some are ancient and nearly black. I think I will just replace everything.

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For reference. My first attempt to solve the phantom failed bulb light started with checking bulbs and connections, which all seemed adequate. Indicator blinking double speed on the dash on the right hand side (not outside) suggests bulb failure module problems. Tonight I took out the rear right BFM, because access is good. Inside it is remarkably clean considering how damp the boot has been. The crusty orange residue is presumably old solder flux and not the cause of a problem. No dried out solder joints I can see. Next up will be the front module. Access inside the BFM is very simple. Just unbend the metal tabs on the edges.

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  • 2 months later...

Had my first FTP in a Jag ever today. Any FTP is quite rare with me, once every few years. Amazing considering some of the tat I've driven over the years. Anyway it was quite warm up in the East Riding and a fine day to do some executive driving in the Jaaaag. Drove to a nearby town (15 miles or so). Parked up (in direct sunlight, first clue). Came back an hour later. Started, drove 200 yards, conked out, refused to start. Despite the FTP it seemed somewhat willing to start. First thing I learnt was that on level ground the XJ40 is very easy to push. With the car out of the way some further attempts to start resulted in nothing.

 

This is the point where I was quite pleased that for the first time ever when taking out car insurance, I coughed up for optional breakdown cover. That was arranged quickly and without hassle. Half an our later I get a call from the AA truck. He was in Dewsbury, I was in Beverley. This was a surprise since the first thing I told the breakdown people was that I was in Beverley. Never mind then. There is a Beverley Road in Dewsbury I'm told...

 

By this point the car was back to normal, staring and running handsomely. It was cooler now. Culprit is the fuel pump. I noticed when it failed to start that the pump wasn't buzzing. Some research shows this is apparently a known thing and that Jaguar also knew about it. They all do that from the factory Sir. Long story short the pump can fail in the hot, solution is to add a second fuel pump. Genius on a British Leyland scale. All in all a minor inconvenience.

 

In other news. Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine is quite nice. The post about the bulb failure module was in fact that that module I photographed is faulty. I've tried cleaning that brown crud up without results. A good pair of replacement exhaust manifolds has been acquired. Also I'm quite keen about a LPG X300 3.2 in Scotland, but can't get to it till Thursday. Considering another blind purchase. Worked well with the Xantia.

 

My Jaguar ownership experience seems more complete now with this latest incident.

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I had an XJ40 ( Daimler Sovereign version with plah) a few years ago and a couple of FTP occured. I didn't have homestart but as I live on a hill I let her roll down it far enough to be able the call the AA. Turned out she was flooded, remove plugs, disconnect fuel injection, turn over a few times then put back together. Same second time, except I knew what to do.

 

I also found the electronic display "fun" as somebody had covered over the warning lights bit so when I realised and removed the tape I had a fair few things to sort. I've previously mentioned the 'bodge'on the ABS...

 

Sadly galloping rot ended her days but I miss it and wish you well with this one.

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Isn't there a modern fuel pump replacement- something reliable? The old Lucas pumps had points which would stick? These I recall responded to a tap.

My 6.0 has two pumps, both failed in that intermittently overheated and caused significant stoppage usually mid overtake, or fast lane cruise. Not sure whether sensible engines have one or two pumps (magnifrustbuck will know).

 

Plenty of rebuilt originals available when I was looking (Grublogger a good source) and assume to replace every 80,000 miles as a consumable.

 

This was good Jenner advice (probably the ultimate authority on such issues)

 

T

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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£35 is very cheap - it is IIRC a re-boxed Walbro pump and is usually quite a lot more than that.

 

The six cylinder cars use one pump - it is only the V12 which uses two. There are posts on XJ40.com on how to replace the pump. The pump generally lasts about 100-120k miles in the six cylinder cars and though they can fail suddenly at considerably less than that, they are generally reliable in the six cylinder cars. The V12 has an altogether more complex twin-pump unit with the second pump used in moments of high fuel demand which can be far more problematical.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh dear...

 

https://youtu.be/Gv0l4ACcNsk

 

About a week ago I was merrily driving along, basking in the magnificence of the Jag. Then I needed to stop at a zebra crossing to let a pedestrian cross. A couple of seconds later, BANG. An Alfa Romeo Mito drove straight into the back seemingly for no reason at all. The driver of the Alfa took full responsibility, the car was taken away as undrivable on the Friday and I have just agreed on compensation today. Long story short this is the end the XJ40. Obviously I'm gutted, but you just have to be pragmatic with these things, realize the car cannot be fixed, and just move on.

 

Now I do have the option of buying the car back for £160. I can't store it so it only makes sense if there is a buyer ready for it. I'm looking to make a £100 profit in the event that I don't have to deliver, otherwise I won't bother. Let me know if interested. Still taxed, MOT'd drivable (although not recommended) and insured, just in case someone is interested.

 

As a replacement I think I'm going to go all out and get a X300 XJR6 hopefully. I drove one recently and was deeply impressed. If anyone spots one for not outrageous money, let me know!

 

Also I have kept back the plastic boot tray which I understand is a rare original Jag accessory. I has a bit of a crack and needs a bit of cleaning up, but if someone is willing to buy that, let me know (forget the idea of posting it though).

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Aw man. That's rough.

 

I can't do much with a pranged Jag on another landmass, sad to say, but you have my sympathies.

 

Glad you've got your eye on a replacement motor, though... hopefully a bit of XJR6 goodness will dry them ol' tears nicely.

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Well the good thing is that no-one was hurt in any way, and that there were no arguments afterwards. The big cat clearly took the brunt of the impact, I was on the brakes quite hard in a bid to stop it moving onto incoming people, but it still moved forward a few feet. The Alfa seemed to come out of it relatively lightly. Front bumper cracked and one headlight cracked. Shows the progress in vehicle safety I guess when a 1200 kg car takes out a 1800 kg stately home. The XJ40 should have had adjustable headrests for the front seats, my head went over the top of it.

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Well the good thing is that no-one was hurt in any way, and that there were no arguments afterwards. The big cat clearly took the brunt of the impact, I was on the brakes quite hard in a bid to stop it moving onto incoming people, but it still moved forward a few feet. The Alfa seemed to come out of it relatively lightly. Front bumper cracked and one headlight cracked. Shows the progress in vehicle safety I guess when a 1200 kg car takes out a 1800 kg stately home. The XJ40 should have had adjustable headrests for the front seats, my head went over the top of it.

 

 

Whiplash? Not joking - chances are you'll start getting some neck pain before long. 

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I think it would attract too much attention with the back end caved in like that. Also it's old enough for there to be some unexpected collateral damage which may creep in. Body shop only seemed interested in the caved in bit, did not comment on suspension or anything. Basically I won't take the risk keeping it on the road. Yes my neck moved back a bit more than one would like, but I've had zero problems at the time or since. If I get a twinge, then straight to the doctors obviously.

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You'll probably find that there's a *lot* more that's moved under the skin on the Alfa than you can see externally. It would probably have looked a lot worse if the bumper was off.

 

Jag will probably be fine provided the shut lines of the rear doors haven't moved. If much has been shoved forward it should be visible there I'd think. They're pretty solidly built old tanks so long as the rust hasn't got to them...

 

Like the first one that a mate bought which we discovered didn't actually have any connection between the sills and floorpan...

 

Would think you'd easy be able to get your money back if you were to buy it back and break for parts. The Sovereign spec tail lights (the standard ones don't have the chrome trims), the heater circulating pump and the bits of trim that always fall off would probably get your money back.

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Blimey sorry to hear about that, personally I would have it back and continue using it till it's out of T&T, it's got to be worth your asking price to a racer surely if it turns out to be more bent and used panels aren't forthcoming? I very much doubt there is any suspension damage on a direct hit from the rear - if the rear door gaps are still all ok I shouldn't worry over it.

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