Xtriple does it again... folly, folly, woe is me!

[uk_senator]

I wonder if anyone's ever painted Starfish wheels chocolate brown.. #JustThinkingOutLoud
 

That is a fantastic machine.  Always loved the XJ-S, especially with starfish wheels and a V12.  Looks particularly fine in black, which inexplicably wasn't one of the most popular colours for them.

[dome]

A late 4.0 one of these was on my shopping list before I bought the Locost. Hopefully I will one day but the values have shot up.

[Felly Magic]

UR WITHNAIL AICMFP

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

I always wonder what these would have been like in manual form, pretty swift I imagine

 

bizzarely if you use manual gear shifting on Forza 7 with an XJS its still a 3 speed with the following comedy change points

1. 79mph
2. 125mph
3. runs to about 145 (not maxxed it yet lol)

 

which i think you will all agree needs a shitter to test and confim or deny :mrgreen:

[Guest Hooli]

I always wonder what these would have been like in manual form, pretty swift I imagine

 

 

I've seen V12s mated to five speed manuals on various Jag sites. Pretty damn swift & a lot better on fuel seems to be the result.

 

I wonder how they'd go with a more modern 5 or 6 speed auto? It'd keep the GT waftyness that way.

[stuboy]

need more pcs

[xtriple]

Actually used her today, massively worried about it after the disaster that was a certain green dollop! This doesn't seem to be in the same league... I hope! It does have problems: the oil pressure gauge goes to the top and stays there, while this is very satisfying on any Jaguar, you just KNOW it's wrong! So I had a look, I have one new sensor but it's small I thought that it was just for the light, it is. The sensor that feeds the gauge is a big bugger that sits at the back of the 'V', mine is leaking oil and when you pull the lead off, the gauge goes to zero. Also, it doesn't even remotely warm up! Gauge sits at the bottom of the scale (it does move up a bit so it's working) and so the idle speed can be erratic, it's not warming up so stuck in 'cold start mode'! On the odd occasion it does warm up a bit, idle settles down to 500 and is steady as a rock. Of course, it cools down even further as soon it starts to move and the idle goes up again.

 

No point in doing anything investigative with her until she gets up to temp so a new sensor for the oil and a new thermostat ordered from David Manners spares, chosen because their website was the easiest to find what I wanted! £34 for the pair including VAT and delivery... bit better than the other British heap!

 

 

Radio and cassette both work well so I've been swanning around with 'Dire Straits' blaring out, I only have a few cassettes and most of those came from a kind member on here! It also 'seems' to be leaking water, but, it's clear cold water which is odd as the coolant is very blue (and it isn't the air-con 'cos it don't work!) but I worry that the overflow for the rad is leaking, it's in the passengers side wing and is notorious for rotting out, we shall see.

 

The engine which was my BIGGEST concern sounds beautiful! Really smooth and sweet, the gearbox is a real old-fashioned 'slusher'  and gearchanges just sort of happen without any perceptible change of noise or smoothness. Nice   It has a slight 'thumping' from one of the brakes, not bad, but there. I 'think' it's a shadow from a pad, doesn't feel like a warped disc but time will tell on that one. Discs and pads are only £70 so not really a nightmare. 

 

The interior is really nice with bugger all wear anywhere, other than that roof lining... really annoying! and after I 'fixed' the brake level sensor I have no red lights anywhere.

 

Now, on to other matters. My son came down yesterday in his X308. 4 litre and a lovely colour. He got it for nothing, zero, nowt! That's good but also really sad. It belonged to his mate who bought it after running a new MINI on PCP at £250 a month. He paid £1400 for it which he reckoned was less than 6 months payments and he intended to run it into the grouns and just mod and faff with it but not spend any money on it. ANyway, this 29 year old lad, hard a heart attack and died!

 

It had always been understood that if there was a car worth having after he'd finished with it, Kyle was buying it. So, his Father gave it to Kyle because that was what his son wanted! he had done some 'dubious' things to it: blacked out all the chrome and taken the back boxes off and had fitted some horrible wheels to it. Kyle has now put some more BIG wheels on it which are not so bad (I don't think so, but it'snot my car) and had the centre box deleted with some lovely stainless pipes and is having the back exhausts sorted because it looks bloody odd without tailpipes. It does sound fantastic though and not even that noisy which you would expect it to be without any silencers at all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still love 308s and I adore the colour of this one, but it NEEDS the chrome and badges and the leaper has got to go!

 

[stuboy]

satin black spoils the gorgeous looks

[garethj]

bizzarely if you use manual gear shifting on Forza 7 with an XJS its still a 3 speed with the following comedy change points

• 79mph
• 125mph
• runs to about 145 (not maxxed it yet lol)

which i think you will all agree needs a shitter to test and confim or deny :mrgreen:

I’m pretty sure it changes out of first at about 60mph, changes out of second at a hundred and top speed is around 145.

 

But the relaxed nature is what makes this car special, not the bare figures. Back from a time when 300bhp was something very special.

[Guest Hooli]

Good to hear of the lack of major faults on the XJ-S. Sounds like a good'un so far.

 

As for the X308, agreed it needs the chrome back.

[xtriple]

Yup, 65 in first, just over 100 in second and about 145 - 150 flat out depending on how optimistic the speedo is and how fast the fuel gauge goes down! Speaking of which, I put £25 of unleaded in her today and it didn't even make it to a quarter full! Didn't want to put too much in, just in case...

 

Also, was playing with the on board computer, I was surprised at how good the MPG was, then noticed it was set to KMs, it got VASTLY worse after I pressed the switch to imperial!

[Noel Tidybeard]

there is something superbly caddish about a disabled space with an old jaaaaaaaaaag sat in it! lol

[garethj]

If you select instantaneous mpg on the trip computer and hoof it, you too can have joy of seeing 3mpg on the display

[xtriple]

Back when I had one before, 1 mpg was easy getting, it to go blank and flash little lines at you, that took dedication!

[garethj]

From the earlier post about the car not getting up to temperature, with 12 huge cylinders guzzling large amounts of petrol these engines warm up extremely quickly. It’s also a reason why they will always start - even if one third of the plugs fire it’s enough to get it running until the others kick in. Sometimes as many as all of them although nobody changes the plug that’s under the aircon because it’s a pain.

 

Mine would be blowing warm air through the vents by the end of the street from a cold start, just one of the joys of big V12 ownership

[Guest Hooli]

If you select instantaneous mpg on the trip computer and hoof it, you too can have joy of seeing 3mpg on the display

 

I used to know a chap with a X308 XJR who could get 5mpg on the average readout...

[purplebargeken]

Worst I ever got was 17mpg from my 2.3GL Mk2 Granny. It was good fun though

[uk_senator]

This is instant MPG display during acceleration in my XJR, & i saw 1.4 at one point..
 

This is my normal, in town average (& I always use super unleaded in it):

 

And my top tip, when filling up, wedge the petrol cap into the nozzle handle, reduces RSI (make sure you have at least a ton in your wallet before starting):

[wuvvum]

Back when I had one before, 1 mpg was easy getting, it to go blank and flash little lines at you, that took dedication!

I managed to get mine to show 1 mpg nailing it out of a layby on the A14.  I never managed to get the little flashy lines though.

[Bren]

At least your computer works - none of my SD1's had a working computer. Probably full of water.

 

Hopefully this afternoon I will take delivery of something that is also pish on fuel....

[Guest Hooli]

Worst I ever got was 17mpg from my 2.3GL Mk2 Granny. It was good fun though

 

The best I ever got from a Lw/Wt Series 2 LR fitted with a RR V8 was 14mpg.

[dome]

At least your computer works - none of my SD1's had a working computer. Probably full of water.

 

Hopefully this afternoon I will take delivery of something that is also pish on fuel....

 

I trust there is a collection thread happening?

[Bren]

I trust there is a collection thread happening?

Yes but it will be nothing like the epic Doctor Zhivago type threads we are used to.

[MorrisItalSLX]

I was not aware of this lowest-MPG-possible game with the on-board computer, I shall have to give it a go when my Jag returns from the wallet draining facility.

[dome]

I was not aware of this lowest-MPG-possible game with the on-board computer, I shall have to give it a go when my Jag returns from the wallet draining facility.

 

The problem I have is taking the picture when hooning in such a way. I generally find myself quite occupied when the consumption falls into single figures.

[Tamworthbay]

Didn’t the Centurion tank do something like three gallons to the mile? Similar to Jags it would appear.

[Guest Hooli]

Still going to need to try hard to beat the QE2 at 1/2" per gallon cruising.

[xtriple]

I've been posting little updates all over the forum so thought I'd update this one, just to keep it all together.

 

It had an oil leak, pressure gauge that was faulty didn't warm up and the roof lining had a BIG bubble in it. Attention was needed...

 

So, first things first, thermostats. There are two and while the stats themselves are the same, the actual housings are totally different: the one on the passenger's side has three 13mm bolts, faces forward and is just like a million other 'stats fitted to 80s car. The one on the driver's side has three 11mm bolts and a stud with 11mm nut on it. It also faces about 120 degrees away from the front (so pointing towards the back of the front wheel). Why they are different, no idea...a mystery Once the air filters are off there is actually quite a bit of space and much to my surprise, each and every fixing came undo without any fuss. Easy and it was re-filled with a strong anti-freeze mix but the stuff that came out was blue and really clean, as were the air filters etc. All boded well...

 

 

This is the engine bay, big black things are the air boxes and the thermostats are buried under them!

 

So it was on to changing the oil pressure switch. Easy right? Er, no! There is NO ROOM. To get space I first removed the coil, then the top of the throttle body, then the base of the throttle body after taking all the linkages off, moving loads of wires and connections...

 

 

 

 

you get to this and I still couldn't get the poxy switch off! So I called my mate round the corner (Vasz) to come and help, he has strength and bendability! Even then and after cutting a 19mm spanner in half, it still wouldn't bloody move so we ended up disconnecting the oil feeds to the cylinder heads and taking the housing off complete,

 

 

Even then, it had to go in a vice and with a full length spanner it took an almighty swipe from a BFO hammer to loosen it! I was sure it was going to break... but didn't... amazingly!

 

Putting it back together took about 2 hours, getting it all apart took about 3 days. Bastard of a job made worse by the fact the oil pressure still went straight to the top and stays there. At least the oil leak was cured. While I was in there, I also changed the little oil pressure switch that does the light, it seemed sensible to as if it needed changing in the future, it would be just as bad.

 

Then it was the roof lining (not the same day, needed a couple of days rest and to get my hands clean again!)

 

 

This was the big bubble when I first got it, it worsened after two days sunshine until the whole thing was down! Taking the headlining out was a piece of piddle, pull off the two side trims (crash pads in Jaguar speak), pull away the rear buttress covers, undo all the sunvisors and interior mirror fixing and just lift it out of the clips on either side and slide it out.

 

Once out it was a mess! It is indeed a new headlining with a fibre-glass base but even though it cost £350 it was crap! All the foam, glue etc had failed and when you looked it was easy to see why - hardly any glue was used! It still took ages to scrape and then sand all the residue away from the baseboard and getting it off the cloth was a nightmare - I got as much off as I could then put it in the washing machine. It got about 90% of the glue off but not all of it and it showed. I was really dubious about re-fitting this cloth and tried to contact a couple of local trimmers about doing it properly, but, as is usual down here, neither of them got back to me! I bought glue, proper high-temperature stuff, one tin was £7 - 3 tins were £12 so it was a no brainer. Being very VERY careful, I positioned the cloth back where it came from and then used loads of pegs to hold it in place then just did about 18-inch strips at a time and smoothed it out with my fingers.

 

 

 

Much to my amazement, it came out really well! The pictures are not great, but the roof looks good and took about 1.5 tins of glue so pretty cheap Getting it back in was a struggle not least because my arms don't work above my head for more than about a minute at a time and getting it back into the clips either side was a fiddle, then getting all the fixings back in was a sod as I had managed to get the cloth a tiny bit out so nothing lined up quite right anymore. Worse part was getting the back of it under the window rubber, that took ages (ten minutes but it felt longer    )  and it looks okay, not perfect but a good 95% job.

 

[xtriple]

So while on a roll, I fixed the cassette player part of the original Jaguar branded head unit, and then discovered that the horn doesn't work! I; think' it did when I first got it, but not sure. I took the steering wheel apart, it was fine, I checked the fuses under the dash, all fine so then I broke out the new multi-meter I bought from Halfords (£5 with a trade card!) and started checking. The horns themselves worked if supplied with 12volts and still worked if 12 volts was sent down the wire from the relay. There was a signal 12 volts getting through and the relay clicked when you pressed the horn but I couldn't get any power to the high amp side of the relay and as electrics confuse the hell out of me, I went on the Jag forum to ask for help. Apparently, there is an unmarked fuse in the engine bay that supplies power to the relays for the horns and also to the electric fans. It was corroded to hell but 5 minutes with scotchbrite and contact cleaner and WD40, a silent prayer and it...

 

Worked!

 

Right now, the driver's door is apart, the speaker grill was broken (clumsy big footed mechanic - not me!) so I bought some new ones today. Of course, nothing is straightforward with this thing and the door card has to come off as the speakers/grills are held on with tiny screws and nuts on the back, the screws originally fitted are now too short for the new grills so I've left it all apart until I can get some, but I did Waxoyl inside the door which amazingly, is in rust-free condition! While it's all apart I am going to have a look and see if I can fix the passenger's side mirror switch, I know it works if I connect the drivers switch to the passenger's mirror, so... a new switch is £100 so it had better be fixable!

 

Also, got two new radiator caps, the old ones were the originals so 33 years old and they looked okay, to be honest. But when I tried to fit them, they actually require a certain amount of strength to screw down whereas the old ones sort of fall on, I think they were knackered... And at some point over the weekend, I am going to fit new Injection coolant sensors and gauge sensors as there is a fault with warm up - it revs too high for too long and only drops to the correct 700 rpm if you turn it off and then re-start it. It probably isn't the sensor but it's a first point to eliminate?

[xtriple]

 

Just to prove it did get used today, at the park while Chester toddled about and Phoebe played in the hedge (she still can't walk far).