Broadsword

Superb thread this has turned into. The Disco looks abnormally tidy, lovely. What's it like underneath?

I like the moisture sealing up the air leak theory. Good luck getting to the bottom of it!

That is a very strange set of symptoms. The rain thing makes no sense at all to me. Air in the lines is like the problem I had on my Range Rover P38. On that it turned out the in tank fuel pump was faulty. Replacing that solved a whole list of issues and now it runs great. Does the BX have a in tank pump? Even if not I would look inside the tank for a blocked gauze filter or something like that. Other than that the symptoms would suggest injector pump to me.

Glorious!

Good news! The Lupo is fixed. Turned out the wire to the positive terminal on the starter had broken. I used a bit of spare battery earth strap to effect a repair and cleaned up the starter carefully to ensure the contacts are good. The brushes were not particularly worn so I think the starter itself is fine. Result the car now leaps into life and it was quite satisfying to fix the starter as opposed to just buying a new part. Also I wanted to try the tonneau cover which came with the MX-5. I may be obsessing over a very small detail but I think it looks fabulous buttoned up with the roof covered up. The problem is that the more I look at the Mazda, the more I want to keep it on... Quick someone save me from the temptation!

Time to update the thread as we have ticked over to a new year. A spot of bad news on the Lupo this morning. Turned the key and the engine barely cranked. Tried again and it did nothing, not even a click. I have plenty of electricity and the car bump starts fine so I'm fairly certain the starter is dead. It has given some subtle clues towards that over the past few months. There is no relay and the wires are undamaged. One final check will be to see if 12 volts get to the wires on the ignition switch. Amazingly a replacement starter motor is currently about £28 on ECP. It looks like a 5 min* job to remove the starter. I'll have it off tomorrow for a look, but at 150k miles it's entitled to fail and the car has seen some very heavy use. The Range Rover is currently off the road since the insurance expired and I haven't got round to renewing. I'll wait for the month to tick over and it will be back then. I need to fix the oil leak. Fortunately I struck lucky at UPullit and there was a diesel there P38 there. I got quite a nice parts haul, one of which was the entire oil cooler with the hoses. What I learnt about it is that the oil lines into the oil filter housing are a push fit, with a clamp holding it on. I can't see a clamp on mine, just loads of silicone sealant. Now that the spares are to hand I can dig deeper. Ideally it's just the O-rings or maybe even the clamp missing/bodged. If there is more damage I'll just replace the whole thing, so all the bases are covered. I also scored a replacement HVAC panel, which I refurbished for the hell of it and sold surprisingly quickly. The next day I started mine up the pixels started going. Oh well, I'll just use the knowledge gained from fixing the now sold spare and fix the existing unit. It's quite easy. The Perodua was fun on account of the thrill of winning a roffle, but ultimately it needed shifting on and has been re-homed. It helped pay for Christmas. Then the MX-5 happened. This put right my bad luck on MX-5s. I wanted a proper go in one since having a test of Snagglepuss's and realizing they are amazing. I did buy one off here in the autumn, but it turned out to be more broken than hoped and I bailed out. One landed in my lap which is both working well and much more solid than all the others I have seen for lemonade money. Having had a proper go in it, it has confirmed that yes they are utterly amazing, even the NB. I've had a little tinker with this one and now have a bit more of an idea of what they are all about. All the info on this car can be found in the for sale thread. If I could run another car longer term on the fleet I certainly would keep it till the summer, but I can't so it will move on, and I'm not willing to part with the Jags at this point, they are just too good. I would keep a ratty very MX-5 cheap one for longer I think for a laugh. One like that roffle car from last year would need to land on my lap (what happened to that one anyways?). As a car, the MX-5 fits like a glove. Both the Jags are behaving very well indeed. I'm waiting for better weather for Jag tinkering, but in the meantime they are just being enjoyed and hosed down regularly to keep salt off. Really for supposedly such troublesome cars, the X306 and X100 have been great. Obviously the LPG thing on the XK8 means I'm not having to worry about filling up all the time. A full tank of LPG is about £25, beat that! Upcoming XK8 jobs are bonnet cables and front brakes followed up by a tidy up and then start thinking about the MOT. For the XJR I would first like to replace the secondary timing chain tensioner as it amazingly still sports the original. It should have the redesigned second generation unit. After that it might be time to think about changing the S/C lower pulley for more turbine-like shove. I'm still on the lookout for back boxes to fit to the XK8. It's great, but too loud. At the end of February I have another special test drive of a manual XJR6 lined up. This time it's an auto car converted to manual, well known to XJR6 lickers on various user groups. I'm really looking forward to seeing it as it's an example that has been VERY thoroughly gone through and is probably pushing around 400 BHP. Coming back to the Lupo. It's a great car, but I'm thinking I want to quict while I'm ahead. In short, fix the starter, replace front brakes, MOT, then start looking for a Fiat Panda diesel. It's the only logical alternative for very frugal dailying, and Jim Bell has with his convinced me that I want one. Other benefit of the Panda, although it isn't as simple as the Lupo, is that it isn't going to shake any bones and is a good few years newer. I'll be keeping my eyes open. I could keep the Lupo, but subjecting it to a second heavy year's use might just start to tip it over to the tired side and I don't want to be the one who kills it. If someone wants first dibs, let me know.

My word it looks gorgeous. Black must be the best for the HE XJS, it really brings the lines out just right. There is one other colour I really like on the pre-HE cars and that is yellow weirdly, but this is really just brilliant, as are all the little details you are fixing along the way. Looks like no option but to replace those number plate light lenses.

I think we have run out of superlatives on this thread, so I will simply say well done. So pleasing to see it so far along now.

Very, very rare Jag XJ6 X300 4.0 Sport MANUAL. The owner tried to flog it to me this week initially for £2000, then £1500. Now he has put it up at a more sensible £1000 on eBay. High miles, but if someone managed to get an MOT on it and it drives ok, I think it would be worth it. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MANUAL-Jaguar-xj6-sport/193300852746?hash=item2d01a0f00a:g:r8AAAOSwElpd-qgr Also there is an XJR for sale on eBay that is CAT B and should not be on sale to the general public. Beware. Annoyingly it is very hard to report that sort of thing to eBay because technically it is not illegal to sell a cat B car, but the seller is not disclosing it. Places like Autotrader flat refuse to advertise such cars. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jaguar-XJR/264594494901?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D2c0fc8f9bb5847cbac05e485c241c040%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D8%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D193300852746%26itm%3D264594494901%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Acc87cb5a-3a1f-11ea-b0ab-74dbd180a239|parentrq%3Ab9e66cd316f0a9cce02ed2beff78ba0e|iid%3A1

Speaking of in your face, another thing is the windscreen itself. I could extend my finger from the steering wheel and it would be touching the glass! Very closed in feeling, but I liked it. The detail in this thread is giving a great description of the upsides there are to a XJS. Mine was so much rougher, I never really got the luxury feel. Yours is just magnificent by comparison.

I really didn't get on with the HVAC system on the XJS. It's trying to be too clever and results in you never being able to get the air/heat to where you really want it.

Good to see the Panda going strong. It seems completely* sorted and no obvious reason for it to give trouble for a while, quite a good result I’d say and worth the investment. You’ll surely reap the savings in running costs pretty rapidly anyways.

Just caught up with this thread. I have to say the SD1 looks absolutely stunning. Fantastic colour!

Glad to hear it’s been plain sailing!

Cooorr that look fabulous. Nice wheels too. Is the colour Masons black? Also is this old enough to be a 3-speed auto?