New groovy cat about town

[groovylee]

As discussed in another thread, I was in need of a new car, so obviously the best thing to do was go and look at one when I only had a couple of hours before a rugby match.....

The carriage in question?  

A 2009 Jaguar XF 3.0 D with 115k on the clock, some well kerbed wheels, paint in need of a damn good clean, and an interior that smelled of cigars. Obviously. Because Jaaaaaaag. 🤣

So far so good, took it for a 100 mile blast to finchley and back, and apart from being a bit smoky to start with (Italian tune up soon fixed that) there were no dramas. Happy days! Mrs Groovy is also happy 😁

[groovylee]

Been busy on this today. There's no spare wheel or tool kit, so ordered one from evilbay. Someone had triggered the misfuelling flap thing, so I dug out YouTube info and reset that, and then gave everything a damn good clean and lube. Sooo much nicer in there now, it really was grim. 

[groovylee]

ive also ordered front and rear discs and pads, so that is the next thing to do. then while its in the air, im going to get some new boots and have the wheels refurbed

there are a couple of trim clips missing in the engine bay too, so some of them are winging their way here shortly.

hopefully it will be all good before xmas  

[Cento16v]

Shouldn't be smoky unless someone has removed the DPF!

Make sure cambelt has been done and check the oil dilution if you have a diag computer, if not and you don't know when last oil change was, get it done.

Seats have come up well 👍

Before you refurb wheels have a look on ebay, loads of cheap sets seem to come up, with decent tyres as well!

[groovylee]

cheers dude. it was only for the first real push of the loud pedal, i dont think it had been run much for a while, and it is perfectly clear now.

when you say check for oil dilution, do you have any details of how to do it?

cambelt hasnt been done (cheap because of that) but it is getting booked in. oil change will be done at the same time.

currently browsing ebay for wheels already lol

 

Lee

[Cento16v]

You will need a scan tool capable of reading data from the ECM 

When you go into it there will be 3 things, calculated oil level, actual oil level, and oil dilution.

If its 6% or thereabouts, the oil needs changing.

Mine was changed in January and I'm at 1.4% now.

Only reasons for it to go up are if you are doing lots of short journeys so there's a load of failed DPF regens, or there's a fault, I.e leaking injector etcs.

If you don't have a scan tool, change the oil, if there's no record of it being done recently.

[groovylee]

Well, I had a bit of spare time, so I went all two bucket wrong'un and set about the paintwork. Clay barred the whole thing, and the paint came up well, nice and smooth. Then autoglym polish and extra gloss protection. It looks so much better now, but I did find a few stone chips, so will go on the hunt for a paint code and get some touch up ordered.  The only thing I find with grey / silver cars is that they don't have the same depth as darker colours. Ho hum.

[groovylee]

After the mammoth shine up effort, the wheels really do let the side down. I found a guy selling some wheels in Bicester, just down the road from where I'm currently working, so I went and had a look. They turned out to be 19" wheels from an XE, but he assured me they will fit, as they came off an XF. I've been offered a refund if they don't fit to my liking, no no drama. I'll find out tonight when I get home.... The tyres are Dunlop sportmaxx, and there's about 6mm of tread on them, so worth the £300 I paid. There's the odd kerb mark, but otherwise they're much better than the current wheels. I think I'll put them on, and have the original wheels refurbed, then when it comes around to tyre replacement time, I can stuck new boots on the original wheels and go back to the 18s.

[groovylee]

As for the cambelt, the belt kit. Is winging its way to me, and I've got the cam locking tools ordered, so just need a clear day off to get it done 👍 the quotes from independent places near me were rediculous, so DIY it is. It won't be the hardest belt change I've ever done, I'd just rather not spend a day off doing it. 

[groovylee]

Had some time to try the new wheels, as I was also doing the brakes all around. I knew the pads were low and the discs were lipped, but I really didn't expect them to be as bad as they were! Also splashed out on a bit of colour for the brake calipers so they didn't just look like rusty blocks behind the wheels. Pretty happy with how it turned out

[Bren]

Discs are fooked. What's it like on fuel?

[groovylee]

3 minutes ago, Bren said:

Discs are fooked. What's it like on fuel?

not really done much distance in it yet.  did drive from bedford to finchley and back for a rugby match, some motorway, some london housing area driving. averaged 41 mpg, so seems ok

 

[Bren]

25 minutes ago, groovylee said:

not really done much distance in it yet.  did drive from bedford to finchley and back for a rugby match, some motorway, some london housing area driving. averaged 41 mpg, so seems ok

 

Not bad. Looking at these and Merc e class. I wanted another V8 but the spiralling cost of fuel has put that to bed.

[grogee]

On 11/20/2021 at 8:20 AM, groovylee said:

As for the cambelt, the belt kit. Is winging its way to me, and I've got the cam locking tools ordered, so just need a clear day off to get it done 👍 the quotes from independent places near me were rediculous, so DIY it is. It won't be the hardest belt change I've ever done, I'd just rather not spend a day off doing it. 

If you like I will see if I can dig out the procedure from workshop manual. It will probably be full of things like "suspend the car upside down from a crane" but there will be some useful torque values in there I expect. 

[groovylee]

thanks Grogee. I have a friend in the trade, and he's printed me off the autodata pages for the cambelt and the fuel pump timing belt. appreciate the offer though

Lee

[groovylee]

well, its been a while since ive updated on this, mostly because ive been working in the US, so have only been home sporadically.

The jaaag has been doing just fine as an car, but then the MOT was due to run out while i was away, so i sorned it, and decided to sort out the cambelt etc before I MOTd it when i came back.

i never want to do that job again. i think it took me 8 hours all told. a few pics to follow in a bit when i can get my phone to work. so much stuff has to be removed, it's ridiculous. anyway, cambelt duly changed, some of the seals for the intake pipework changed, and a few other odds and sods, and i was off to bed, with the MOT booked for the next day.

 

[groovylee]

[groovylee]

so, on the morning of the MOT, i drove the jag to the petrol station to get some fuel. on the way, i get a low coolant warning. must just be from where i refilled the system...... nope. pull up and theres steam coming from the engine bay. one of the funny spring hose clips had latched partially open, so wasnt holding the hose tight. great.

thankfully the little petrol station had some of the right coolant, and let me use his tap to tope everything up. filled up with fuel, and drove it to the MOT place.

now, i should mention at this point, that i was preparing for the worst. at times the car would drop into 'restricted performance', and would smoke if i gave it bootfulls. also, there is a bit of a knock from the front suspension.  the latter isnt a worry, as i can replace bits myself, but the smoke and the restricted performance had me worried. there could be all manner of reasons for it (hence me replacing a load of seals etc, and ordering a diagnostic thingy). so imagine my surprise, when i got the call that it had passed! advisories for a minor oil leak, and a coolant leak that they couldn't find the source of! (i forgot to tell them about the hose, but explained after and they were all happy).

so there it is - the jaaaag lives for another year! when i get back im going to have the wheels done, as i need some new tyres anyway, so i will be back onto the original 18s. im also going to plug in my new thing and see if i can get to the bottom of the restricted performance issue.  its ok if you drive normally, but give it loads, and it doesn't like it.  i'll update when im home and i know more.

cheers!

[groovylee]

well, lots has happened lately. as you may have seen, i put this up for sale to fund buying RichardKs MX5, but alas, it wasnt to be. with some help from richard we think the secondary turbo oil seal is the culprit for the smoke, so i am going to look at changing that out.

i took the original wheels for refurb on monday, and should be picking them up today. the drivers side rear door has decided to stop locking, so i ordered a replacement lock actuator, and will fit that when it arrives.

then, this morning, the shit hit the fan. or, to be more precise, the Jaguar decided to eat a deer. bugger. pics to follow, but needless to say, there is plenty of broken plastic 😰

[groovylee]

[groovylee]

Took the bumper off and retrieved as many bits as possible last night, it was a bit of a daunting jigsaw... All of those bits on the bench seat were supposed to be in one piece, so I set to with the soldering iron.

[groovylee]

And this is the end result! Not pretty, but functional again. I can order one second hand for about £40 if it doesn't last.

[groovylee]

Next up, the bumper got rat shit strapped together, and got the plastic welding treatment.

It's not bad, but I'll reinforce it with some fibreglass at the weekend and get the front properly rubbed down to try and do a passable rattle can spray job. Fingers crossed I don't hash it up! 

[groovylee]

Just waiting on a new bumper bracket (half of it was missing), two new pedestrian impact sensors, and a few new clips, then I'll be ready for paint.

Thankfully there was no structural damage behind the bumper, so I can just refit and carry on as if it never happened! 

I also picked up the newly refurbished wheels. The guys had refitted the old tyres 🙄 but two of them have loads of tread, so two matching replacements have been ordered for the other pair with mismatched tyres, and then they can go on 😎👍

[groovylee]

She's looking a bit sorry for herself right now 😢

[cort1977]

2 hours ago, groovylee said:

Next up, the bumper got rat shit strapped together, and got the plastic welding treatment.

It's not bad, but I'll reinforce it with some fibreglass at the weekend and get the front properly rubbed down to try and do a passable rattle can spray job. Fingers crossed I don't hash it up! 

 

Did you just use a soldering iron for the palstic welding?  And feed in some plastic as a filler?  

I need to do a similar job but have also been looking at those chinese kits on ebay where there's a tool that heats up staples to stitch the crack together.

[groovylee]

1 hour ago, cort1977 said:

Did you just use a soldering iron for the palstic welding?  And feed in some plastic as a filler?  

I need to do a similar job but have also been looking at those chinese kits on ebay where there's a tool that heats up staples to stitch the crack together.

yep, just that.  that said, ive been looking at the same kits, and I have to admit, it would have made this job much easier!

[RichardK]

Pedestrian impact sensors "at last lads, we've got something real to report!"

Sorry this has happened and very glad it wasn't worse!

FWIW if I'd needed a car to, er, smoke around in the XF drove great and looked lovely, and the clouds could easily be avoided by only driving like a mild hooligan - it's only because the aim is selling that I felt I couldn't do it 😕 It was great to meet you, also! 

[groovylee]

18 hours ago, RichardK said:

Pedestrian impact sensors "at last lads, we've got something real to report!"

Sorry this has happened and very glad it wasn't worse!

FWIW if I'd needed a car to, er, smoke around in the XF drove great and looked lovely, and the clouds could easily be avoided by only driving like a mild hooligan - it's only because the aim is selling that I felt I couldn't do it 😕 It was great to meet you, also! 

not a problem at all! it was great to meet you too, and i can confirm that the MX-5 really is a nice bit of kit - get it bought someone!

[groovylee]

well, the Jaaaaaag has gone to the big Copart in the sky

im going to go and buy the mini cooper convertible from Jamescarruthers of this parish tomorrow night, so this needed to go.

i did retain the refurbed alloys of this, so will see if there is any interest for them on here, if not, i'll be banging them on fleabay.

 

Lee