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