Jaguar S Bype R - An Imposter, saving a bird, and that effin supercharger!

[MVX11V]

Literally felt that the car was going to break up and I was going to die at 140mph. I took away from that experience that I am way too over-cautious with Sbype when there is a little creak or a rattle developing, also that having a 30 odd year old British twin turbo V6 less than a foot away from the back of your head at 5 grand is an awakening unlike anthing else.

[MVX11V]

On 08/02/2025 at 19:56, MVX11V said:

All that work and what did I do? Nothing. 

It sat there for ages. I had a work project which I could cycle to everyday, so this just sat.

Well one day I had to take my youngest daughter to a swimming party thing at the local pool. So in readiness I thought that I'd use the car, but it hadn't had a proper shakedown . I drove it for 40 miles, hot, cold, hard and fast... Apart from a bit of tadts supercharger belt squeak on putting the hammer down, it was great. 

So I took it to the pool. I parked on level 7 of a multi storey and decided to hang around for the 2 hours until it was time to get my daughter home. 

1.5 hours in, I had this overwhelming desire to go check the car and the engine. Up to level 7, lifted the bonnet and visually gave it the once over and under. Nothing was wrong. Nothing. 

I went back to the pool side.

I never did finish this.

I got in the car, started it and went to move off but the steering was 'notchy'. Thinking some ecu or system component somewhere hadn't started up properly, I turned off the engine and restarted, but it was still 'notchy'. This proved to be a mistake because as I was descending the car parks ramps to the exit, 'Gearbox fault' lit up. I got to the exit barrier and smoke started to rise from under the bonnet. Thinking the car was now on fire, I dumped it at the side of the road and instead of removing my child and getting the fire extiguisher, just went and opened the bonnet... Good god, there was so much smoke and then I saw the trail of fluid goingback to the car park. 

A high pressure gearbox fluid hose had blown off the cooler and shot oil all over the freshly painted engine. Car no drivey. I called the insurance breakdown line and being a bloke who had foolishly let his young child jump ship into a paasing friends car for a lift home, had an 8 hour waiting time.

Bollocks to that, I left the car and got a cab home. Once recovery called me, I just drove my other car back to the dead sbype to watch it get loaded and dropped back home.

The clean up was intense, plus the cost of the oil which is made from mermaids tears, but fortunately, the box survived shitting itself. I take the blame for that and the failure of my experimental high pressure connections. It lasted longer than I thought, just enough time to exstablish a bit of confidence that it might actually work! I redone the connections the second time with copper compression fittings (and lots of PTFE tape) which have lasted to this day. The issue is that the Jag pipe from the box is not 13mm or 1/2 inch, it's somewhere in between and that needs to reduce down to 10mm. The 10mm bit is fine, but copper fittings aren't an exact size either so it's a challenge. It works, I'll leave that there.

I recently discovered that the gearbox does not like being thrashed in 'D' and it can cause a 2nd to 3rd shift issue DTC on occassion, so I learnt to drive J gate and why did I never do that sooner? I use D for motorway and traffic, the rest of the time I change gear when I want, spirited driving 'S' gets selected which firms the suspension up and loses 6th gear.

[MVX11V]

Here's this weeks conundrum.

I absolutely hat the orange light of doom. I have gone over and beyond to put that fucker to sleep and here it is again, in it's most annoying form yet. Here's how it's been going over the last 4 months of daily use:

• MAF fault- Replacement used Jag MAF cured
• Air intake 2 sensor fault- Replacement AIT2 sensor cured
• Misfire cylinder 5- replaced coil pack
• Supercharger cooling relay fault- Performance AVT pump had melted, fitted original back on.
• Now this: So you thought you beat me Bro?

I'm halfway through replacing all the creaking front suspension which is costing billions and rising, which is gr8 because I replace 1 pair of parts and it still creaks over the smallest deviation, it just creaks less! Still... only the 2 upper wishbones and track ends to change now, and I've gotta buy decent ones before the unamed Chinesium budget parts hit over 100£ each!

I've had to buy new disc brakes and pads all round because they are shaking the car to shit from 70+ mph, admittedly I'm not scrimping on this car, so that came in at just over 300£. I've replaced 4 coil packs so far, about 20£ each and I need another 4, and now I've got to remove the supercharger again to replace both knock sensors, they range from 'I'll break again in 4 months time' 16£ to ' I may last a little longer' £80 each.

LTFT's are now at 14% too from 11 so theres an idle air leak that's getting worse. 

What a champ.

 

[Dave_Q]

They've spelt S BYPE wrong

[MVX11V]

Well Mr Q... This was supposed to be painted over as it wasn't sharp enough and you can't see it anyways, however, I forgot, so now it's an 'Easter egg'.

[MVX11V]

Been looking at top front arms for this right. Berkshire want £3 hunnit for 2 and that aint happening. I done a bit of searching and found a crossover on britparts to the XF, AutoDoc also show XF but use the 'from chassis' and the S type number is in there. I bit the bullet and got 2 OE for 70's with 6% discount and some funds from selling fuct Jaguar parts (sold as ornaments). Visually, there is no difference in the arms, if I lose, I lose... it won't be the first time!