1993 Jaguar XJ6 adventures “bumper fettling”

[Spiny Norman]

The RAC are fucking useless. Greggs offer a better breakdown service. 

[Spiny Norman]

1 hour ago, calebaaront said:

My friend with his Peugeot 306 came to the rescue! 1/4 of a mile later and I’m home. I’m very surprised the little Peugeot towed the beast with no fuss! I was never going to be able to move it by 8am unless I paid loads for a recovery service.

Reminds me of when my mate valiantly offered to tow my dead 1600Kg BMW E34 530 with his 1.4 Honda Civic. We made it back to mine but I don't think his clutch was ever the same again.

[New POD]

53 minutes ago, Spiny Norman said:

The RAC are fucking useless. Greggs offer a better breakdown service. 

There is a face book group that agrees with you. 

[New POD]

3 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Did they give a reason? I know you're not usually supposed to dolly a rwd in case you damage the gearbox  but surely they should send a flatbed at that point? Or are you just too close to home for cover?

They are stupid. All they need to do is lift the back wheels and tow it backwards. 

[Marshall2810]

Pleased to hear you got back safely @calebaaront I hope you can get the jag fixed up pronto

[andyberg]

Sorry to hear about the new Jag ☹️

maybe it’s got the hump because you are using again? I hope it’s something simple mate. Fingers crossed. 

[calebaaront]

So, update. After ripping the centre console apart I found the ignition relay. I took the cover off and bridged the contacts and we got life. It would now crank but no fire. I swapped the relay out with another and still nothing. Dodgy igniton barrel? I also get an error for fuse 1 and fuse 2. 

[calebaaront]

Changed the window fuse and now there is only a dead fuse in fuse box 2. Now to find it 

[calebaaront]

After changing the fuse in fuse box 2 I now have ignition lights when I turn the key! However I have no spark? The mystery continues 

[comfortablynumb]

What a stupid place to put a relay! Nothing like having to take half the car apart to find something that should be readily accessible 🙄

[Schaefft]

23 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

What a stupid place to put a relay! Nothing like having to take half the car apart to find something that should be readily accessible 🙄

Welcome to Jaguar, Ford couldn't have gotten involved soon enough. It seems like the X300 really was a huge step up in building a sensibly engineered car despite the similarities.

[Zelandeth]

27 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

What a stupid place to put a relay! Nothing like having to take half the car apart to find something that should be readily accessible 🙄

That's the Jaguar way.  Step one in pretty much any task is "dismantle the entire car first."

Not something daft like one of the wires broken off at the positive battery terminal is it?  I have dim memories of that being unnecessarily crammed together.  May well be a fuse box in that vicinity as well, it's been >10 years since I last worked on one so memory isn't great.

[comfortablynumb]

I'm m a newbie to Jag mechanics, despite having driven what must have been hundreds, I've never got involved with them to that degree until we got the ex @MVX11V diesel S type, and MK2 son is running that, so that's his problem! 🤣

[HMC]

Can you hear the fuel pump priming before trying cranking it?

[calebaaront]

2 minutes ago, HMC said:

Can you hear the fuel pump priming before trying cranking it?

I’ve got fuel. There’s no error messages on the VCM. There just isn’t any spark. I’ve left the battery disconnected whilst I go inside and have a beer and have a think about it. 
I’m thinking, maybe the immobiliser has activated 🤔

[calebaaront]

Just tested the coil with a multimeter and seems to be okay. This makes it more confusing 

[Sunny Jim]

Do you have the workshop manual for it? I've got a copy on a usb stick, I could upload it somewhere like Dropbox for you to download if you think it could be a help?

Fingers crossed it's something straight forward and the wisdom that comes with drinking a beer helps you find it.

[calebaaront]

6 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Do you have the workshop manual for it? I've got a copy on a usb stick, I could upload it somewhere like Dropbox for you to download if you think it could be a help?

Fingers crossed it's something straight forward and the wisdom that comes with drinking a beer helps you find it.

That would be amazing, thank you very much. I’m now thinking it could possibly be an earth somewhere hence why it blew a fuse last night. 

[Sunny Jim]

I'll fire up the desktop and get it uploaded somewhere. Back in a bit.

[Sunny Jim]

@calebaaront hopefully this link will work - let me know how if it does please and I'll see if anyone else wants to download it.

Jag X300 Manual

[calebaaront]

It worked! Thank you. Will give it a read through  

[HMC]

Not relevant to the current issue im sure  but after owning about 20 xj40s (admittedly many years ago) They were so reliable- but if the battery wasnt  in perfect condition they would be unreliable.

[calebaaront]

It’s alive! Turned out to be an iffy relay. Happy days  

 

 

[calebaaront]

Gave her a proper test drive today. Did roughly 15 miles. All seems good, the radio died though so I guess a new one of them is on the shopping list. I would like to find an original one but that may be difficult! Next step is to straighten out the front bumper. Also I noticed on the logbook it states the registration is non transferable. @LightBulbFun does this mean I couldn’t assign a private plate to it? Glad to be back out in the beast 

[andyberg]

Great to see it living again. I’m keeping everything crossed for the x type. 🤞🤞

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, calebaaront said:

Also I noticed on the logbook it states the registration is non transferable. @LightBulbFun does this mean I couldn’t assign a private plate to it?

that means that it was first registered new *with* a private/cherished registration mark, that someone has then removed from the car, when they do this, as there is no previous registration mark to re-asign, they issue an age related mark for the vehicle, because the DVLA dont know their own system/rules, this age related mark is erroneously marked as "non-transferable" (even tho theres no valid reason for it to be non-transferable, and with a bit of wrangling you can get it transferred off the vehicle)

in your case your vehicle was first registered new with the private mark DEM182X, until that was removed from the vehicle on the 3rd of December 2003, and the age related plate L523HFA was issued in its place

https://www.freecarcheck.co.uk/free/TDUyM0hGQQ-MTc0MTk3OTc3Nw/

you are still able to freely put your own private registration mark on the vehicle 

hope this helps  (and im glad to see the beast is back in action )

[Schaefft]

If the radio is the same as the one in my X300 XJ6 or the XK8 then it seems like every single one of them will die days after you have purchased the car. Original working ones seem to command quite the premium.

[Sunny Jim]

1 hour ago, calebaaront said:

the radio died though so I guess a new one of them is on the shopping list. I would like to find an original one but that may be difficult!

Hey @calebaaront, no it won't! The radio in the hearse is original and works. If having an original is important to you and you can supply me with a stereo that a) works and fits & b) has bluetooth I'd quite happily do a swap with you - used is fine. Originality isn't high on my priorities list - have you seen my floor mats?!

I usually prefer to stream tunes off my phone than listen to the radio when driving.

 

[calebaaront]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

that means that it was first registered new *with* a private/cherished registration mark, that someone has then removed from the car, when they do this, as there is no previous registration mark to re-asign, they issue an age related mark for the vehicle, because the DVLA dont know their own system/rules, this age related mark is erroneously marked as "non-transferable" (even tho theres no valid reason for it to be non-transferable, and with a bit of wrangling you can get it transferred off the vehicle)

in your case your vehicle was first registered new with the private mark DEM182X, until that was removed from the vehicle on the 3rd of December 2003, and the age related plate L523HFA was issued in its place

https://www.freecarcheck.co.uk/free/TDUyM0hGQQ-MTc0MTk3OTc3Nw/

you are still able to freely put your own private registration mark on the vehicle 

hope this helps  (and im glad to see the beast is back in action )

Thank you Dez, very interesting. Must of been owned by someone important if they assigned a private plate to it from new.

[calebaaront]

41 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Hey @calebaaront, no it won't! The radio in the hearse is original and works. If having an original is important to you and you can supply me with a stereo that a) works and fits & b) has bluetooth I'd quite happily do a swap with you - used is fine. Originality isn't high on my priorities list - have you seen my floor mats?!

I usually prefer to stream tunes off my phone than listen to the radio when driving.

 

You’re a star thank you! I’ll get looking for you. I’m sure I’ve got one somewhere. The current one appears to a be a 2000s pioneer unit with only AUX and FM. Them floor mats match the grim sleeper very well!