The Autoshite bike/Jag XK8 with 23 owners and 157k miles... Front suspension fondling....

[Marina door handles]

Update time...

I have booked that thing the previous handful of owners were avoiding, yes its MOT has been booked for the 8th of April! 

Probably a good point to get under the beasty and have a poke about? Hell why not whats the worst that I will find? 

Actually its not too bad, considering its a 30 year old car that was made in England.

A little surface grot but nothing really structural and yes I have poked, prodded and hammered. Worst bit I found was a slightly crushed sill were someone had missed the jacking point but its just bent and still solid, so I think its okay.

The rear wings are still scabby (I haven't touched them) but no sharp edges.

The suspension bushes all seem intact. Although I suspect the front ball joints are a bit worn and are possibly the culprit behind the slight vague front end and brake judder.

Onto the lights, hmmmm, the headlights are like candles with cataracts which is a concern.  The drivers side tail light appears to have a classic earth issue, the side light flashes in sympathy with indicator, so that needs sorting.

After doing a Google, I found this is a common issue and one way of fixing it is to just add an additional earth lead.

As you can just make out the earth terminal doesn't look great..

So I followed the advice and added a fresh connection.

This is now sorted and working properly!

Then I made an error and decided to see if the roof would open on its own, nope it would not but it then developed a new issue. As the little rear windows dropped the passenger side one only went partially down and then sort of flopped. I went to examine it and found it had detached completely from its runner. 

Not ideal! And not really what I was expecting to be dealing with... Anyway so far this Sunday I have stripped out the rear seat and trim panels and got the window mechanism/runner free but not completely out...

You can clearly see were the runner has rusted through and let go of the window. Now I have to do some shopping see if I can get a runner on its own.

The annoying thing about this is that I suspect I will have to repair the other side soonish as that has some play and may well be in a similar condition...

To be continued....

[Schaefft]

I'm a bit surprised how good it looks underneath. I'm also surprised that a window lifter assembly can rust out. Win some, lose some!

[Marina door handles]

21 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

I'm a bit surprised how good it looks underneath. I'm also surprised that a window lifter assembly can rust out. Win some, lose some!

Ha yeah, the runner is I suspect, the bit they forgot to rust proof! Everything else in that location is solid.

[stuboy]

1 hour ago, Marina door handles said:

 

i did this on my brothers ford escort xr3i and made the light great but showed how dull the otherside was, duess what i did next

[NorthernMonkey]

3 minutes ago, stuboy said:

i did this on my brothers ford escort xr3i and made the light great but showed how dull the otherside was, duess what i did next

Did it involve some bumper stickers? 😉

[Marina door handles]

Small but fiddly and awkward update....

This arrived, so time to roll my sleeves up.

This was followed by a good few hours trying to work out what order to put everything back together in, its all a bit tight and awkward. 

Its amazing what you need to remove, the rear seat base and back, the side panels, the speaker etc etc

But it all lined up eventually..

And tested with the roof up...

Yes I did clean the writing off...

So that's the Jag back on the road!

 

[Marina door handles]

This car is definitely work in progress......... I used it for the commute twice this week and got the roof down, I probably looked like an utter knob but I was enjoying myself!

Well I was until I tried to put the roof up on arriving home on Thursday night. The roof operated just fine but the drivers window decided not to drop meaning the roof couldn't latch, surely this wont be an issue I will just prod the window switch..... And errrr nothing?  So the driver's window is suddenly not operating... 

To be totally open this isn't a massive surprise and I think it might relate to one of the door control modules losing its mind.  The window dropping feature has been behaving oddly on both sides for a while, I even had an issue were you open the door handle, the window pops down a bit but doesn't pop back up and in a slightly comedic fashion if you keep tweaking the handle you could completely  lower the window..... Also the door locking side of the key fob has lost interest in working which again maybe related.

So this weekend I will be digging into this issue.....

 

 

[Marina door handles]

I hate door cards, why can't they be bolted on with nice shiny big bolts? Anyway, after carefully snapping many door card clips I started my investigations.....

I eventually found the door module, checked I still had a fault, I noticed that when you operate the switch you get a relay- esque click but no action on the drivers side. So I swapped the modules from side to side (they both have the same part numbers and according to the Jaaaaaaaag forums can be swapped to test).

The fault staid the same so I am now thinking it may be a more normal fault like a failed window motor, I need to find a way to test the motor. I am not sure if its canbus style system, were you apply a constant 12 volts and instruct it, to do its thing by applying a smaller voltage, the motor does have a multi plug so I I need to find the correct way to test...

 

[Schaefft]

Does the motor itself have more than 2 pins? In a Jag of this age I cannot imagine that it would be much more complicated than that.

Edit: I see that its a 6 pin motor. It's worth checking if theres a wiring diagram that explains what all these pins do.

[Marina door handles]

58 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Does the motor itself have more than 2 pins? In a Jag of this age I cannot imagine that it would be much more complicated than that.

Edit: I see that its a 6 pin motor. It's worth checking if theres a wiring diagram that explains what all these pins do.

On doing a bit more research I have found and downloaded a complete wiring guide. Tomorrow I will be attacking the connections with my multi meter......

[Marina door handles]

Update time..

It turns out the connection to the window motor is simpler than it first appears - you have a couple of permanent lives for sensors (presumably anti pinch etc) and then a 12v up, 12v down and earth. So testing the motor was simple, it was getting all of the volts when you  pressed up or down but it wasn't for doing anything, its buggered.  

I have bodged the window back up into a closed-ish position , I have left a tiny gap at the top other wise you cannot open the door or close the roof.  A new/secod hand motor is now on order.

 

[Marina door handles]

Today was a big day for the mighty Jag, MOT day. ..   

 

 

.... Pass!  With some advisorarys obviously....

 

[Spottedlaurel]

Great news!

@Marina door handles can I please ask what size wheels and tyres does it have? Reason for asking is that the 17" tyres were apparently shared with my '99 LS400 when new, but the particular size and speed rating is now difficult to obtain. I've seen mention of this issue on a Jaguar forum but no definitive conclusion as to what to use as a modern alternative to the original Pirelli P Zeros.

Thanks.

[Marina door handles]

4 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Great news!

@Marina door handles can I please ask what size wheels and tyres does it have? Reason for asking is that the 17" tyres were apparently shared with my '99 LS400 when new, but the particular size and speed rating is now difficult to obtain. I've seen mention of this issue on a Jaguar forum but no definitive conclusion as to what to use as a modern alternative to the original Pirelli P Zeros.

Thanks.

Mine is on 18" wheels so I cannot give you any useful info in that regard and my front tyres are mysterious Chinese ditch finders, which even if they were the right size I wouldn't recommend!  

 

 

[Marina door handles]

Time for the first really "Big" job on the XK....  Part 1!

I was getting a bit fed up with the supposed brake judder, which I am pretty sure isn't..  When you wizz enthusiastically round some A roads, if the surface is flat-ish the Jag is great but any kind of rippley-ness or broken surface and the handling just falls apart. There is knocking and rattling through the steering and the mysterious brake judder which comes and goes, in short it does not feel very jaguar. 

So what could be causing this? According to the tech who carried out the Jag's recent MOT, he reckoned the actual suspension was in pretty good shape, the bushes looked good, ball joints  solid and no, not as in just "MOT acceptable"! This leaves one key thing and common issue which is much harder to check, the front subframe bushes.  So how hard can they be to change? And what will I find in the process? 

I actually started the previous weekend when it was chucking it down,  which made taking the car off the road much more palatable, shame I have failed to get it back on the road for the hot weather.....

Firstly shuffle the cars around so I can get the big cat to the back of the garage onto had standing rather than over the pit...

That was quite a mission in itself, then onto the slow strip down..

Then find some rust hidden by the wheel arch liners in the process, the drivers side toe board area will definitely need some welding, its but double skinned and its holed on the inner skin and the outer has crumbled away, so that will need welding before the car leaves the garage.  The passenger side seems a bit less grotty but I will be cleaning and thoroughly examining that. No point leaving it alone,  whilst its all accessible.

Okay enough prodding crusty metal and on with suspension delete...

Bottom arm and shock/strut came off no problem, top arm not so much. The condition of the ball joint wasn't as good as I had hoped, felt a bit too loose so I considered just cutting the arm off. I then checked the price of a replacement.... £500 for a recon. Glad I didn't get medieval with it!  Fortunately a replacement bush set, ball joint and long bolt come in at about the £150 mark which is a lot more palatable.

 

[Marina door handles]

Part 2..

Next up I need to access the engine hoisting points to support the big lump when the subframe is off. Firstly put the bonnet in service position and make sure it definitely cannot fall back down.. Note the bungee cords, the big handle and the random bits of wood.....

On removing the struts I did notice that one of the strut top to scuttle braces felt a little loose, to get to the scuttle end of the brace you actually have to remove the wiper arms and scuttle panel, oh joy! Once all the gubbins were off it transpires that they are only bolted in place and the bolt wasn't really tight, so that was an easy fix.

I was going to bodge up an engine support using some of the stuff I have lying around but after a bit of soul searching and the fact that proper support beams are not that dear, I decided to actually buy the right tool, I have to admit I like buying tools so no great hardship! 

And that is were I have got to for now, just waiting for the support beam to turn up...

 

[Schaefft]

It'll be interesting to see what you find. I agree that the front suspension always felt a little more loose than it maybe should have. The mot history mentioned a ball joint in the past iirc, that would certainly be a good start.

[Marina door handles]

Part 2.5......

Just a quick update, the support beam arrived today and partially fell out of its box as the delivery driver tried to unload it! Fortunately no damage done.  I had a spare three quarters of an hour this evening so I threw the beam together and fitted it to the car, then I found the engine mount bolts in the subframe  and removed them. Then as a final act lifted the engine a few MMs away from the subframe to hopefully prove that the beam is doing its thang.

Next job is to properly support the subframe, unbolt and then lower it.