UK / British Police

Yes, it has been a while. But I have been busy with many other things, so no time for the XJS. It's nice to see in the stats this blog still get frequently visited on a daily basis. I don't expect much activity on my XJS in the coming weeks either ...

So for now hereby a nice piccie. The UK police really seem to have used these in the past. The peppermill wheels looks nice (click to enlarge):

Coolant leakage check

It has been a while but today I had a little time to inspect the coolant leakage. And it has been identified at the lower hose. One of the clamps was somehow not tightened up, you can see two small green drops at the end of the hose. When checking this a small drop hit my lips. Never tasted coolant before but it had a sweet sense, wicked. The other clamp was very tight and couldn't adjusted any further. You can see some traces of spill though but that might be from a previous time (I believe I had that already tightened up).

I will refill it next time and check if the leaking is cured now.

Jaguar XJ-S V12 | The Brave Pill

Whilst I'm occupied with other things hereby a fairly new online article about the XJS:

https://pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-spottedykywt/jaguar-xj-s-v12--the-brave-pill/40796

XJS Koening wide body - Jose Canseco

Not my cup of tea:

http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/jaguar/569800-koenig-wide-body-jaguar-xjs-v12-once-owned-by-jose-canseco-the-baseball-player.html

Is the Jaguar XJS the ultimate GT bargain?

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/lifestyle/article/jaguar-xjs

quadruple leaking : Coolant / Power steering / Transmission / Engine

It has been a while. Basicly busy with other cars and other things. And now it's holiday season. So not much will happen coming weeks either.

By now I noticed there is still a small coolant leakage. I hope it's not the radiator itself but I suspect the lower hose connection at both ends. It's such a hassle to inspect and reach the hoseclamps now everything is build up.

Another items I need to tackle is the steering rack oil leakage. Which I more or less now identified by this video. It's a great tutorial made by "living with a classic". A channel I already promoted earlier on this blog.





Whille at it, I also need to reconsider to replace the transmission oil. Despite the oil used looks fresh the filter like has not been replaced recently. Besides there are small oil drops at the pan indicating the gasket is in need of replacement as well. Again a great tutorial video is released by the same guy:



And last but not least I need to consider to replace the motor oil as well. Well, mostly because of some oil drops at the pan, indicating this gasket needs replacement as well. Again this shouldn't be an overcomplicated job. But once more, a  supportive video is available




Despite this all might look like "straightforward" jobs I'm impressed how he managed all of this without a car lift. It's all done laying on the floor. And on top of that he nicely films the activity and creates great small video releases. Something that should not be underestimated as that takes up quite a bit of time as well. Besides it's nicely and clearly presented in well spoken English.

Another reason why I'm moving at a slow pace is that I'm saving up for a car lift but maybe I need to consider to work in the same fashion as this guy. Then again, I don't fancy it though. And since I have other cars as well this comes in so nice. I really need to rethink my options and how to spend my money wisely.

For now enjoy this Youtube channel, Living with a classic:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyxaZ4U7122r_aA66Y7MYnA

3D printed headlight mounting clip + bezel + another thermostat

Yesterday my new 3D printed headlight mounting clips were finished and delivered. What a nice piece of engineering, nearly identical, only the surface is not as smooth but I don't care.

And today I had also the other headlight bezel fixed, sprayed the mounting iron and pop rivetted it.

And all now nicely put together. So looks like all is sorted now, almost …

By surprise I learned (via www.foreverxjs.com) that the XJS has two thermostats! Something I never realized (https://foreverxjs.com/f/coolant-check-up-change-your-coolant-now).

Luckily this one is easy accessible. Oly had to remove the airfilter:

As I didn't want to drain all the coolant I simply cut the old can (which I saved) in half. It was a flexible plastic can so I could fit it underneath nicely:

Also this new one is the 82 C degrees thermostat

All cleaned, sanded, mounted and filled up with coolant.

Afterwards I made a small testdrive and all looks good now.

Except there is now a parking light failure, well, only the light is lit up constantly on the dashboard. And when I hit the brake I get another light lit, indicating there is lightbulb failure. But both rear brake lights are working though. So something to further troubleshoot next time.

Brass banjo bolt radiator bleeder pipe + headlight bezel repair

I'm still awaiting for the headlight clip to be reproduced. Meanwhile I had a closer look at the headlight bezel (surrounding trim). Both have issue's regarding the mounting area, meaning teared and broken off. The chrome is also a bit poor but luckily this is only the sides that are not visible when mounted. I was considering to buy new ones but they are a bit pricey:

In order to have this fixed I bought some fiberglass pasta. A bit sticky material and difficult to mould. But it worked out ok in the end. With a Dremel I was able to grind it and smooth the surface. Happy with the end result though.

Yes, the mounting clip is not squared but it suffice for me. I will polish it later for now it's at least nicely and firm attached.

And another item purchased recently is an upgraded banjo bolt for the radiator bleed pipe. I read about it on this marvelous website:  https://foreverxjs.com/xj-s-parts

I was pleasantly surprised about the engraved Jaguar logo on top off it, which wasn't shown on the Ebay advert photo's. It looks the business!

How cool is that:

Old setup:

 And replaced, what a cool improvement:

Advert - XJ-S The ultimate Jaguar

Another advert I found. To bad about the fold though ...

headlight adjuster clip, blinking light relay and dashboard panel lightning

Not done a lot today. I removed the broken headlight adjuster clip. And also a good one which I posted to a friend who will make an attempt to create a 3D replica. Hopefully it will work out.

I also had a quick look at the blinking light relay. Allthough it's functioning, I'm unsure if any electrical signal goes to the dashboard light panel? So I had a quick look and removed the panel underneath.

There was a piece of black tape attached to it, holding a separate taped off red wire. Not sure why this was done and for what  purpose. I had the relay removed and put back again as all looked ok. And it had no result on the dashboard panel indicator lights either.

Today I also made 2 photo's to show the results of the dashboard panel lighting. Despite I had a car cover used still a lot of light came thru. But still the result is clearly visibile and I'm sure even more in the dark.

Lights OFF:

Lights ON:

Supercat. The XJS-H.E. "The fastest automatic transmission production car in the world".

A nice advert I encountered, don't recall seeing this one before. So just for the records.

Living with a classic - XJS V12 spark plug replacement

Typical, now I have done mine I stumbled upon this video regarding replacing the spark plugs on a V12 XJS.  Looks like I have done it in the same way he did it. It was posted in this FB Group: Jaguar XJS, XJS-C, XJ-SC and XJR-S Owners & Enthusiasts :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/350319041788353/

And the actual posting:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/350319041788353/permalink/1305602306260017/

And the actual video:

And his YouTube channel which contains more interesting videos:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyxaZ4U7122r_aA66Y7MYnA

More light trouble and more fuse checks

Yesterday I fixed the headlightning functionality. so removing the black plastic cover

Taking off the new relay. And indeed it turned out two wires were reversed. Despite I thought I had closely checked when moving the wires from the old relay to the new one. Apparently I had a made a mistake though. Glad it now all works ok.

Then putting the new bulbs into the headlight, wiring it up again and put the headlights back into it's housing.

Not sure how it happened but on one side the plastic clip holder broke off. Sigh! Two steps forward and one back again:

I just quickly checked and they are no longer new available at SNG Barratt:

Turned Down

Product Code:

AAU1313

Part Type:

Standard

XJS (EUROPEAN)

The AAU1313/AAU1312 is apparently for the complete unit. But I saw on Ebay only the actual adjuster clip is available as well. This adjuster clip can be separately removed/replaced. So that's the cheapest solution. I just have already consulted someone and hope for an alternative solution as prices on Ebay are a bit over the top (especially adding expensive international shipping rates - despite it's a small lightweight plastic item).

In any case, the other headlight went in fine. And tested the lights again:

All good. Since the headlight fuses are replaced and fixed at least one failure I checked the other fusebox panel:

The protection cover cap did hold the spares inside, nice. And again these were nicely labeled with printed color paper on the inside of the fuse. I love this detail:

I had them all removed and checked. They all looked good so they were all put back again. As I had checked the owners manual last week I also found out about this specific adjuster knob:

Turns out this is used for adjusting the instrument panel lighting. I wished I had known about this before. As a while ago I had all the bulbs replaced with 5W, see blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2016/10/dashboard-instrument-panel-lighting.html

And as can be read, this did not made any improvement. Meanwhile I have read about other owners complaining about the poor light brightness. And some upgraded the system with LEDs. In any case I now adjusted the knob and apparently it must have been in the lowest adjustment as the dashboard lights became bright. And this was quite well visible during daylight. So looks like that's fixed after all. And I will leave it as is now. I don't anticipate to be driving a lot in the evening/night. At the time I thought it might be a potential fail for the MOT since the speed dial must be properly lighted to read the actual speed. But no remarks were made about the poor light.

Only 2 small problems with the dashboard instrument panel lights. All panel lights (as far as I can check) seems to work except the right turning signal light and the hazard signal light. The left turning signal light works ok though. In fact I knew this already but fiddling around with the fuses did not had any effect. It did seem to had an effect on the fuelmeter though as that one moves up ok now (it used to be flaky after the sender unit replacement - meaning occassionly working or stalling). Due to playing around with the headlights the battery had become weak as well, so when running the engine for a while I could see the charger meter worked ok as well (and obviously the new revised alternator too).

Coming back to the indicator instrumentpanel lights; at the time I feared this was a fail for the Dutch MOT. This is not the case however. Some instrument lights must work, ie rear fog light. But for the indicator instrument lights it's OK if it's audible or visual (or both). As the relay sound is audible it's fine though. Nevertheless I do want it to be working and functional. So more troubleshooting to do.