Advert - Jaguar XJ-S Designed for a few bold drivers who remember what twelve throbbing cylinders can do for the soul.

 And another advert

Youtube - TMEstuff

A nosey bugger hinted me towards this YT channel. He claimed it was presented on his timeline due to an algorithm malfunction. Yeah right, we all know he silently wants one.

In any case, this is the channel and it's not limited to the XJS only. 

https://www.youtube.com/@TMEstuff

Welcome to TMEstuff! This channel features car content relating to old and/or interesting cars that I own or drive, & possibly some engineering topics on top. Videos may feature the following: 1989 Jaguar XJS V12 coupe 2004 Subaru Forester STI JDM 1974 SAAB 96 V4 1994 Toyota MR2 Turbo JDM 1995 Toyota Celica GT-Four 2017 Mini Clubman Cooper S

For now I have only seen a few episodes and they are really well presented and explained. It's covering all kind of topics and very useful may I add. I guees I now have to spend a few hours to catch up.

first test drive results after MOT and repairs.

So, finally it happened. I made a small testdrive last weekend. First thing I did was driving to the gasstation for a wash and a fill up. On the way I already noticed a strange feeling in the steering like it was pulling on it and occassionly also a vibration and a weird wobble effect on the wheels at higher speeds. 

My gut feel said something was not good. But first I had it washed.

And next fill it up. My son was accompying me and drove along with the 400. In fact we made a small tour beforehand as I had not used it for a while.What a great combo and totally a different car in looks and handling but both true GTs. I did post this photo in the 400 FB group and some owners responded to it and mentioned they had the same pair in their garage. 

The first thing I noticed is the fuel gauge was stalling and still remained at 20% or so. Sigh! It´s an item I had fixed ages ago, see this blogpost:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2016/09/eureka-fuel-gauge-repair.html

In any case, I drove back via a different route and went via a small section on the highway. But above 80 kmh the XJS became very shaky and bumpy. It almost felt the frontwheels were falling off. I was shocked, it never had behaved like this before. What happened?

I feared something was still wrong with the new gearbox spring seat rubber which was done last year:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2025/12/gearbox-spring-seat-rubber-mot.html

Perhaps the new rubber made it all worse and thats why it was missing in the first place? Then again, the knocking noise was gone - although it was now nearly impossible to detetct due to this new issue. Then I figured it might have been the steering rack or powersteering pump playing up. I recall the mechanic mentioned he had cleaned up oil dirt and filled it up. Maybe it had to much oil fluid? Perhaps thats why the steering felt strange. As said, it felt like the steeringwheel was pulling a little and at higher speed it became uncontrolable as the front suspension and frontwheels became shaky and bumpy. 

So I had checked the fluid level first but it was spot on. I checked the wheel nuts but these were firm as well. I still suspected the gearbox mounting somehow. Perhaps it was not fitted correctly or the spring broke somehow. Hard to believe though. So I parked it and kept wondering about it.

Could it have been something with the front suspenion, stalling brakes or a shockabsorbers? Again, hard to believe as I had tackled the front suspension and frontbrakes, ie the ball joints:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2017/03/upper-and-lower-ball-joints-replacement.html

Also the shockabsorbers are solid and functionality as I could test on various road speed bumps. 

Then I figured it might be the propshaft u-joint. I had looked into this before but never carried out this job. See these blogs:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2017/04/u-joint-diagnostics-propshaft-xjs.html

http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2017/04/u-joints-propshaft-replacement-attempt.html

Then again, if this was really the case I would not expect this would have such dramatic effect on the front suspension as I was having now. 

Over a good night off sleep I potentially figured out another candidate for this problem. I remembered I had removed the adhesive wheel weights. Again, a long time ago I bought a spare set of rims with the aim to have these refurbished. See this older blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2017/12/new-used-starfish-rims-and-tyres.html

It's another job I parked and was planning to do once the car is technical sound and reliable. And a few weeks back I made a little effort to inspect the rims and clean them a little. This as the car is now finally getting into the desired state. And I had to sort out new tyres a as well if I now was going to drive it more frequently. The front wheels had back then new "Vredestein Sprint" tyres in 2015 done by the previous owner. The car more or less has not been actually driven since. Meaning the profile is almost as new but at least 10 years old. In the Neterlands there is no limit on tyre age, only on remaining surface. So am still in doubt what to do. The Vredestein Sprint classics are pretty expensive. For one pair you could buy a full new set of four instead. I also found out that Pirelli has been an official supplier for XJS tyres, so I consider that cool as well: 

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2021/03/longstone-classic-tyres-advert-pirelli.html

I need to give this a little more thought on what do with these tyres.

In any case I was annoyed by the large amount of balance weights they had put on the outside on all wheels. Who are these people who do this? It's not the first time I have seen this. 

So yesterday, I had both front wheels taken off and brought them to the garage to have them rebalanced. As I had not made a photo when I removed these weights, you can see on this one the large black spot of its location

And with the new balance weight on the inside. Quite a lot, the other wheel did require less weights.
Yes, I know the wheel is very dirty but for now that's the least of my worry:

And afterwards I made a new test drive. And you guess it, it was a smooth flying carpet ride. Yes, that was the culprit. Never thought these balance weights would have such massive impact on the handling / suspension of the car. 

Another issue that became apparent is the idling is now to high, hopefully I can have that easily adjusted.

I need to souce airco filling adapters, so it's compatible for modern airco gas fill up. 

And I need to fix the fuel gauge again.

Watch this space but don't hold up your breath. 

Who says lightning never strikes twice?

 

motorshow photo's

Click the photo to enlarge:

Driven to write ; Welcome to the Machine : Episode Eleven

 https://driventowrite.com/2026/03/25/jaguar-xj-s-history-episode-eleven/

Jaguar XJS - Not what they expected

 Great pics in this Jaguar FB post

Jaguar XJS - Ari Olivier

On the Dutch Marketplace I hit this particular XJS advert:

https://www.autoscout24.nl/aanbod/jaguar-xjs-5-3-v12-coupe-ex-ari-olivier-benzine-grijs-40b67203-9441-4cf2-a347-36ddecfe53eb

The main trigger for me was the mention of the previous owner: Ari Olivier.

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Olivier

The advert came with the following support text:

Dit is de auto van meesteroplichter Ari Olivier — nee, geen soortgelijke, maar echt dé auto. Een bijzonder stukje historie dat deze Jaguar extra karakter geeft.
De heer Olivier stond, naast zijn reputatie als oplichter, bekend als een groot autoliefhebber met een duidelijke voorliefde voor Jaguars. Zijn auto’s kocht hij vaak bij dealer Kimman, soms met — laten we zeggen — creatieve betaalmethodes. Deze Jaguar XJS V12 behoorde tot zijn favorieten: hij reed er maar liefst negen jaar in.

Deze XJS verkeert in uitzonderlijk nette staat. De carrosserie is roestvrij, de auto vertoont geen buitensporige slijtage en er is geen sprake van achterstallig onderhoud. In de afgelopen jaren is er veel onderhoud uitgevoerd, allemaal netjes gedocumenteerd in een map met facturen en historie.

And also this photo with himself promoting his book with the XJS in the background.

I have to admit I was always slightly intrigued by this gentleman crook. And I even recall the TV episodes broadcasted on the Veronica station back in the days. Although that did not lasted very long as he got arrested after a few episodes. 

I do have collected the available Dutch books about him. And it's very entertaining and educative reading material. Although not for his victims, albeit some of these people simply got tricked by their own greed. His lifestyle was all about luxury and this included cars

He had a website as well for a brief moment: www.heerolivier.nl This can be still viewed via www.webarchive.org There was another newer website but I can't remember it. 

In any case, upon checking the website of the company who is offering this car for sale I read the story of this company and the owner. Clearly a car enthusiast and he shared a personal photo when still being a kid. I recognized this pedal car instantly:

It's a Moskvitch. See my blog if you are interested:

https://erwinmoskvich.blogspot.com/

Advertisement - The V-12 Jaguars

 

Car and Driver : From the Archive: 1992 Jaguar XJS Keeps Calm and Carries On

 https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a44360137/1992-jaguar-xjs-drive/

Ali Express : 6PCS BRANDSTOFINJECTOR VOOR JAGUAR DAIMLER XJ12 XJS V12 5.0 HIJ 82-89 D JETRONIC 0280150035

By surprise I bumped into this offer on Ali Express. Not sure how good the quality is but this is a bargain (well, pending on the quality of course). by the looks it does come with the fuel hose as well. Not sure if it does include the additional furele's. Does anyone has experience with these?

https://www.aliexpress.com/p/tesla-landing/index.html?scenario=c_ppc_item_bridge&productId=1005010185340712

Boot cleaned up and put everything back again

Over the past few years the boot was still not organized. At the time I had the complete fuel tank taken out, whilst the tank was cleaned and put back. The boot was a mess and serving as a temporary storage for several parts and such. So now finally time to organize it and put the carpets back in, the battery compartment build up (metal front cover, battery strapholder plus plastic cover box), fusebox cover and mount the spare wheel again. I was pleasantly surprised to see the spare wheel had a nice cover included, totally forgot about that. Also I have the jack and toolkit included in the side pockets.

This looks so nice and tidy again. Still I can consider to clean the carpets a little but that can wait. Should have taken a photo before as well:

Basically this means the car is now fully build up again and almost ready to drive again. I still want to work on a couple of items though but so far so good.

Front spoiler + cover plate + grille

 Another thing I had to mount back was the front bumper spoiler and the cover plate:

This reminded me I also need to source a decent front metal cover plate as that one is seriously rotten. Luckily its an item that can easily be removed and replaced (if I can source a good one):

But the grill also needs attention:

Not sure how this is suppose to look like originally. Is the outer trim chrome or polished aluminum. Or should it be entirely in black paint? 

It's now all fitted back but not entirely to my liking, the three bottom pins in the grill shoud fit thru the spoiler but there is to much space. 

Meanwhile I also looked up the bottom plate, difficult if you don't know the appropiate name or part number. But the good news is, I found it and it's available, still a bit pricy so hopefully I can source an affordable used one. 

https://www.sngbarratt.com/Nederlands/NL/parts/4a267463-62e6-4af3-993b-3e873ec78224?saveBranch=NL

And the part nr is: RTC1531 (front lower panel valence)

Knowing this informatio it helps to narrow down the search.

for my reference: https://www.jaguarforum.com/threads/front-end-construction-of-xjs.33695/

and https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xjs-x27-32/front-spoiler-install-153058/

and https://forums.jag-lovers.com/t/something-missing/378910/5

Wiring loom - clothing cover replacement - Tesa heat resistant isolation linnen tape

Whilst I was doing the fuel hoses, in between I also tackled some wiring insulation. I don't expect anyone knowing or remembering this but shortly after I had bought this car a small explosion with fire occurred, see this blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2016/08/engine-caught-fire.html

As a result some of the electrical cable harness had minimum or no protective cover left, not the plastic but the clothing insulation, not sure what the appropiate name is. For the XJS they used apparently a brown colored material. And due to it's age and heating it's mostly detoriated and can be easily peeled off:

Recently for another car, Lancia Kappa SW, I have done a similar exercise:

https://erwinkappa.blogspot.com/2025/08/wiring-loom-heat-resistant-insulation.html

So I had still a bit insulation tape left I could use. So that's exactly what I did. I freed up the cable and removed the old insulation cover,

And covered with new "tape". Such an easy and rewarding job. 

And another small section I had done:

So for now the most impacted and visible wiring looms has be done. I only did these as they were next to the fuel hoses I was upgrading. Doing the entire wiring loom in the engine bay is a huge task. For now this was an easy and quick fix in between and I also could finalize the fuel hoses. I will consider the remaining parts or other visbile cables for another time.

All looking good again:

Fuel hoses replacement - part II

Next to the fuelrail injector hoses I have done the remaining fuel hoses replacement the day after. Only compiling this blog post today.

Check out the next video by Living with a classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=divOwQVFLFA

The first part starts again with the fuelrail hoses but at around 15:40 he starts explaining the other fuel lines that requires replacement. He only demonstrated the tiny one.

The exercise is more or less the same but these ones are a lot more easy to carry out

And using the additional fuel hose kit with clamps

Yes, this one needed to be done badly

Cut it off and in the bench:

Use the hacksaw and it saw it open

And the same process for the other side:

Mounting on the new hose with clamps

And put it back again:

So on to the next one, which is also fairly easy accessible:

And the same process and another one finished:

The third one requires more effort but still very doable. It's twisted under the manifold and at both ends I cut it off in order to remove it gently and not damage antyhing with force.

And the other side:

Still firmly attached, so it had to be carefully cut off:

And here we have the entire pipe visible

And again, it needed to be done badly

And another 1985 tag ... strange

And refurbished

And back in again

So the next one was going from a pressure valve to the main fuelhose connected to the gastank

However it's in 2 parts. The last part is using a thicker fuel hose via a connector. Not sure why this is?The other side is having one fuel return hose (from the cooler unit) with no connector in between but it's a slightly thicker hose as well. 

If I had to replace both these hoses with the provided hosekit it would mean I would run short on the provided hosekit (lengthwise) and only 2 clamps are left. So likely I only need to replace the part on the main fuel inlethose. I left it for now but will look into this next time.