Injector fuel hoses replacement! It finally happened

YESSS Friends, it finally happend. I replaced the injector fuel hoses. And it was badly needed as the originals were still on it. You almost could see thru the brittle cracks. Don't be a Dodo and get this job done!

I finally had nothing else going on and spent nearly the entire weekend on it. And of course it was freezing cold, which I dislike very much. But it had to be done. A fews week back I was doing a little shoppping and went into the C&A store and by surprise I found a pair of Thermo Jeans. And also a warm flanel shirt. It's the first time I bought new clothes to be used a working clothes. But boy was this comfortable.

In any case, let's start. Earlier in the week I had watched these supporting videos again to for learning and guidance purposes. It will consume a bit of your time but it's worth every second if you want to carry out this task:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXovG0zUrTg

But also check out this blog with more supporting video's by someone else, very helpful:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2023/10/clean-and-test-jaguar-xjs-v-12-fuel.html

First items I did remove was the throttle bars, they can simply be pushed out. 

Next removing the gas cable and unscrewing the cableholder and unplugging both cable connectors.

Then removing some kind of air control pipes. On both sides I had topped of connectors with a tierap mounted. I have no idea regarding the purpose of it. I guess it's not much of a use since it works OK without them connected. I will investigate this another time.

Then disconnecting the incoming fuel line and the returning fuel line. And then unclicking all the injector connectors. I thought this was going to be difficult as it was unclear how these are fixed. But by using a screw driver I could tilt them slighty on one side and with my fingers I was able to disconnect with a little movement and push (wiggle).

Careful though, afterwards I spotted 3 connectors lost the inside gaskets. I spotted them by luck when I  was inspecting the engine bay and I was able able to secure them

Then unscrewing all bolts. Again, be careful not to lose the washers and bolts in your engine bay. Have a magnet stick ready just in case. The removal of the injector rail went pretty easy.

Mind you, I spotted later on that a few injectors had the mounting/protection rubber still inside the injector hole. So have that checked else you will have problem later on when putting the refurbished injectors back in. It's easy to overlook when you are refurbishing the injectors. 

As you can tell, this job needed to be done. Not only the hose was hard and brittle also the furele was heavily corroded.

So it's now just a matter of following the procedure per Youtube video. Just take your time to remove the hose. The one on the injector seems to take more effort than the one that's on the fuel rail. I used the hacksaw to open up the furele and a knive to cut the hose open (only slide downwards and make no cuts in the iron). And a screw driver and pliers to push/remove it out from the furele.

In order to remove the filter use a screw that fits and goes into the copper. Tap it slightly in so it sits firm and you can pull/wiggle it out:

I did put the injectors in an ultrasonic cleaner. I had one for my watch hobby so that was easy and it fitted in nicely. Just used tap water and cleaning concentrate. Quite a bit of dirt came of it, I guess the majority from the outside

Then building it up using the new kit:

I bought this clamp tool but it did not work very well for me. On the first attempt the glued protection rubber went lose. So instead I used a large nut and the bench screw and nicely tightened everything together, both the injector protector and the new fuel filtercap

The old fuel filters are entirely made of copper/steel while the new ones are partly plastic. Not sure how long that will last or will cause some issues on the long run?

Just for the records I captured this tag on the fuel rail:

And this tag on the hose, which seems to indicate it's from 18/06/1985
Which is odd as my car is from 1984:

And one refurbished injector ready to be mounted back on the fuel rail. And make sure you put the mounting bracket on correctly. Once the fuel hose is put back in there is no option to change this.

And repeat this 11 more times and presto! 

Clean up the mess:

Putting back the fuel rail went fairly easy, just take your time to position all the injectors and mount the brackets on. And all the other parts. 

I completed this activity in 2 days. The first day dismantling everything and refurbished 6 injectors. The next day I did the other 6 connectors and put everything back again. About 6 hours per day. 

And the moment of truth! I had my fire distinguisher ready but luckily I did not needed it. The car started up pretty quickly, I had turned on the ignition a few times in order build up fuel pressure. And it started fairly quickly but it ran very rough though. I only let it run very shortly a couple of times and inspected for any potential leakage or any other unusal thing. But all was fine. And after a few times running it started spinning very nicely again. Phew! In fact when it became a little warm it ran smoother than ever. And even better response on the gas. I'm so pleased with the result. 

At the start of this project I was considering to uplift the entire fuel rail by spraying it. But I'm glad I didn't. It would have been to shiny/flashy in comparisson with the rest. It looks quite OK now.

Now I still need to do the last remaining 4 fuel hoses. Watch this space.

More coolant leakage

Last week I had the car run a little longer so it was firmly warmed up. I still found the car was running idle high again. After a while it dropped a little around 1000 RPM which is still to high. I figured the car required a good run so I decided to stop and leave it. But I spotted again a small coolant leakage but could not identify exactly where. I recalled this old blog from 2019 and something was not tightened at a bottom hose:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2019/09/coolant-leakage-check.html

It looked it was from the same area. So yesterday I made new attempt to warm it up. And this time the issue occurred much quicker and now it was quite visible as well. It was the top hose which potentially was never firmly attached:

I was able to losen it up using a normal spanner and shift it slightly so via excisting hole at the top bar I was able to firmly tighten it with a socket wrench. Afterwards it was no longer leaking:

Afterwards when starting up again and the engine was still warm it was now running nearly 800 RPM, which I think is what it should be. Not sure though. At least much better.

Gearbox spring seat rubber + MOT !!!

As per blog: https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2025/11/gearbox-mounting-spring-spring-seat.html

This has been finally done today! To my great surprise I was informed there was not even a spring seat rubber in there! How is that possible? 

Back then I traced it back to the first owner which was the Jaguar dealer himself. See this blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-hunt-part-ii.html He more or less was the long time owner. When reading the story again I see the automatic gearbox had been changed once. It's hard to believe they overlooked this specific rubber? But who knows?

Since the car was in the garage, I asked them to perform an airco fill up. Unfortunately this couldn't be done due to missing a specific socket for this system. So I need to source that, it's not a big deal. 

Also I asked them to perform a MOT. I expect there would be a couple of minor things that needs to be done.  And it was a fail indeed. The headlights had to be adjusted and the window wipers were bad. Why didn't you fix that I told him, do you want me to get a new pair now, I can get them. But he laughed and said they were ordered and should arrive in the next hour. So everything got sorted and the MOT was sa pass later in the afternoon. HURRAY!!!

Certainly did not expected that. Turns out it was more then 6 years ago since it had a valid MOT and effectively not been used since. He told me even the emission tests were a pass in one go. Next he had cleaned up the steeringrack and filled it up and that was about it. 

So all together this round costed me € 265,-  (MOT, window wipers, steeringrack clean and fillup and labour for the gearbox spring rubber installation). Plus of course the costs for the spring, spring seal and the rubber (2x). 

Effectively I did not test drove the car afterwards as it was dark and rainy. The garage is located just across the road. But I have got good hopes the knocking sound is gone as described per blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2023/11/automatic-gearbox-knocking-sound.html

Due to the car having a specific Dutch roadtax rule I can't drive it in the winter months (Dec, Jan and Feb). Which I normally wouldn't do in any case. So I need to wait to the 1st of March. So I know already what I will be doing that day.

This also gives me a little more time to work on some other items, like refurbishing the fuel rail system. 

So watch this space!

Brake Caliper overhauling

As per blog:

http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/09/the-hunt-part-ii.html (item 4 on the list) and

http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2017/03/mot-pass-apk-goedgekeurd.html

I still had this outstanding noise/wobble to overcome. Since the ball joints are fixed now I definately could rule that out. The wheel bearing can't be the culprit either. The wobble felt more like a worn out cross coupling (homokineet). But since this car doesn't have those on the front that can't be it either. I remembered from an old invoice that only the left side caliper had been overhauled - including new brakepads. Click the picture to enlarge:

This was done at the Jaguar dealer Kimman in Haarlem. So I figured that maybe the right side had one of the caliper pistons playing up causing the wobble.

As such I ordered an overhaul kit consisting of a seal service kit and 4 new caliper pistons. Total costs including VAT and shipping: € 86,-   I was not sure if this was going to fix it but then at least I knew the caliper was in an equal good state as the left side. The kit arrived earlier this week, turned out the seal kit was covering both sides, so I have got spare on my stock.

I also found this link: http://www.jaghelp.com/2012/03/1996-xjs-front-brake-caliper.html

Which was a useful resource. Especially for removing the brake pads first. I have to say this is nicely engineered. So removing the caliper was a piece of cake:

Remarkable to see this old skool protection used:

From the pictures it's clear this was a necessary piece of work to be done. The seals were completely dried out and damaged and also resulted in rusty pistons. I managed to get them out but one took a little more effort and I suspect that one must have caused an issue at least. I don't understand why they overhauled only one caliper at the time? So putting in the new pistons, seals and mounted everything back. Filling up the brake fluid and presto. Time for a quick test run.

Wobble gone now. So this did do the trick. I'm very happy with this improvement. Still there is some vibrations left but that might require balancing the wheels. Something I can look into next when I'm going to replace the rear tyres.

upper and lower ball joints replacement

This old blog: http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/09/the-verdict.html from september 2016 highlighted the torn rubbers on the lower ball joints. Which is a fail for the MOT. And last week I got reminded the MOT is going to expire by the 31st of March. So I had to fix this now. I thought it was going to be an easy task but it was still quite a bit of work. Eventually the whole arm with disc and caliper had to come off. It was a very heavy item. When I had it finally off I was surprised to see a completely different lower ball joint was fitted. The one I ordered superseded the old one. But I was unsure how it could be fitted as the arm was fitted with a special clip (spigot) to hold the ball. The new ordered ball joint is more sophisticated and more or less a fixed item. The old one can be completely overhauled and I found an online turtorial by someone. But clearly that is to much hassle. You can order the new replacement for only € 12,50. I thought I was clever by using the new one and tried to push out the spigot. This didn't work out and also resulted in damaging the rubber. Today I learned I have been a fool as the spigot was suppose to be pushed out the other way. In order not to damage the arm it was decided to cut it with a small grinder. This made it easy and the spigot got smashed out easily with a hammer and a spanner. Yes! As I had to order a new one I also decided to get the upper ball joints replaced as everything was off. This was a good choice as one of them was also in a very poor condition - see pictures below. Remarkably the upper ball joint on the other side was very good and I suspect it has been replaced recently. It makes me wonder why they didn't the replaced the lower ball joint. If you read the mentioned blog link you will also read that I have an invoice which states they had the ball-joint replaced, so it must have been this one. I wonder why they didn't do both sides and also skipped the lower ball joints. You can also see they had replaced the bushings for the "anti roll bar link". And also both brake discs and the brake pads are in very good condition. It looks like they have been replacement very recent. Perhaps this was also done by the previous owner but I don't have an invoice for that. One of the calipers was overhauled at least and for that I do have an invoice though. In any cause everything got mounted back. Once I had done the right side had fill up the brake fluid as quite a bit was spilled. Once sorted I took the opportunity to make a test drive. I could feel and hear a huge improvement. In the afternoon I fixed the left side but since it started raining I didn't bother to make another test drive. I also had to buy more brake fluid as more got spilled. So by tomorrow I hope to do some driving. Can't wait. I also updated the costs spreadsheets. On the right bar of this blog you will see a label called "costs" in case you are curious as well ...