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Jaguar XJR: on the road again
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1 February 2016: new registration number and plates |
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One of the most idiotic laws in Italy states that you try to repair a rough number plate, you can find your self in deep trouble with the Law. You will have to meet a pretty stupid plod to get into trouble for trying to make your old, original number plate look better, but it can happen, and the Murphy's Law is unerring in this respect. And if you decide to go the legal way and order new plates, your car will be registered with new plates. Oh dear.... So I did have to change my original number plates and the new registration plates were fitted today. At least, I can say that the number/letters combination looks good |
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3 February 2016 |
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While the XJR was waiting for her new registration number I had the driver's seat refurbished and I also fitted a new driver's side carpet without any hard rubber parts now, to save the heel of our precious Mantellassi loafers from scratching |
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The engine is quite clean now |
The small plastic part that would have to hold the cruise control cable in its place moved again, and thus the engine had an idle around 1500 rpm. I put it back in place and, waiting to find a spare, I blocked it with a plastic strap. Any spares? |
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22 February 2016 |
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All veneers tend to change color after some years: the lacquer becomes dull, yellow and sometimes creaks. I decided that my XJR deserves to have veneers as nice as they were when new, in that peculiar piano-black finish that we all loved so much in 1995. Andrea Bedosti has therefore removed the veneers, sanded them and put new lacquer on them. The result is brilliant: just look at the pic above, the veneer as it was (left) and as it is after the treatment (right) |
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A detail of the 'ski slope' before (l.) and after (r.) the treatment. Andrea is a master in this kind of job, and it shows |
A thorough but very careful sanding of the extremely thin veneers is necessary before relacquering them all |
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29 February: The effect is splendid, the veneers having got back the original 'piano black' effect though the original wood 'grain' is still visible |
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I asked Berkshire Jags to overhaul my clock, that was prevedibly fading. They made a very good job...maybe even too much of a good job, as now the green LEDs give the XJR clock a much stronger lighting than the climate control display's... |
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A spare set of keys is a must. While the XJR was at Emilianauto in Bologna to change the noisy RH rear wheel bearing, Ivano, the service manager, had a 'green' key cut for me and a spare for the boot. Well done, chaps |
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26 March 2016 |
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A lumpy idle, a very high fuel consumption (20 litres x 100 kilometers or 14 mpg....) and a very 'black' exhaust pipe means that the XJR suffers from a carburetion that is way too 'rich', so with Marco at Emilianauto we began to take a look at oxygen sensors |
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Well, seeing those wires emerging from the stock wiring loom near the rear end of the engine made us shiver, we did fear that someone had roughly cut some very important wires and the car didn't work properly because of this amputation. Actually, it seems that it is not so. Googling this, I found the page http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/X300_Lambda_Mod.html and I would like to forward this interesting note to all the X300 owners: “Notes For anyone finding four thin wires (Brown, Blue, Yellow and Red) in the main loom which appear to have been cut, (Ringed in RED in the picture above) worry not, you haven't made a mistake. These dead-end wires have appeared in every X300 loom I have inspected and have no function I'm aware of in UK cars. I have no idea why these wires were included although they must have been required in cars built for other markets.” Many thanks, therefore, to Steven P. Sparrow BSc (Hons) at www.go-lpg.co.uk for explaining us the mistery of those orphan wires.... His pages contains tons of help for X300 owners having trouble with their cars: recommended! http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/X300_faults.html |
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Upstream/ Downstream oxygen sensors |
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Looking for oxygen sensors: both sensors (offered on eBay by two well-known and reliable sellers) are described as being Jaguar part number 'LHE1682AA' so they would fit my 1995 XJR, but don't the two connectors look different? |
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01 April (no, not an April Fool's...) |
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The XJR fuel/air mixture is way too rich and Marco and a renowned free-lance Jaguar specialist are trying to fix it. You can't say that they are not trying, but despite their efforts, the fault seems quite difficult to find. What is even more puzzling is that my XJR seems to have only 2 Oxygen Sensors, not 4 as one would expect |
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10 April: Fixed! |
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The fault really was in the oxygen probes.... after Anthony at Berkshire Jaguars shipped me 2 LHE1682AA NGK original probes, the XJR changed completely.
The free-lance specialist was unable to tell exactly what was wrong
with my 14 mpg XJR, but the 2 new probes, fitted the same day that
they arrived in my hands, made a HUGE difference. I tested the car
last Friday and was shocked: the car goes way better, it's faster,
doesn't die and the fuel consumption is now
22 mpg! It's incredible what difference can
make this type of part when it's old and working badly compared to
when you put in a new fresh spare....
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At last, I managed to find a very well preserved tool kit for the XJR. Complete and original, with a complete set of fuses |
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The original little red plier for extracting the fuses was a really welcome bonus in this purchase. Fetish, yes....;-))) |
I need one little chrome 'ring' around the passenger's door lock button |
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The water temperature sensor has this rectangular connector, later X308 have a round one....I ordered one but received the wrong one. Waiting now to receive a sensor with the right connector |
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10 March 2017 |
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An almost cabalistic figure: FC777FX reaches 177777 kms today |
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That same day we moved the many XJR spares that had been supplied by FC777FX' previous owner in my garage. Lots of stuff: a complete engine, gearbox, dashboard, front axle with brakes, steering column with steering wheel and airbag, and many many other spares.... |
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13 March, new LED interior lights |
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Every now and then you simply try something that ought to be a miracle and turns out to be a real disappointment. As the interior lights of the XJR/X306 were feeble in comparison to the lights of the older XJ40 (EX444BX) we tried to fit LED lamps inside. The rear lights work quite well, fitting LEDs in the front cluster proved to be wrong: normal LED lamps are very directional and these were pointing laterally, so the interior now is dark! Next week we'll fit different, more powerful, multidirectional LEDs.... |
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20 YEARS OF CLARKSON: JAGUAR XJR REVIEW (1995) Republished 14 March 2014 on the Sunday Times |
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Felix Meister guida la Jaguar XJ-R
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