New toy :)

[Hooli]

After all the helpful advice on my other thread,we got distracted by an extra look on autotrader and went to view this instead http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012... and came home after handing over £500.
I'm happy with it, got few faults to sort but it seems basically solid. The bits that I need to sort are
Front anti-roll bar bushes (supplied with the car)
Radio ariel doesn't go up and down, the motor works so I figure it's broke & needs replacing
Heater won't get hot for the footwells, it sounds like motors behind the dash are sticking
Heater control unit is a bit funny & doesn't always react to buttons being pressed
Welded patch in the passenger footwell seeps water over puddles
The fuel cap doesn't lock, I'm figuring dodgy solenoid or wiring - time to get a multimeter out
Anti-lock warning light illuminates at random, I'm wondering if this is related to the slight sound of a wheel bearing starting to whine.
Other than that, the trip computer shows 24.6mpg for the 40miles home. That's not to bad as I was playing a bit to find out how well it goes

Here's a couple of the pics from the adverts, I've taken none of my own yet.




Any tips for how to fix the faults would be handy. The main things I want to do is get some hot air on my feet and be able to lock the fuel flap. The rest I can do as & when I get chance.

[Hooli]

Well so far I found I've also got a small hole in the bulkhead & the passenger footwell. Not tracked down why the heating controls etc don't work, I think that's a weekend job to have enough time. I've ordered a haynes manual off ebay to help. Now I need a place for online spares at a reasonable price & enough good weather left to sort these issues before winter settles in.

[Six Fiend]

There's another PHer doing a resto on one. His thread shows the bulkhead work and detail of the repairing.

Young Kamil's thread on reader's cars may be a help too

[V12 Migaloo]

all the best with this, have you subscribed to http://www.xj40.com/index.php

[Hooli]

I hadn't got as far as looking for other forums yet, I'll sign up to that one later.

Managed to get the heater controls working last night, I just pulled all the relays I could find, WD40'd the contacts as they looked manky in a lot of cases & put them back. It's not made the heater actually work though, but at least the buttons light up. Judging by the lack of air flow & heat I suspect a silted up matrix & probably loads of dead leaves etc blocking the air flow.

Enjoying it so far, I'm not sure I could go back to a lesser car. I'm addicted already

[dbdb]

Hooli said:

After all the helpful advice on my other thread,we got distracted by an extra look on autotrader and went to view this instead http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012... and came home after handing over £500.
I'm happy with it, got few faults to sort but it seems basically solid. The bits that I need to sort are
Front anti-roll bar bushes (supplied with the car)
Radio ariel doesn't go up and down, the motor works so I figure it's broke & needs replacing
Heater won't get hot for the footwells, it sounds like motors behind the dash are sticking
Heater control unit is a bit funny & doesn't always react to buttons being pressed
Welded patch in the passenger footwell seeps water over puddles
The fuel cap doesn't lock, I'm figuring dodgy solenoid or wiring - time to get a multimeter out
Anti-lock warning light illuminates at random, I'm wondering if this is related to the slight sound of a wheel bearing starting to whine.
Other than that, the trip computer shows 24.6mpg for the 40miles home. That's not to bad as I was playing a bit to find out how well it goes

Any tips for how to fix the faults would be handy. The main things I want to do is get some hot air on my feet and be able to lock the fuel flap. The rest I can do as & when I get chance.

Hooli said:

Managed to get the heater controls working last night, I just pulled all the relays I could find, WD40'd the contacts as they looked manky in a lot of cases & put them back. It's not made the heater actually work though, but at least the buttons light up. Judging by the lack of air flow & heat I suspect a silted up matrix & probably loads of dead leaves etc blocking the air flow.

So you went for an XJ40 rather than an X300 in the end. Good choice!

I like the X300 but much prefer the look and feel of the XJ40: to me they feel somehow more ‘special’. Many Jag traditionalists disagree with me, of course.

None of your faults sound serious and should be fairly easy to solve. The heater problem does sound like stuck vent flaps. If the heater is not producing heat (rather than not distributing the heat) but the engine is running at the correct temperature then it could be the hot water shut off valve under the inlet manifold has seized. I haven’t had any problems with my heater/AC so have no direct experience but there are several threads on xj40.com and Jag-lovers which detail the issue and its solution.

The anti-lock brake light can be triggered by worn wheel bearings, the light can also be triggered by an accumulation of detritus on the sensors.

Six Fiend said:

There's another PHer doing a resto on one. His thread shows the bulkhead work and detail of the repairing.

Young Kamil's thread on reader's cars may be a help too

That sounds like it could be my car, here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

The XJ40 does like to rust! Mine was a bit worse than average in these areas though, I think. Much of this work wasn’t essential of course, and would be done differently on a everyday smoker. I intend to keep the car forever so wanted it to be rust free, which it now is as far as I know

Kamil’s:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

V12 Migaloo said:

all the best with this, have you subscribed to http://www.xj40.com/index.php

Xj40.com is an excellent site and free to join. The XJ40 forum at Jag-lovers is also an important source of information and help – a couple of posters on Jag-lovers have astonishing knowledge. There is unlikely to be any problem you can’t solve between these two websites. Jag-lovers is also free to join.

http://forums.jag-lovers.org/index.php3?zx=SdAHzRP...

The Jaguar workshop manual is available on DVD from Jaguar. It is excellent – complete, detailed and easy to read. I recommend you get one.

http://www.jaguarheritage.org/Products/31-xj6-xj40...

The same website lists all the part numbers for the XJ40.

http://www.jaguarclassicparts.com/search/step2/?ca...

Hooli said:

Enjoying it so far, I'm not sure I could go back to a lesser car. I'm addicted already

I really love my XJ40; it has a real charm to it, missing in almost any other car. I hope you have a good experience!!

[Hooli]

dbdb said:

None of your faults sound serious and should be fairly easy to solve. The heater problem does sound like stuck vent flaps. If the heater is not producing heat (rather than not distributing the heat) but the engine is running at the correct temperature then it could be the hot water shut off valve under the inlet manifold has seized. I haven’t had any problems with my heater/AC so have no direct experience but there are several threads on xj40.com and Jag-lovers which detail the issue and its solution.

The anti-lock brake light can be triggered by worn wheel bearings, the light can also be triggered by an accumulation of detritus on the sensors.

I do get heat & it's beginning to get hotter with use. So I will be flushing the matrix as I'm sure that will help.

I'm glad the ABS sounds right as I suspected the slight wheel bearing noise could be the issue.

Thanks for all the other stuff too. I think it feels more like I expected a jag to be, but then that's probably just because it's got wood rather than blue leather (which the only other car I looked at had).

Oh & my old shed that will breakdown (Mrs Hooli's words) had to jump start her 08 plate ford last night

[Hooli]

Small update.

I put some anti-freeze in as I found it was running pure water, should help as we've seen frost up here. Got the heater hot on my feet the fix was really technical, give the 'blend flap' motor a tt with the handle of a screwdriver as it'd stuck on position.
Then found a waterleak. It didn't leak before I put the anti-freeze in so I rechecked everything. Turns out it was a crappy casting on the back of the waterpump. The 'join' between the halves of the pipe where the bottom hose fits had a sharp line along it. Filed it down & cut 1/2" off the hose. Now fixed. I had to cut the hose as the sharp line had sliced a groove in the inside of the hose so it wouldn't seal.

Found my CD player in the junk room, so now I need to order the plastic surround bit to make it tidy in the ski slope along with a wiring adapter.

Oh, does anyone know how long it takes to get to join XJ40.com? I've registered & got the first email, but despite chasing it up they've not activated my account yet.

[naki]

it can take a while for your membership to be activated, as it is all done manually by the guy who runs the site. he says he gets so many spammers trying it on, hence why it takes a while. if you still get no joy, i can email him directly and ask him to sort your application.

i assume this is a 3.2s, not the more rare 4.0s?
i have a few 93 xj40, so can sympathize with your issues. sounds like you are getting on top of them.
though the wet front carpets could turn out to be the lengthiest issues to resolve.

[Hooli]

He's done it now, I'm posting stupid questions on there as well

Your right, it's a 3.2S. I'm pretty sure your correct that the wet footwells will be the biggest issue, I'm going to look into prices for getting them welded up. Plus the hole in the bulkhead, which I think could get expensive Thing is, I already like the car too much to scrap it & buy another when the MOT runs out.