2 years with my XJ40
Discussion
well 2 and a bit...
I bought the Jaguar at an auction site on the 31st October 2008 which is Halloween, and instead of going trick or treating I decided to phone up the guy who I just bought the Jaguar from and I arranged pick-up that evening. After a 40 mile drive to Ipswich we arrived at the guy's house, and the minute I saw the Jaguar for the first time I fell in love with it and also decided that minute that I will keep the Jaguar for as long as I possibly can.
It was a stunning example of an XJ40, and in my opinion worth about £1000 more than the £170 I paid for it. All the wings, bonnet, bootlid and doors were in really good condition and so was the original paint. But there was a reason I paid such a small amount of money for such a great car… It was a non runner.
Oliver as seen on ebay
The eBay ad
After an adventurous, embarrassing, head-turning 40 mile tow home, I got the Jaguar booked in at a friendly local garage to see his real condition mechanically and also to get him running. After a 1 week wait for the garage to have some time, the Jaguar got a tow to the local garage, and after two days the mechanic got back to me saying the big red cat roars once more and is ready for pick-up. The garage was cheap too at £150 with £125 of that being labour.
On the way back from the garage
Then as it ended up being half-way through November and with it getting colder and damper by the minute the Jaguar got put in the garage and stored for a fair few months until July 2009, so that it could get MOT'd ready for the summer. Unfortunately, the MOT got delayed by 2 weeks and then more bad luck when I found out that the Jaguar failed on rotten inner sills and too much play in the front wheel bearings. So took it back to the cheap local garage and when they got that done by the 17th August 2009, the warm days sadly were almost over. But the good thing was that he passed!
Finally Back on the road
Then for no reason whatsoever I thought that the Jaguar should be named Oliver. And throughout the cold months of 2009 he remained on the road and was used daily, but he still got his weekly bath. Then in February 2010 the adventures began. Starting on the 28th when dad filled Oliver up with diesel. So we got mum's Volvo to give Oliver a tow home where all the diesel got syphoned out. Then Oliver was filled with 10 litres of fresh petrol and he started straight away before cutting out after 10 seconds when the remains of the little amount of diesel in the tank got though the filter and into Oliver's fuel lines. I managed to get him going shortly after he cut out, but he wouldn't idle, misfired slightly and smoked like hell. When literally everything was covered in smoke Oliver stopped and ran as smooth as he used to.
Stuck at the petrol station after mis-fuelling!
Getting a tow home from our trusty old Volvo
Then after all the big snow was gone and there was just ice left on country roads, Dad was going shopping in Oliver and ended up spinning out into a field at 20MPH! Luckily some classic car guy was following him, saw what happened, pulled over and gave my Dad a lift home. I got pretty annoyed when I found out what had happened, but was soon cheered up when Dad told me how lucky he was to miss the trees and the ditch. So luckily Oliver escaped without any damage at all. Just a very muddy underside, wheels, and the whole rest of him. I biked down to the field where Oliver was sitting and went to ask a local farmer with a tractor whether he could pull us out. And he told me that he would be more than happy to help.
Stuck in a field after skidding on ice!
The rest of the year was pretty idle and nothing went wrong. Then came the summer and I managed to persuade Mum to go camping! We took the Jaguar to Plymouth and all the way there was fine, didn't miss a beat, no warning lights, everything working as it should.
Waiting to go on the ferry
Oliver on the ferry!
The way back however was slightly different............
It started off with trouble to start, then Fuel Fail 8 followed by Circuit 1 Failure causing the antenna for the radio not to work. With the Fuel Fail showing we didn't move from the campsite until I knew what the fault was, so a quick text to Rob Jenner and he told me it was the resistor for the hot start sensor, so we set off and that may have been why it had trouble starting in the morning. Fault cleared after re-starting the engine and didn't reappear. Fuel Fail 2 did, however, so Oliver was running slightly lumpy with a failed Air-Flow Meter. But when we got Oliver home I found out that it was due to damp connections.
About 100 or so miles into our journey a rather large rock hit the bonnet taking some paint with it before hitting the windscreen and causing an annoying 5mm scuff on the bonnet and a little chip in the windscreen.
That was only the beginning though! After a visit to Browns Lane, which I will report on in due course, we pulled over at McDonalds and mum went with my little brother to get the food, not telling me she locked the car and then put the keys on the rear right hand side carpet where I was getting my stuff ready to give it a quick go over with Meguiars Speed Detailer, while they got the food and then shut the right hand side rear door. Yeah. Big problem there we were about 100 miles away from home and locked out of the car, fortunately though she found a guy in a van on the same McDonalds car park and asked him whether he knew what to do. And guess what...HE DID! He went to his van stayed in there for a bit and came out with a wire and a load of long flat-bladed screwdrivers. He then very carefully prised away the chrome and slid in a bar to hold the chrome in place while he lifted the locking knob on the driver's door with the wire And thanks to him Oliver still has all his windows (mum's plan was to break one of them to get in...NEVER )
When we did get home, I managed to sort a couple of things on Oliver, tidied up the garage and as you read this Oliver is tucked away inside a warm-ish garage under his cover to stop him getting dusty.
I bought the Jaguar at an auction site on the 31st October 2008 which is Halloween, and instead of going trick or treating I decided to phone up the guy who I just bought the Jaguar from and I arranged pick-up that evening. After a 40 mile drive to Ipswich we arrived at the guy's house, and the minute I saw the Jaguar for the first time I fell in love with it and also decided that minute that I will keep the Jaguar for as long as I possibly can.
It was a stunning example of an XJ40, and in my opinion worth about £1000 more than the £170 I paid for it. All the wings, bonnet, bootlid and doors were in really good condition and so was the original paint. But there was a reason I paid such a small amount of money for such a great car… It was a non runner.
Oliver as seen on ebay
The eBay ad
After an adventurous, embarrassing, head-turning 40 mile tow home, I got the Jaguar booked in at a friendly local garage to see his real condition mechanically and also to get him running. After a 1 week wait for the garage to have some time, the Jaguar got a tow to the local garage, and after two days the mechanic got back to me saying the big red cat roars once more and is ready for pick-up. The garage was cheap too at £150 with £125 of that being labour.
On the way back from the garage
Then as it ended up being half-way through November and with it getting colder and damper by the minute the Jaguar got put in the garage and stored for a fair few months until July 2009, so that it could get MOT'd ready for the summer. Unfortunately, the MOT got delayed by 2 weeks and then more bad luck when I found out that the Jaguar failed on rotten inner sills and too much play in the front wheel bearings. So took it back to the cheap local garage and when they got that done by the 17th August 2009, the warm days sadly were almost over. But the good thing was that he passed!
Finally Back on the road
Then for no reason whatsoever I thought that the Jaguar should be named Oliver. And throughout the cold months of 2009 he remained on the road and was used daily, but he still got his weekly bath. Then in February 2010 the adventures began. Starting on the 28th when dad filled Oliver up with diesel. So we got mum's Volvo to give Oliver a tow home where all the diesel got syphoned out. Then Oliver was filled with 10 litres of fresh petrol and he started straight away before cutting out after 10 seconds when the remains of the little amount of diesel in the tank got though the filter and into Oliver's fuel lines. I managed to get him going shortly after he cut out, but he wouldn't idle, misfired slightly and smoked like hell. When literally everything was covered in smoke Oliver stopped and ran as smooth as he used to.
Stuck at the petrol station after mis-fuelling!
Getting a tow home from our trusty old Volvo
Then after all the big snow was gone and there was just ice left on country roads, Dad was going shopping in Oliver and ended up spinning out into a field at 20MPH! Luckily some classic car guy was following him, saw what happened, pulled over and gave my Dad a lift home. I got pretty annoyed when I found out what had happened, but was soon cheered up when Dad told me how lucky he was to miss the trees and the ditch. So luckily Oliver escaped without any damage at all. Just a very muddy underside, wheels, and the whole rest of him. I biked down to the field where Oliver was sitting and went to ask a local farmer with a tractor whether he could pull us out. And he told me that he would be more than happy to help.
Stuck in a field after skidding on ice!
The rest of the year was pretty idle and nothing went wrong. Then came the summer and I managed to persuade Mum to go camping! We took the Jaguar to Plymouth and all the way there was fine, didn't miss a beat, no warning lights, everything working as it should.
Waiting to go on the ferry
Oliver on the ferry!
The way back however was slightly different............
It started off with trouble to start, then Fuel Fail 8 followed by Circuit 1 Failure causing the antenna for the radio not to work. With the Fuel Fail showing we didn't move from the campsite until I knew what the fault was, so a quick text to Rob Jenner and he told me it was the resistor for the hot start sensor, so we set off and that may have been why it had trouble starting in the morning. Fault cleared after re-starting the engine and didn't reappear. Fuel Fail 2 did, however, so Oliver was running slightly lumpy with a failed Air-Flow Meter. But when we got Oliver home I found out that it was due to damp connections.
About 100 or so miles into our journey a rather large rock hit the bonnet taking some paint with it before hitting the windscreen and causing an annoying 5mm scuff on the bonnet and a little chip in the windscreen.
That was only the beginning though! After a visit to Browns Lane, which I will report on in due course, we pulled over at McDonalds and mum went with my little brother to get the food, not telling me she locked the car and then put the keys on the rear right hand side carpet where I was getting my stuff ready to give it a quick go over with Meguiars Speed Detailer, while they got the food and then shut the right hand side rear door. Yeah. Big problem there we were about 100 miles away from home and locked out of the car, fortunately though she found a guy in a van on the same McDonalds car park and asked him whether he knew what to do. And guess what...HE DID! He went to his van stayed in there for a bit and came out with a wire and a load of long flat-bladed screwdrivers. He then very carefully prised away the chrome and slid in a bar to hold the chrome in place while he lifted the locking knob on the driver's door with the wire And thanks to him Oliver still has all his windows (mum's plan was to break one of them to get in...NEVER )
When we did get home, I managed to sort a couple of things on Oliver, tidied up the garage and as you read this Oliver is tucked away inside a warm-ish garage under his cover to stop him getting dusty.
I had a 1990 4.0 which I bought in 1992'ish and finally sold on in 2002'ish.
Great cars. In 10 years of ownership , even with a lot of miles, it never let me down. Had some decent size bills over the 10 years, but it was being used as a daily for the whole time. But the basics were bullet proof.
Eventually sold it when the 6 years of it's life spent in Aberdeen took it's toll and the front subframe started to corrode. I moved it on before it needed replacing as there was no economically viable way for me to sort that.
Great cars. In 10 years of ownership , even with a lot of miles, it never let me down. Had some decent size bills over the 10 years, but it was being used as a daily for the whole time. But the basics were bullet proof.
Eventually sold it when the 6 years of it's life spent in Aberdeen took it's toll and the front subframe started to corrode. I moved it on before it needed replacing as there was no economically viable way for me to sort that.
That read like something another Oliver (surname of Postage) penned when he was 9.
However, I like this thread, it is very cosy; redolent of a cat who always manages to look impossibly comfortable, despite any ungainly repose.
Lovely looking old Norberts and upto 30, 40 mph, really quite supreme.
I'm hugely impressed by the fact that for the price of a
from the room service menu at The Dorchester, you have acquired such a thing.
However, I like this thread, it is very cosy; redolent of a cat who always manages to look impossibly comfortable, despite any ungainly repose.
Lovely looking old Norberts and upto 30, 40 mph, really quite supreme.
I'm hugely impressed by the fact that for the price of a
from the room service menu at The Dorchester, you have acquired such a thing.Had 3yr old a Westminster Blue XJ6 3.6 which was fully loaded and loved very much by everyone but sold it after 4yrs of faultless trouble free air conditioned leather lined luxury for a much better car. Yes it was a 3ry old Flamenco Red XJ6 4.0 Sports Pack, again fully loaded, this one did provide problems, a hole in the radiator (poss stone) and new battery ! Circumstances changed and a people carrier arrived. Two Bentley Turbo R's later and another Espace, guess what I'm now hankering after another JAG. It should be compulsory that everyone should own a Jag at sometime in their lives.
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