A Jag by any other name - 1998 Daimler
Discussion
Been meaning to make a thread for a bit about the 98 Daimler Super Eight I got this spring. The barge thread got me thinking on the idea of getting a cheap old luxury car as that might suit my driving needs quite well so decided to go for it when I saw this one advertised.
The white-haired gent I bought it from and his wife were only the second owners and had owned it since 2002. He took me for a little drive and functionally all the main things seemed well. Had a look round the outside and up close there are quite a number of small paint chips on the bonnet that had been haphazardly fixed and a few rust bubbles had appeared around the wheel arches. Underneath looked OK from what I could see though and since it seemed mechanically fine and the price was enticingly low we shook hands and I now had a barge of my own. Bit of an emotional moment for them when they waved goodbye to what had become part of the family over the last 23 years but they still had a nice choice of a Jag XK, a classic Ford and a daily Ford left to get them around. Here's a couple pics:
On the 45 minute drive home on the motorway I didn’t spot any worrying issues and it was mostly getting used to the very different steering and braking feel coming from an E90. You can definitely feel the 27 years and 158k miles a bit but that supercharged V8 still pushes on so calmly and effortlessly it’s brilliant.
I immediately loved the much much plusher suspension, particularly on the pot holed, speed bump-covered roads around where I live.
The next morning I set about cleaning the interior and discovered that the battery had discharged overnight somehow. Measuring the drain current showed up a whopping 4A so probably something shorted to ground somewhere. Turns out the car had been cheap for a reason!
I set out measuring the voltage drop across each fuse to see if any were unusual. For the measurement the ignition has to be off and the car locked so all the electronics go to sleep. I latched the boot lock and rear door lock closed with a screwdriver so I could have them open and get in to the fuse boxes while the car thinks it’s locked.
Unfortunately none of the fuses gave a hint so I followed some online advice that the alarm sounder or alternator are common issues and had a look at those. The alarm sounder isn’t mentioned in the workshop manual and from online information it was a bit unclear where to find it at the front of the car near the radiator but one potential location had some empty brackets so maybe it had failed already and been removed? I moved on to the alternator and indeed when disconnecting the + terminal the drain current disappeared! Getting the alternator out was a bit of a pain, especially the 3-pin connector on the back because I found it awkward to reach and the ancient connector was stuck on pretty tight.
Now imagine my surprise when I measured the alternator by itself and there was no sign of a short or drain current! After much head scratching and remeasuring I figured out that the drain occurs when both the + terminal and the 3-pin plug are connected. There were 3ish Volt on the pin coming from the ignition switch which caused this so I started to trace that connection to see what was going on. First I ended up at the relays for the windscreen heaters. One of them was a bit oxidised but they were working OK with no short. Next the signal came to the engine compartment fuse box where it connects to a few other circuits. I measured around a bit, pulling the various fuses etc until I found a bit of a strange voltage on one of them. It was connected among a few other things to - the alarm sounder. FFS.
I went back online to search some more and found a better description on where to find it, this time with more success. Turns out there’s a little access flap in the nearside wheel well that is really easy to get to and you can just reach in there and unplug the alarm sounder. Did that and the battery drain disappeared completely.
Here's where the alarm sounder can be accessed (at least on an early X308). I vaguely remember there being a covering, must have fallen off since?
Finally I could use the car without having to disconnect the battery all the time! By that point the whole process had taken a good 2-3 weeks of going back and forth doing some measurements here or there and then pouring over the wiring diagram to make sense of the results, often having to take off some bits to get access somewhere and put them back etc. all with me not being very fast working on cars anyway. Was happy to have gotten it sorted but also furious it could have been a 30 minute job.
Now that all the controllers had been reset I noticed some oddly high idle rpm at over 1k when I was doing a short drive soon after and had to start braking to stay in the 20mph limit. Turns out there’s an idle adaptation process where you have to let the car sit idling undisturbed for 10 minutes or so while it adjusts everything automatically and afterwards everything runs nicely again.
At this point it was almost time for the MOT (did I not mention I bought it with only two months MOT left?) so I decided to not do any more maintenance for now and see first if they’d come up with anything else. Apologies this has become a bit long. Will add more later.
The white-haired gent I bought it from and his wife were only the second owners and had owned it since 2002. He took me for a little drive and functionally all the main things seemed well. Had a look round the outside and up close there are quite a number of small paint chips on the bonnet that had been haphazardly fixed and a few rust bubbles had appeared around the wheel arches. Underneath looked OK from what I could see though and since it seemed mechanically fine and the price was enticingly low we shook hands and I now had a barge of my own. Bit of an emotional moment for them when they waved goodbye to what had become part of the family over the last 23 years but they still had a nice choice of a Jag XK, a classic Ford and a daily Ford left to get them around. Here's a couple pics:
On the 45 minute drive home on the motorway I didn’t spot any worrying issues and it was mostly getting used to the very different steering and braking feel coming from an E90. You can definitely feel the 27 years and 158k miles a bit but that supercharged V8 still pushes on so calmly and effortlessly it’s brilliant.
I immediately loved the much much plusher suspension, particularly on the pot holed, speed bump-covered roads around where I live.
The next morning I set about cleaning the interior and discovered that the battery had discharged overnight somehow. Measuring the drain current showed up a whopping 4A so probably something shorted to ground somewhere. Turns out the car had been cheap for a reason!
I set out measuring the voltage drop across each fuse to see if any were unusual. For the measurement the ignition has to be off and the car locked so all the electronics go to sleep. I latched the boot lock and rear door lock closed with a screwdriver so I could have them open and get in to the fuse boxes while the car thinks it’s locked.
Unfortunately none of the fuses gave a hint so I followed some online advice that the alarm sounder or alternator are common issues and had a look at those. The alarm sounder isn’t mentioned in the workshop manual and from online information it was a bit unclear where to find it at the front of the car near the radiator but one potential location had some empty brackets so maybe it had failed already and been removed? I moved on to the alternator and indeed when disconnecting the + terminal the drain current disappeared! Getting the alternator out was a bit of a pain, especially the 3-pin connector on the back because I found it awkward to reach and the ancient connector was stuck on pretty tight.
Now imagine my surprise when I measured the alternator by itself and there was no sign of a short or drain current! After much head scratching and remeasuring I figured out that the drain occurs when both the + terminal and the 3-pin plug are connected. There were 3ish Volt on the pin coming from the ignition switch which caused this so I started to trace that connection to see what was going on. First I ended up at the relays for the windscreen heaters. One of them was a bit oxidised but they were working OK with no short. Next the signal came to the engine compartment fuse box where it connects to a few other circuits. I measured around a bit, pulling the various fuses etc until I found a bit of a strange voltage on one of them. It was connected among a few other things to - the alarm sounder. FFS.
I went back online to search some more and found a better description on where to find it, this time with more success. Turns out there’s a little access flap in the nearside wheel well that is really easy to get to and you can just reach in there and unplug the alarm sounder. Did that and the battery drain disappeared completely.
Here's where the alarm sounder can be accessed (at least on an early X308). I vaguely remember there being a covering, must have fallen off since?
Finally I could use the car without having to disconnect the battery all the time! By that point the whole process had taken a good 2-3 weeks of going back and forth doing some measurements here or there and then pouring over the wiring diagram to make sense of the results, often having to take off some bits to get access somewhere and put them back etc. all with me not being very fast working on cars anyway. Was happy to have gotten it sorted but also furious it could have been a 30 minute job.
Now that all the controllers had been reset I noticed some oddly high idle rpm at over 1k when I was doing a short drive soon after and had to start braking to stay in the 20mph limit. Turns out there’s an idle adaptation process where you have to let the car sit idling undisturbed for 10 minutes or so while it adjusts everything automatically and afterwards everything runs nicely again.
At this point it was almost time for the MOT (did I not mention I bought it with only two months MOT left?) so I decided to not do any more maintenance for now and see first if they’d come up with anything else. Apologies this has become a bit long. Will add more later.
That looks lovely. I have a very scruffy 4.0 X300 as my shed and I adore it, my car friend thinks I'm mad for walking past at least 3 much "better" cars to use it all the time.
They're very soothing and serene, nobody makes anything at all like it now. At that age if you're not just shedding it I'd be putting a full set of dampers in and having a good poke at all the bushes, they can still feel great even when totally w
ked out, but it'll transform it.
I hope yours has been treating you well.....
They're very soothing and serene, nobody makes anything at all like it now. At that age if you're not just shedding it I'd be putting a full set of dampers in and having a good poke at all the bushes, they can still feel great even when totally w
ked out, but it'll transform it.I hope yours has been treating you well.....
After the MOT I decided to undertake the first 'uneconomical repair' and invested in a new set of tyres. That came up as one of the advisories but I had planned on doing that anyway. Otherwise it mentioned only stone chips in the windshield and minor play in front suspension. Had the windshield repaired but still need to get the suspension looked at.
Meanwhile I started using the Daimler, mostly little trips on the weekend with the odd longer one and I have to say I really enjoy driving around in it. The interior is very roomy and comfortable, visibility is really good, it has plenty of shove when needed and cruises nicely at both city speeds and on the motorway.
There's some obvious negatives like the turning circle and general size (LWB comes in at 5,15m) that make fitting into parking spots a bit slower. Mine doesn't have parking sensors either but it's not been a big deal so far. I find in general I suddenly don't mind travelling in a slightly more patient manner somehow.
The car's getting plenty of positive reactions, even kids seem to like it. On a visit at a friend's their kids were enthusiastic to give it a wash and who am I to stand in their way
J4CKO there seem to be a small number of X350 generation Daimlers too but certainly not seeing them much
Meanwhile I started using the Daimler, mostly little trips on the weekend with the odd longer one and I have to say I really enjoy driving around in it. The interior is very roomy and comfortable, visibility is really good, it has plenty of shove when needed and cruises nicely at both city speeds and on the motorway.
There's some obvious negatives like the turning circle and general size (LWB comes in at 5,15m) that make fitting into parking spots a bit slower. Mine doesn't have parking sensors either but it's not been a big deal so far. I find in general I suddenly don't mind travelling in a slightly more patient manner somehow.
The car's getting plenty of positive reactions, even kids seem to like it. On a visit at a friend's their kids were enthusiastic to give it a wash and who am I to stand in their way
GeniusOfLove said:
That looks lovely. I have a very scruffy 4.0 X300 as my shed and I adore it, my car friend thinks I'm mad for walking past at least 3 much "better" cars to use it all the time.
They're very soothing and serene, nobody makes anything at all like it now. At that age if you're not just shedding it I'd be putting a full set of dampers in and having a good poke at all the bushes, they can still feel great even when totally wked out, but it'll transform it.
I hope yours has been treating you well.....
The dampers are the non-sport CATS ones and it looks like about £250 a corner? Given that I likely won't be able to do that sort of suspension work myself that's going to get expensive... So far I'm a bit on the fence on whether to see how it goes or actually get some stuff like the rust sorted out properly.They're very soothing and serene, nobody makes anything at all like it now. At that age if you're not just shedding it I'd be putting a full set of dampers in and having a good poke at all the bushes, they can still feel great even when totally w
ked out, but it'll transform it.I hope yours has been treating you well.....
J4CKO there seem to be a small number of X350 generation Daimlers too but certainly not seeing them much
Speaking of airport trips, I picked up my parents one day and got sent this souvenir from the friendly people at Stansted because I forgot to pay the pickup charge!
I always find it amusing how low these XJ8 are compared to most other cars on the road, SUVs absolutely tower over them. Combined with their length gives them a very unique appearance. But yes chauffeuring around others in the back is always fun, should try that out myself sometime.
I always find it amusing how low these XJ8 are compared to most other cars on the road, SUVs absolutely tower over them. Combined with their length gives them a very unique appearance. But yes chauffeuring around others in the back is always fun, should try that out myself sometime.
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