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I have recently seen several post face-lift S-Types where the owners had no idea that they had power folding door mirrors. It seems that such conveniences are soon forgotten and as a result, dis-similar metal corrosion takes hold and seizes the bearings. So - do you have power folding mirrors? Unlike the post face-lift cars which had an additional switch in the driver's door pocket, the later cars have no visible indication. To operate the power folding mirrors post face-lift, ensure that the mirror selection switch in the driver's switchpack is set to the central position. Then press the circular positioning switch momentarily down at the rear most edge of the switch whilst watching your mirrors and listening. If your mirrors move smoothly in and out with alternate presses of the switch then all well and good If there is absolutely no discernible movement or the slightest creaking or clicking sound then you probably don't have power folding mirrors (simple enough to retro-fit though). However, when pressing the switch you might see the slightest twitch from one or both of the mirrors and / or hear a slight sound contemporaneously with the operation of the switch. This means that you have seized or partially seized power folding mirrors. My suggestion to free them off is as follows and has been tested on several S-Types with success:- Pop the mirror cover off if you can. Usually this can be achieved with a little judicious probing with a fine edged trim tool or CAREFUL probing with a small screwdriver. PLEASE be careful though as the clips are prone to break, especially in cold weather. In addition, if possible, remove the small lower pivot cover to give even more access. With the cover(s) off you will almost certainly see a load of white powdery corrosion. Brush this off as much as you can. Now, the ideal solution would be to dis-assemble the mirror and give it a darned good clean up but this option appears to be next to impossible, but I'll be grateful if somebody can gainsay me on that . Instead, use a can of spray lithium grease and spray the area of the pivot bearing copiously including externally straight into the joint between the fixed stanchion and the mirror body. Allow a few minutes for it to penetrate (the pressure of the aerosol assists in forcing the lubricant to where it is needed), then, with the engine running, to keep the battery charged, operate the switch and at the same time physically move the mirror on one side of the car. This is best done with two people for the driver's side and impossible to do without two people on the passenger side. You may need to be a little robust initially but feel for the mirror trying to move and then assist it to either fully retract or fully extend. Once the mirror moves full range with assistance you can then gradually reduce and then stop the assistance to gauge the efficacy of the lithium grease. Be prepared to take some considerable time doing this. The longest I've needed was 40 minutes. However the combination of the forced injection of lithium grease aided by the physical assistance will eventually free the mirror pivot up to the extent where it has free unassisted range of movement on both directions for most of the time. Further applications of lithium grease will assist as you progress. Once the mirrors are moving reasonably well, you can replace the covers and clean off the excess grease from the bodywork. Lithium grease is unlike normal grease in that it will quickly disappear when polished off with a rag. SOMETIMES, you can achieve the same result without removing the cover, just by spraying the grease into the joint. However, I would still advocate removing the covers to get a more comprehensive job done. Regular operation of the mirrors will keep them moving freely although you might like to add the lithium grease procedure to your normal maintenance, perhaps on a bi-monthly basis? The following Youtube video, which is not mine and which I hereby acknowledge the originator, may be of assistance but you really do not need to go to the trouble of removing the complete mirror assembly from the door, or removing the mirror glass, in my judgement. S-Type door mirror maintenance I hope this is of help

I've just had another look at the pic you provided of your rusty jacking point and marked in red where the floorpan has rotted away. Also marked is where the inner sill has rotted in yellow. There are other bits on the floorpan closer to where the fuel tank is that are questionable but tricky for me to be certain whether it's surface rust or gone through but they are the darker spots you can see near those brake lines in the bottom left of the pic. Not only will you be completely snookered if you get a flat tyre while out and about as that jacking point won't lift the car but the important bit is that the corrosion is within 30cm of a seat belt mount - in other words, an MoT failure point. To give you a bit more of an idea whaat's happening, mine rotted in the same place, both sides. I only took pics of the drivers side but you'll get the idea : Doesn't look too bad there but here are a few more once i'd cut the roten stuff away : The outer sill is completely cut away there and you can see the remains of the inner sill hanging down into the hole. Jaguar used several pieces to create the inner sill, alternately layering them and spot welding each piece to the next. I don't know if this was done to create a break-point for corrosion but it certainly worked as that! I used a similar idea but seam welded each layer so i wouldn't fall foul of the MoT regs, not that it could be seen easily with the outer sill repair piece in place but you get the idea. First inner sill repair piece in place, welds ground down and weld through primer applied, ready for the next piece. Now it's all finished and has a new MoT, i can certainly tell you it's as solid as, if not more solid than, when it left the factory. Despite the obvious curvy nature of the bodywork in general, there are no complicated compound curves except a very slight one at the rear end that can be pushed into place (even with 1.2mm sheet) to be welded then trimmed to suit after with the disc cutter. I wouldn't call myself an expert welder by any stretch of the imagination but was quite chuffed when i asked the tester "What's the verdict?" and the reply came "Yeah, that'll pass - nice job!". Like everything with bodywork, preparation is the bulk of the time, the actual welding took about 10% of the overall time i spent on it, most was prep work, making/shaping repair patches/panels. All in, i probably spent about 12-15 hours doing it all and out of that, about 1-1.5 hours was actual welding. Your big decision is whether to do it yourself, get a mate to do it at mates rates/mutual exchange of labour or put it in to a garage that can do it or a bodyshop. On a DIY basis, about £250 including buying a cheap gasless MIG, metal and consumables (wire, grinding/cutting discs etc) or likely to be £2500 at a bodyshop and the rest, somewhere in between. If you're keeping it, whatever the cost is shouldn't be an obstacle, if you're selling it then get it done as a buyer would likely offer scrap value if they saw the current state of your sills, not to mention calling into question if the MoT tester was Mr Magoo! Once done, if you're selling, get another MoT done as i wouldn't feel confident buying a car that had been passed with that level of corrosion and an alleged 12 month ticket! Probably not all of what you wanted to hear but i think others will agree that nobody wants to see you driving around in an unsafe car!

A fe little bits of information that will help fill in the edges Russ - i've had my 827 Sterling a long time (16 years next February 29th) and had planned on keeping it for considerably longer. However a rotten sill which was meant to be welded by the MoT tester that failed it was only half done and then it was uglier than an ugly thing that lost a fight with the ugly stick. When i submitted it for MoT later that year (it took 6 months to get the car back!), the tester basically threw it off the ramp and showed my why. Many parts weren't even welded, leaving the car unsafe at best and a death trap at worst, no wonder it felt wrong while driving! A few months (April last year) i spotted my S Type and bought it. It filled the formula the 827 had, big Japanese derived V6, Stone Beige/Light Stone leather interior (Rover/Jaguar names for the same leather!), very comfortable with all the toys and importantly for me, the S Type has an LPG conversion. It's also only the second car to put a smile on my face whenever i drive it, the Sterling was the first. Also had my Volvo about 7 years, had three 740GLEs before that but had always wanted the V6 (like the Sterling, a 90deg V6 unusually) 760GLE but in all honesty, having owned this one for that long and done many jobs on it, discovered much of the Volvo engineering is the paper bag and scissors style then put something nice looking over the bodge to hide it. Yes, the mechanical side is good but the cosmetics are a bit rough in places and as for using soya bean derived wiring insulation, that's just silly! Having also had some Hondas before and of course the Rover being codeveloped with Honda when the first Legend was made (Project XX (Rover)/HX (Honda), it made a Honda a natural choice for me as a replacement for the Volvo. The rest i think you know! As for the Discos and MG-f you own, many parts are shared with the 800, depending on year etc so if you find yourself struggling for any parts, give me a shout, i may either have the right bits or know of someone who does or what will fit in place, even if it's not officially an MG/Land Rover part. Another one that is useful for us S Type owners, certainly the early ones anyway, the screenwash pump is also used on a variety of Fords (Transit, Connect, Mondeo, Sierra and others) and the first gen Volvo S80 so a replacement is available on ebay for under a tenner.

My current LED bulbs are 6000K Russ as they are very close to natural daylight in colour temperature. Makes night driving much more relaxing and less eye strain. I'll certainly go for the same again! As you say, the ones with the blue tinge don't really look that good, on a Jag or anywhere else come to that! 😮 I find the 3000K or halogen colour temperature lacking in many areas, particularly during rain and dusk with all lights. One benefit of the LED bulbs, certainly with 6000K is that they tend to make animals eyes reflect light back so if there's a deer/rabbit/fox on the verge of the rural road you're traceling along, you actually get to see them so you can avoid them.

Thanks so much to Chris and Dave for doing the legwork on this issue 👍 It look to me like the H7 twenty20 Compact is a direct fit for my 2001 as well, and while £50 for a pair of bulbs seems pricy, this is only compared to halogens, and if it's a direct fit from a tried supplier, it's cheap at half the price! They also show an H7 twenty20 precision option which is fan cooled and currently on offer. At 3600 lumen they actually produce less than the 4000 lumen Compact, so generally the Compact is the better choice right? https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/h7-twenty20-precision-led-12v-477-headlight-bulbs-pair.html They list an H3 Twenty20 compact for my main beam too, along with a pricier Osram LED version. I'd be tempted to stick with the Twenty20s if these have proven good upgrades. I'm glad I deferred sorting this out as the tech seems to have caught up with what I need. I can now get upgraded lighting without a ton of rewiring or exchanging headlamp units. Given the amount of work I want to do on the car, this is great for me! 😀

Have you got a link to the ebay DRL kit please? Might be an interesting upgrade, i made my own using switchback combined DRL/indicators LED bulbs for my 827 Sterling, quite a game as the indicator lamp units have a removable orange lens inside so had to strip and rebuild them. Hmmmm, i really want to get a longer beam as well as actually having illumination of the road in front. I know on both my Volvo 760 and Rover 827, the beam distance improved with H4 LED bulbs so i was kind of hoping the beam distance would improve on the S Type too. On the Volvo, because the reflectors were tarnished (they are 35 years old this year so are allowed to be! 😛 ) they wouldn't actually give a definite beam pattern on filament bulbs, it was only just good enough to get a pass on the MoT but the tester muttered about poor beam pattern, not likely to pass next year (that was 7 years ago and had LEDs in since) but the Rover had new headlights and both gave an improvement on beam length. Because of my experience with both cars and doing the outer beams (dipped and main combined on the H4) both got inner beam improvements too, the Rover got some el-cheapo "Chinabay" H3 LEDs that used COB LEDs instead of the better Lumiled type used on the H4 jobbies. This resulted in no beam pattern at all on the inner beams but because they were so bright (something like 10000Lm if memory serves, might be 6000Lm per H3 LED bulb) switching to main beam is like turning the sun on. The Volvo got 35W HID conversions for the driving and fog lights, both inboard of the outer combined dipped/main beam lights. As it's a 1988 car the MoT testers pass it anyway because it gives all correct beam patterns. Not had a problem with the Rover either but that was before they changed the law and i changed MoT stations thanks to the previous one bodging a repair on the Rover and making it unsafe to test, never mind drive! For now in my S Type i have some cheapy ebay "Xenon look" halogens that work well - normally! Although a vast improvement on the original (nearly black so probably original to the car) bulbs, still not great especially at dusk. Having been used to LEDs for so long on my other cars as soon as i get the Jag in for MoT (and hopefully through it too) i'll be getting some LED H7 and also HB3 bulbs for it.

Lenses crystal clear thank you. The lenses were milky when I bought the car so it was one of the first jobs to do. Followed by an Ebay kit to give me DRL lights hidden in the front indicators. Realistically, I don't see the beam pattern throwing any further; things on the road and verge are just much better lit. For some illogical reason I couldn't stick the mixture of LED and halogen main beam lighting so treated the car to main beam LEDs. It feels spectacular now.

I'd avoid the 100W halogen bulbs Russ, two reasons, first is the Front Electronic Module is probably not designed to run them as they will take nearly double the current of the standard 60W H7 bulbs and secondly, the heat produced by them will be much higher - the reflectors and lenses are both plastic so at best would be likely to warp/deform and/or discolour, at worst possibly melt. If you feel like trying the LEDs i linked to, i do know they offer a money back guarantee if they don't work as you hoped. Seems you may beat me to trying them out! Just to give you an idea and comparison, here's a couple of pics from a few years ago - the car on the left has ebay Xenon look halogens, middle (mine) has LEDs and the one on the right has Nightbreakers. All three cars are similar models, all alignments checked and all headlamps good condition with clean glass lenses so it makes a good comparison. If the H7 LEDs are as good as those (those above in the comparison pics are H4s) then should be a good improvement - i currently have ebay Xenon look bulbs in my S Type so once i've got past the MoT i'll order a pair and then maybe a pair of HB3 LEDs for the inner full beams.

You are 100% right Dave, my auto electrician said that LED was (generally) a waste due to cheap LED quality making LED conversions potentially worse lighting than the standard set up. So if you have knowledge of better quality bulbs, and will try them in the S-Type, all good! I await how you get on with interest, or if I get to it before you I may give these LEDs a go! Or try some 100W H7s as an interim measure. Thanks for raising (and potentially solving 😆!) the issue, most interesting! 👍😀

Hey Dave, I'm in the process of recommissioning my S-Type (yay! 🥳) and have just had my electrics diagnosed and repaired which I thought was a good start! Like you, I have the earlier X200 and I am / was disappointed in the dipped beam performance. On one of her last night time trips back from Brighton on the A27, it was excruciating being dazzled by 4x4s and anyone running LED lights it seemed. With the full beam on, not so bad, but on dipped beam approaching traffic, not a good thing at all! In the arms race that modern car headlights seemed to be, I felt I was very much on the losing end! I asked my autoelectrician (a very capable guy) what he thought of LED conversion and he wasn't keen, suggesting Osram Nightbreakers, which incidentally, I was already using! 😆! The Nightbreakers are only 55W, so I wondered if more powerful versions are available? Or if 100W bulbs from another manufacturer could be an option? I follow this post with interest and hope there is a viable solution out there, ideally one that doesn't involve wholesale replacement of the complete headlamp units from a later car, or something equally drastic (and expensive!) 🤞

Well.....I'm one of those who didn't know I had powerfold.....until you told me when I was with you. As said they have been lubricated and are working a treat. cheers paul....these little gems are a huge help to us learners.