JustBadly

Had the minor news that the steering tie rods were playing. Garage said it was about 1 hours work and (god forbid) they would also realign the steering. Took it upon myself to replace both sides and honestly it was not that bad. Essential to have the tools so I purchased a universal tie rod wrench for the inners. Jaguar use the ear-type band for the CV boot anyway and they are cheap enough. Tightened the inner tie rods to 100Nm with loctite thread lock and checked wheel alignment with a laser. Super.

The driver door module is at fault here. What you need do is remove the DDR and take out the PCB. Then resolder the chips on the board. The soldered legs on the biggest chip have failed due to heat and vibration. You can tell this because the fault is intermittent, not a failure. By a coincidence I have worked on a DDR this week, picture below. It has 60 pins and a fine solder tip is needed. Do this and it will work again.

Here is my mini override kit for the Jag parkbrake. It connects between the two supply wires for the parkbrake into a junction box. When switched to 'CAR' the parkbrake operates normally, when switched to 'OVER' the parkbrake motor is isolated from the vehicle electrics, the leads are then connected to the battery and the silver button is pressed. This only releases the parkbrake. It is simple to manually override the parkbrake but I figured on installing this box, since if I ever needed to release the parkbrake due to a fault I wouldn't want to spend 45 minutes taking the car apart. But having a little box in the boot makes it a 30 second job. It's one of those things I thought either I fit it now or I never will and it's just proof of concept at the moment.

You should buy a code reader. The codes will tell us the nature of the fault.

I don't think the oil filter has been turned tight enough during the last oil/filter change. Use a claw wrench to undo the filter and a strap wrench to tighten it. Natch - since it is a canister any effort to mechanically tighten might dent or otherwise damage the filter, but the strap wrench turns the filter without even marking it. Mfrs often state 'hand tight' for these filters but you will see the strap wrench will provide plenty of extra rotation. https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cht720-oil-filter-claw-wrench/ https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cht245-double-drive-oil-filter-wrench/

That's really good. The black fluid (it isn't oil) mixed with petrol and burnt, lowers the octane rating with its associated problems. I used a vapour condenser can and set it up on the right side so's to enable easy disposal of the waste fluid.

Pull the 6cd changer and disassemble it. Then resolder the chips on the PCB, 8 I think. Works like a charm - of course you'll need a workshop to do this.

1. Air intake has engine breather tube. 2. Gases from engine contain vapours from combustion. 3. This condenses inside the inlet manifold creating an oily liquid, over time it accumulates enough to pass the gasket. Place your hand underneath the back of the inlet manifold, if it's wet with 'oil' there's the problem. Ideally set up a catch tank to contain this before it enters the inlet manifold, they are cheap enough. This is mine on the 2.5v6 (which is easier to do).

Those are the ones! Breather oil pools inside the inlet manifold and drops onto the top of the valve cover and then onto the exhaust manifold. The valve cover is not leaking.

The intake manifold flap gaskets are shot. This drops breather oil onto the (R) exhaust manifold. Replace the 2 gaskets or better still, fit an oil catch tank to the engine breather line.

This gives a better idea of the cooling conversion. Simply put, the thermostatic valve is placed after the cylinder head and before the radiator. This is typical for a race installation, it is not typical for street use. This is the heart of the conversion, without this there was no point me being there. The standard setup sees the thermostat valve 'after' the radiator and because of this the engine temperature has to be higher to open the valve. Not only that, the thermostatic valve has a sprung plate on the back of it that will open given enough water pressure. So if the engine is revved the plate will allow water thru and this goes back to the pump/head, bypassing the radiator. This is what I mean when I say the standard V6 is biased to run hot. The V8 is built right with the thermostatic housing part of the cylinder head, don't compare the two they are totally different. The back pipes are less restrictive preventing knock. If an exhaust is excessively restrictive burnt gases buildup in the downpipes, the exhaust stroke does not fully evacuate and exhaust gas can re-enter the cylinder. If exhaust gases flow back into the inlet port during valve overlap this can cause pre-detonation, potentially holing a piston. So if a standard V6 is run around a racetrack there is a high chance of engine failure. There is no need to route cool air into the air intake since it isn't turbo'd and the inlet manifold casting is hot when running. Searching for that perfect air intake isn't worthwhile, we are not doing 300mph

The exhaust are a straight-thru with the mid silencers retained. Silent on tickover but plenty loud at high rpm. You can get these at drive in exhaust shops for £3-400 and a few hours. It's the 2.5 auto and the gears were tricky, I was thinking that if I selected the max gear to run on a straight with the 'J' gate it would be better than just using sport mode. Can't give you a rear facing camera cause I don't have one. Watch out for the tyres you use, if you look carefully at the 1st picture the rear tyre is folding over on the tread. It's Toyo's on the front and some cheapo hack on the back. They were about done so I didn't mind doing the trackday with them. Luckily I didn't have a blowout. The engine was faultless I have to say, I did about 60 laps. Everything got fairly hot but I've already done a racing conversion for the liquid cooling and it's biased to run cool. You can see the fitment of the thermostatic valve in this picture - guess the rest!

Here are a few pics and a vid of me driving around Mallory Park at the end of last year on the very last warm enough day. https://youtu.be/EBZpqfJHO7k

I don't often use the parkbrake, only if parked on an incline. When I stop the motor I will press the brake and push down the parkbrake lever then remove the key. This stops the parkbrake from being applied plus it isn't good practice to secure a cable with a gearbox. The calipers are a sliding single piston and they will seize on the 2 pins. Remove the calipers and grease the sliding pins, I do this every year. Low pads will also cause trouble with the parkbrake, a new brake pad will have about 9mm friction material.

Another cover supplier

I bought one of these this summer. More practical than a full cover and I can pop it on at work to stop the interior from being cooked. I think mine is a medium size. Car half cover

The CCM will cut the Aircon if the refrigerant pressure drops too low as well as too high. Call in to Halfords and buy the kit or visit an Aircon specialist.

There are 5 blend motors, remove them and disassemble. Clean and regrease the carbon tracks. Download the workshop manual for a guide. A gurgling sound on startup is low refrigerant for Aircon. Halfords sell a R134a refill kit but fill in stages, it's easy to go over pressure.

I have made diagrams from the workshop manual that detail my 'S' rust issues and prevention. Cheap to fix and effective. Since rust is a major issue can we have a rust sticky thread?

I don't think a permanent treatment exists. Every year I'll put the 'S' on the ramps and spend a few hours underneath abrading and paint the subframes. The paint gets blasted off in places over the winter, so the next year, same job.

Aircon display has been flashing on/off and after watching a few videos I figured why. A guy with a Ford truck said the Aircon was switching on and off - he could see the pulley being disengaged and said it was low on refrigerant. Since the Jag pulley is always engaged logic says the next warning would be a flashing display. So I bought the STP Aircon kit from Halfords, this is for R134a. The inlet port is under the vehicle, besides the front left wheel! I connected the gauge and there wasn't any measurable pressure but since it had still been able to cool the cabin, and there were no obvious leaks (UV light) - I started the fill process. It took about 10 minutes, STP recommend to agitate the canister and before long it was completely empty! Now the pressure gauge read full and after a test ride everything appears OK. There are cheaper kits available but STP make pretty good stuff and the gauge applicator is reusable + Halfords give a £10 refund on the canister.

I have drilled disks on the front and plain rear, yes the front is nosy. I have Mintex pads and the dust is fairly low. I also removed the front inner dust shields. This is to reduce heat on the front, with the dust shield the front disk can be so hot it fades. They are not mandatory, I have retained then on the rear disc since it is a single piston and doesn't get nearly so hot.