Mercury RV

Good evening everyone. Having acquired a 1996 XJS Celebration model, I was disappointed to find the headlamps in poor condition, not bad enough to fail the UK MoT, but they are poor on light output and spoil the appearance of the car in my opinion. I have decided I needed to do something about it. As we not only repair and sell American Motorhomes, I love a challenge when it comes to being told parts are no longer available. I set out to ensure mine would be returned to as new condition. The point for all of you out there who like me prefer the original look of the XJS as it was meant to look, not with the quad headlamp arrangement (each to their own of course) I have embarked on this as a new project for my team to transform the lights back to how they should be. On mine, I have totally stripped the lamp to its component parts (every single part) this has then all been refurbished, we have also had the interior reflective surface of the lamp re silvered. As I said we have tried to do the VERY best job possible, in that we have a company that re polishes the glass lenses. With mine, I have been trialling new LED bulbs for the main lamp and the side lamps, this give a BRILLIANT output which is 6500k (bright cool white which makes road marking illuminate and road signs really stand out) the improvement is simply outstanding. Subject to interest, it is my intention that we offer this as a service to the XJS community, it would be on the basis of an exchange, we will have stock of refurbished units that once we have received your lights, we will dispatch to you your new lights. They can be either just the refurbished headlamp, or come complete with all fittings, clips, fixings, adjustment cables and frames if required. It is our intention to turn these around as quickly as possible so you are not off the road any longer than needs be. We will quickly examine your exchange units and let you know if there will be any excess charges. Until such time as we can judge the needs and numbers, it is hard to work out a cost for this, but it is my intention to make sure whoever will be very pleased with the cost. It is not to make a fortune, simply to cover our costs and add a small element of profit to ensure we can keep doing it for the foreseeable future. So, if any of you out there have an interest, please send me an email to Simon at the following email address. info@mercuryarv.co.uk Your country makes no difference to us, it is only the postage that would vary obviously. So if this interests you, please drop me an email. Kindest regards, Simon

Good morning all, I did indeed have the gearbox flushed and filter replaced some years ago (whenever it was I posted my question) and it did cure the problem. The company in Dartford Kent use a machine that links up to the pipework that goes to the oil cooler and the fluid is sucked out and then replaced by the new fluid. I recall it was around 250.00 to have it done, but it worked. It is something that needs to be in the service schedule, however for wahtever reason Jaguar do not list it. I now have a Jaguar XF 'S' and have asked the main dealer if it is part of the standard service procedure on the XF, however they still say it is not. It WILL be something I will be doing again on the XF in the future rather than wait for the problem to manifest itself. For what it is worth, I suggest it should be done irrespective of the fact that it is not really cheap to do, still a lesser cost than a gearbox. Kindest regards to you all. Simon

In order to stop the fumes entering the cabin, push and hold the recirculate button until it beeps twice then release, this will keep the flap closed until you push again or restart. If you want to know any more information, I made another post under fumes entering cabin.

Thank you Charlie, Mine has been like this for 2+ years now, as such I am just careful with it when cold. I also have a Citroen C6 which has the Asin Warner gearbox, now these again are a sealed box with no need they say for any intervention, but I also know that they benefit from a gearbox flush/fluid change, which I am having done by a gearbox company in Dartford Kent after Christmas. Perhaps this is the answer to my woes as well with the Jaguar. I had an issue with the gearbox on my Daimler Super V8 some years ago coming up with a gearbox fault, Jaguar just changed the gearbox, but that was under warranty (can you believe at a cost of some £6000+) but that was a little excessive. Thanks again, Simon

Does anyone else have the same problem as my own car? (2006/7 S Type 2.7) During warmer weather, no problem at all, once the cold weather comes along, start up, pull away with anything other than tickover, then drops with a clunk into 2nd gear and stays there, once the gearbox oil warms up just turn off the engine and restart and it is back to normal, failing that make sure the car is warmed up before you set off and everything is fine. It sort of says to me that it may be an issue with gearbox fluid level being that this is supposed to be a sealed gearbox and never requires any interaction. The logic behind this theory is that the fluid expands a fair bit when hot, as such once warm or warmer weather no problems. Has anyone every found this may be the case or suffered the same issue? Kindest regards, Simon

Sorry but it does not have a memory function on the recirculate button, you will have to push and hold it till it beeps each time, don't worry it gets to be a habit in the end. You can ask your Jaguar dealer (is it just me that hates it when people say JAG?) to do the modification or ask them to print off the mod for you and do it yourself. The aux heater unit has what is best described as a Brillo pad which is what is used as the catalytic element for the heater to keep it burning without constant ignition, once the pad has ignited, it will self burn when the small injector nozzle sprays fuel on it, after a period part of the pads burns away and then the fuel supply ends up being too much for it, then you get the smell of unburnt diesel. It can be corrected with a new burner pad, but as the aux heater runs so often being a cool running diesel engine, it will only happen again within a couple of years. If you really want to do it however, find a Eberspacher agent and they will do it for you, or the restriction in the line cuts down the flow, failing all that, just push and hold the recirculate button each time. Kindest regards to you all, Simon

Hi Everyone, Only an idiot would fill their diesel S Type with petrol, so that was me, first time EVER and hopefully the last. My S Type diesel was low on fuel, around 5 litres left in the tank, so popped into the local Shell garage and decided to fill to the brim and use Shell Nitro this time. Checked to make sure I had the right pump nozzle and proceeded to fill it to the brim, and I do mean the TOP. Paid for the fuel (75 litres) and went off home, I then noticed after a short period that the car seemed to be coughing and a little gutless. When I got home I called the garage to say there must be a problem with their fuel. Contacted the AA and they sent a contractor out to check, he checked my fuel receipt and agreed with me that I had not miss fuelled, then we pulled off a fuel connection from the filter and sniffed it.......Bugger, it was petrol!! The AA quoted me a minimum of £250 to drain it plus fuel but could not do it for two days. All sorts of people post horror stories on the tinternet about miss fuelling, and they say if you have driven the car then you are in trouble. Decided that I was not going to pay all that money and wait two full days. I had driven a full 4 miles from the garage to my home with it coughing, so in for a penny!! I got some petrol/fuel hose 6mm, removed the centre connection on the fuel filter at the rear of the engine bay on the right looking at it, this only entails pressing in the grey buttons on the side of the pipe connection and pulling it off, push the hose onto the stub coming out of the filter then putting the end into some empty 25 litre drums. Next stage is to turn on the ignition and the fuel pump runs for 25 seconds, once it times out, switch off and on again, keep doing this until the tank is empty and no more fuel comes out (it wont actually be totally empty) turn off the ignition and onto the next stage. I then mixed a little two stroke oil with around 25 litres of fresh DIESEL and put this into the container with the fresh diesel in it, now with the pipe still on the centre connection of the fuel filter I again ran the ignition time out sequence twice more to purge the lines of the petrol into a separate container, then once this was done removed the drain fuel line from the centre point on the filter and connected the feed to the engine back up again. It took a little turning over before she coughed into life again but then left it to tick over for 10 mins, then off to the same garage again to fill the tank with diesel, yes this time I DID fill it with Shell Nitro DIESEL. Took her for a bit of a drive being gentle first to get the fresh fuel through to the engine then with a cross finger approach, hit the load pedal..........she flies again. So if you do make this mistake, fear not the end is not nigh. In case you think I might have got away with it as my car is a low mileage car, she is not, mileage is around 140,000 miles to date but really well serviced, just driven by an idiot who failed to notice the green anti splashback on the pump nozzle even when I was staring at it whilst fuelling. Kindest regards, Simon

The Eberspacher aux heater unit is located on the front lower nearside with the exhaust outlet just in front of the front wheel, there was a modification from Jaguar which restricted the flow to the diesel fired heater unit, it was not offered as a free modification UNLESS it was within the warranty period. It happens on my own S type, but to stop the fumes coming in the cabin while you are stationary, the button on the centre console which is marked for recirculate should be pushed and held for a few seconds, it will then beep to register that it is no longer on timer setting, as such this will close the outside air flap and only recirculate the air inside the cabin, as such this stops the fumes from the aux heater being drawn inside. Hope this helps you and stops you spending money for no reason. Kind regards, Simon