The Voices

Thanks Jim ! Over the years I have gained so much helpful information and knowledge from 'enthusiast' forums. I like to try and give a bit back in my own limited way. My own theory is to forget how little you pay for the car, as you quickly spend more than it is worth in repairs / problem fixes. As long as you end up with something usable that you enjoy driving, it's money well spent. At least I know that it has a new radiator, tyres and brakes and had the gearbox service done and should provide a few years of enjoyment. The only snag is that I will be sad to see it go if I do manage to get my way and buy the 'R' version instead !

You can corner the market in Sport 200's !

New calipers arrived and fitted a couple of weeks ago and seems to have cured the problem. I had the tracking done and put a pair of the 'Goodride' budget tyres on the front to match the new rears I already had fitted. I cannot fault the performance of the tyres, wet or dry. Have to see how long they last but with the current mileage we do in it it will probably take about ten years to wear them out !

Just spotted another '200' on Ebay, the dealers description uses a lot of 'poetic license' ! Only done 53k but I think his asking price of £3,995 is more than optimistic !

S-Types in general are such good value ! I have just started my new job at Kentdale Jaguar in Kendal, but just before I left Bolton we took a 2000 4.0 SE in p/x with 62k miles, trade value was £750 ! I was sorely tempted to buy it just because it was so cheap but common sense prevailed.

Spare ?

Thanks for the suggestion but I think it is only dynamic stability control that affects the brakes ? The DSC can apply the brakes in oversteer or understeer situations, the traction control just lets the engine management back off the power going to the back wheels so don't think it will be related to the brake wear. Besides, I only have the 2.5 V6 which 'couldn't pull a sailor off my mother !' as the saying goes. The only way it could muster the effort to make the traction control cut in would be in sport mode, in the wet with slicks on the back wheels ! Apparently the calipers I have ordered are new rather than reconditioned which is a nice bonus if correct.

I have been keeping an eye on the situation and the sometimes the NSR wheel is red hot compared to the OSR. We had the car up on the ramp to take a look and the inside edges on the new discs are rusting by about 10mm as thought the new pads are not making full contact. I also found out the the standard 'flexi' hoses appear to be the braided type rather than just rubber so less likely to be collapsing internally and not releasing pressure as someone mentioned. No signs of wheel bearing issues, the park brake appears to be engaging and disengaging as it should. I don't have a lot of time to mess about with my cars these days so putting things in the hands of my master tech friend. Very happy with the car, it is worth about the price of a new set of alloy wheels so common sense says don't spend good money on it. Just passed the MOT (at an independent garage) With no major issues. My solution ? If in doubt, throw money at it.................... Ordered a pair of reconditioned rear calipers and new sliders ! See where we go from there, new caliper carriers might be next in case they are distorted or twisted. Wife loves the car so not getting earache for a change for spending on the car. Mind you................... I did spend the best part of £20k over the years on one of the Imprezas that would have 'maybe' been worth £5k at the end of it ! To be continued.....................

Most of the 'ltd editions' that I have sold over the years come to the dealership without badges, The XK 'Signature' and XKR 'Dynamic' run out models are the most recent. I can only assume that the badges are not put on at the factory because the cars go through production as a standard (not limited edition) model but with the 'factory specified' extras added to the build sheet. The spare XS badges may have already bitten the dust, can't remember having any Sport 200 ones hanging around though !

I think the 'missing' badges might just be as simple as some dealers didn't bother to stick them on when the cars arrived from Jaguar ! The bag of 'XS' ltd edition badges in my desk drawer being a prime example, we just thought that they looked 'naff' and never stuck them onto the cars. I should sell them on Ebay so that all the owners of the cars advertised on Autotrader (that are not XS's !) can buy a bit of credibility ? We didn't sell the Sport 200 on the strength of it being a limited edition, just a nice spec Sport that offered good value compared to adding the options separately, some original owners probably didn't realise they had something unusual ?

I see a lot of the 2.5 V6 models advertised as a Sport (200) but I think this is referring to the approximate BHP of the engine but does cause confusion. The facelift / S Type R front bumper and 18" split rim alloys are the main clues to the real ones. I suppose some will have had the alloys replaced or sold and some standard Sports might have had accident repairs and had the front bumper replaced with the later one ?

I spotted this one for sale on ebay which appears to be one of the 200's http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/03-2003-Jaguar-S-TYPE-V6-auto-Sport-200-F-S-History-/191802655439?hash=item2ca85442cf:g:THUAAOSwUuFWucO8 It has the right front bumper and alloys but no badge ?

Guys, I really hate to rain on the parade but basically the Sport 200 was just the standard 2003 model year Sport with the 2004 facelift front bumper and a few bits from the options list added as standard. It doesn't have the 2004 onwards rear lights so isn't the full facelift version. The only 'R Performance' bits I can think of that came with the car are the the 18" split rims which were listed in the R Performance accessory brochure and the S-Type R style bumper. If memory serves me correctly they came to us without the Sport 200 badge and we stuck them on at the dealership (up until last year I had a jiffy bag full of the 'XS' limited edition badges in my desk drawer !) They are a very nice car and nice spec but I don't think the value is much more than a standard S-Type Sport with the same engine size. Unfortunately there are lots of incorrectly described S-Types out there, XS versions especially but plenty of 'Sport 200's' as well. Many have the incorrect description registered with the DVLA / HPi' Having one the 200 produced is still fantastic !

I am using a 16GB stick at the moment with no problems ? I know very little about computers and file storage formats but I have in my mind someone mentioning 'FAT 32' format and inability to work with more than 32GB USB sticks but bear in mind this may be absolute rubbish on my part !

I have been doing a few miles over Christmas and using the S-Type instead of my company car (at the moment I have a 163ps manual XE Prestige and the manual gearbox is not my weapon of choice in the XE) All seems fine at the moment but could be famous last words ?

The new rear discs and pads are on, no obvious cause for the incredible rate of wear on the NS outer pad which was down to the metal. The piston and slider pins were moving freely ? Only suggestion was that the rubber brake hoses may have 'perished' with age, possibly allowing the piston in the caliper to 'extend' but not 'retract' I will monitor the situation, the only braided stainless brake hoses I can find are made by Stoptech, I would prefer to upgrade rather than replace with standard rubber hoses if I do have to replace them.

Respect ! I wish I had the motivation or the energy ! Should have some more information by tomorrow evening on the cause of problem.

Thanks Peter, I will get to the bottom of the problem one way or another ! What are you doing up and about at 4.45 AM ? I got up at 7.45 today but only because I have to go to work !

Bought new pads and discs today, £60 including VAT which is cheap for any car, let alone a Jaguar. Another one of our technicians is going to investigate the problem on Monday after work. I just want to get to the bottom of the problem, if it needs a replacement caliper I can get one ordered. My wife is giving me earache as she is having to 'slum it' in the Impreza and the manual gearbox is annoying her !

The honeymoon period is over ! My wife came in this afternoon and said 'the Jag is making a strange noise !' Took it round the block and indeed, there is a strange noise. On closer examination, the NSR brake is sticking on and has worn the outside pad down to the metal. The pads were only fitted a few weeks ago and the sliding pins on the caliper were 'freed off' and cleaned / greased at the same time, the piston did not appear to be sticking. The car has done less than 1,000 miles since. I am glad I only got the 'pattern' brake pads for £15, I would be really annoyed if I had just fitted the genuine ones at £95 ! Typically, I have been off all week and could have sorted this out if it had occurred earlier but back to work tomorrow. To make it worse, the technician that usually works on my car is now off for three weeks ! I need to investigate to see if replacement caliper, pins or just another clean and re-grease required. The park brake was re-calibrated after the pad swap as far as I am aware ?

The S-Type bluetooth setup won't support 'streaming audio' as far as I know. The cheapest solution would be one of the widely available FM transmitter type adaptors (I think Belkin do them ?) Used to be around the £20 mark. Headphone output from your phone plugs into the FM adaptor which then transmits an FM (VHF) signal which you can tune in on a spare preset on your radio. Sound quality varies but an easy / cheap way of getting music playback from your phone via the car stereo. There are various other ways including adaptors which use the input for the CD multichanger or the Parrot type kit that was fitted in my S-Type by the previous owner which does bluetooth streaming, USB input, SD card and I Pod !

My wife has reported back (as she is the main driver of the S-Type), she tells me that the gearbox behaviour has noticeably improved in terms of smoothness ? Glad that I got it done !

Replaced the drivers side on mine a couple of weeks ago. New price from a dealer is less than £20 so didn't bother buying a used one. I had to remove the door card (I used the guide for fitting new speakers to tell me what to do !) There are two screws under the rubber mat in the door handle that need to be removed and the trim clips around the edge of the door panel need to be 'popped' free (might be worth buying a few spare, they are prone to breaking) The trim panel around the chrome door release was a bit of a pain to unclip / remove I think. There are a couple of wiring plugs to disconnect if you want to remove the door card completely to get it out of harms way. I then removed the speaker from the door to give me better access to the check strap mechanism, two nuts attach it to the door, two screws attach the other end to the door frame. I have made it sound more complicated than it is to actually do the job ! Took me about half an hour I think, make sure you have the correct torx / spline bits for your screwdriver, don't think conventional cross heads are used ? Hope this helps.

I was blown away by the price, seemed too good to miss. The price included postage (from Germany I think ?) and took about a week. I work at a Jaguar dealership so got one of our technicians to fit them when he did the service !

Your car will be the 2004 onwards, facelifted model so I think it is on a different tyre size ? The 2002-2004 models like mine should run on 235/50/17 tyres from the factory as far as I am aware but 235/45 seems to be the common replacement option (our workshop fits this size to customers cars) I did a quick search on the 245/45/17 size and it would give me a speedo reading slightly closer to the 'reference' figure on the factory size for my car which would be better. The price for the Nexens in 245/45 is £64 each on mytyres, I only paid £70.40 for a pair of the 235/45 Goodrides from the same source ! Nexen tyres also get good reviews, I just looked for the best wet weather performance for the price and ended up with the Goodrides.