XJ40 stuff

After putting about 60K miles on my 88 xj40 (now at 140K) I thought I should do a post for those who might encounter similar problems. The jag-lovers.com website was a godsend for me when it came to dealing with this car.

In chronological order:

Noisy differential- Turned out to be the output bearings; Al's Jaguar of Lomita, California replaced these for $450. He (Kent) is very honest and highly recommended by me. This is the only work I did not do myself. Fluid was low; you need to really crank down on the cover bolts to prevent leakage and check the level if you see signs of leakage

Rear suspension self leveling shocks- What a dream this car drives like after I replaced these with conventional shocks; got kit off the internet for way less than the factory kit. Also needed new rear springs.

Anti-lock failure message- Faulty relay module per Jag-lovers website. Repaired module by resoldering relay to circuit board.

Water hose failure- There is a hose under the manifold that blew on me on my way out of Vegas. Thank God for the low water indicator; I was able to make it to Baker (an aptly named desert city) before I overheated. 5 years later this same hose blew again on the 405. Really tough to get to, but can be done without removing the manifold. Change it before it blows!

Door handles- The engineer who designed these should be draw and quartered. I tried a replacement off the internet that failed in less than a year. I ended up repairing the two front handles myself using scrap metal and they have performed well. I lubed the back ones after they got really hard to open and that worked well.

Poor A/C performance: There is a vacuum operated valve under the wiper motor that failed and lets hot water thru to the heater when the diaphragm fails. You can and should see it move when you turn the A/C on.

Wipers don't park- Undocumented fuse behind the glove box

Faulty oil pressure readings- I guess these cars have crummy pressure senders. I just don't pay attention to it. I can hear when there is no oil pressure from the timing chain rattle.

Loose front suspension- Turned out to be worn upper shock bushing- replaced shocks.

No start- Lucky this happened in my drive. Was bad crankshaft position sensor - test by checking for AC voltage on the wires whilst cranking engine.

Starter pops off ring gear when cranking- A problem that progressively got worse until after a few months I could not start the car. Got a good deal on a new starter at a VW place that sells Bosch stuff. Wow, what a tough job; getting at the bolts is nearly impossible.

Tough to start, stumbling when car is cold and when its damp out- Spark was "flashing over" from coil high tension to wire terminal. I put electrical grease on the wire boot to fix this; however, the main problem was that the plugs had never been changed and the gap so large that the spark was finding easier places to jump.

Battery going dead- This was a tough one to isolate. Turned out to be the switch in the door handle that turns on the cylinder lock de-icer was stuck on. I just pulled the relay since I live in So Cal.

Transmission filter- This was probably a waste of time. On all the other cars I have done this to, there was always a large amount of sludge in the pan and a lot of stuff on the magnets. At 120k miles this transmission pan had zero sludge and hardly any particles on the magnet and zero dirt on the filter.

Trunk leaks when it rains- Turned out to be leaking by the gas filler. I cleaned the drain tube in the rubber boot and that helped a lot.

Heater won't blow hot air- Vacuum operated valve under the wiper motor was corroded and would not open. Cleaned it lubed it.

Brakes- This baby chews through brakes, but they are really easy to replace and you can get good deals on pads and rotors on the net

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I guess that is a lot of repairs, but considering the fact that I got the car really cheap because of the pre-existing problems, and the fact that I can do the work myself, I have no regrets. It is underpowered but gets respectable mileage and I love the way the car looks and drives.

Hope somebody will find this information helpful.

-jk

Reply to
jk
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jk, The only thing left for you to run into is the blue "puff" of smoke upon start up and then the replacement of the head gasket. The puff of smoke is no big deal and is caused by the lack of exhaust seals. The head gasket failure can happen any time after 100,000 miles and usually results in a HUGE cloud of steam coming out the exhaust and a lack of power as the gasket fails near cylinder 6. Both problems can be solved at the same time and it is a good time to re-set the valves and check the valve springs. If you are mechanical (and it sounds like you are starting to become so) than you can do the head gasket yourself for about $400 unless you have to skim the head. IPS sold me the output bearings and seals for $130 when I replaced mine and the local garage guys pressed them on for me for $50. The rest is all stuff you can easily find in the XJ40 book on jag-lovers. NOW what you need to do is go and get yourself a 1960s saloon. You will be amazed to see that the design is nearly identical to your XJ40 and in some cases better designed!! You will think you are at home when you start to restore the saloon. The great thing is you don't have all that electronic crap to interfere and some how the car STILL runs and drives like a Jag. By the way, my '88 XJ40 just passed 200,000 miles and hopefully is just starting to get broken in!! Cheers Webserve

jag-lovers.com

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webserve

Head gasket problem? I've only heard of an oil leaking type problem with this engine. I've done many head gaskets and once had a Ford van where Barr's Stop Leak provided a permanent fix (well at least about 30K miles, till I sold it).

But I think if the head gasket blows I'll just ditch the car; I see a 95-97 XJ6 in my near future.

Restore a 60's saloon?

25 years ago I totally restored a 66 Mustang Fastback. I don't usually brag, but I did a beautiful job, and what a great car that turned out to be. But I said to myself at the time that if I ever restored a car again it would be Porsche or Ferrari or something. Well a few years later I found myself restoring a Porsche 911 (which I did not do great job on), and I said to myself that I would never restore a car again.

Still have the 911, but man, I wish I still had that Mustang fastback. So maybe when I retire, and if I'm still alive after all the lacquer thinner and sanding dust I've inhaled, I'll restore another one of those.

-jk

Reply to
jk

Good info, thanks. One other thing I've run into. Ran through a (shallow) puddle. Sputter...sputter...die. Wouldn't crank. Other symptoms similar to an alternator failure. Pushed it a half a mile up the street to a friend's house (very heavy car) and left it over night. Imagine my suprise when she drove up in it the next morning as if there was nothing wrong. A little while later, more rain (it rains a lot in south Louisiana) same problem happened on the way to a funeral. Every other car I have ever owned had a sealed distributor. Not this one. The older, retired gentleman whose house I broke down in front of suggested that I dry the cap out with a paper towel. Sure enough, there was a small amount of water, no more than a light dew, under the cap. Dried it out and Voila! it ran. What I can't figure out is why there are 2 small (1mm) symetrical holes in the base of the distrbutor. Perhaps to let the water drain out?!

Bryan

Reply to
Navree

Bryan, Those of us that have had these cars for a while realize that the engine compartment and water can be arch enemies. If you think it is bad with rain -- try pressure washing the engine!! What you need to do is seal ALL of the electrical connectors with some sort of plastic, or what a lot of us have done is spray WD40 into the electrical connectors (since that is what WD40 was designed to do). The connectors on the Right Hand side of the car near the front seem to be the most vulnerable.

Cheers Webserve

conventional

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webserve

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