adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 12, 2014 22:14:55 GMT
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Cheers, yours looks nice too! Yeah I was pretty thorough looking for rust as I'd heard about them being bad for it, all seems to be well so far thankfully Yeah I had a look at some dimensions of modern cars to convince myself that they're not 'that' big, they're not too far off a new mondeo length and width wise, as you say they're shorter than quite a lot of things. I've given it a bit of spirited drive but was sliding about the seat haha, feels decent though but I can't help but think it feels a little down on power, I suppose I'll see what the service solves. Aye, I've spotted a set of lattices on ebay for a decent price so if they stay reasonable, I may go for them, was looking at some aftermarket BMW wheels too but they're very low offset so fitting may be an issue Its good to know the 20 spokes have some value too, they're in decent nick and with all Pirellis too but they're just not quite my cup of tea I've been looking at a few posts on xj40.com and it looks like a good place to get info so I shall join up soon!
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Jun 12, 2014 22:25:13 GMT
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3 Series should be ET38/42ish, what offset do you need?
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 12, 2014 22:33:36 GMT
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erm I believe XJ40 wheels were between et35-45 though the TWR speedlines were et33 according to an ebay ad
Have been looking at BMW Style 5's as an alternative to the lattices, the design is a bit different though. Have also got a set of borbet's in my watch list but at 16x8 et16 and 16x9 et8 they could be a challenge haha
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Jun 12, 2014 22:37:35 GMT
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Ahh those must be off something like a E34 then.
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Jun 13, 2014 12:19:24 GMT
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I think a lot of the 5 series stuff is about ET13. BBS RC009s will look nice though
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'The reason i have pulled you over is to say how incredible and absolutely awesome that is'
Mercedes W109, Mercedes W140 S280 SWB & S320 LWB, W201 cosworth kitted, clk230 Kompressor, w109 300sel, Lincoln Continental 1964, BMW E30 Tech II tourer, MK1 Golf Clipper, BMW E31 840ci sport, JAGUAR XJ40 3.6, Kangoo van, Volvo 740GLE estate, Maserati Quattroporte GTS
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 13, 2014 17:42:32 GMT
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All the service bits arrived today so as long as the weekend weather holds up it should be service time Was pleasantly surprised at the prices of everything, was very reasonable I'm discovering other things as I'm using the car, one of the rear door speakers is shot and needs replacing, will probably get 4 and do all the speakers as a mild upgrade from stock
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Got a bit of time to work on the car today while also helping out a mate with his Mostly got the interior cleaned out in order to freshen it up, unfortunately didn't have access to a vacuum cleaner but I gave it my best shot Started off with cleaning the carpets/mats, was amazed at the thickness of the carpets, made me wonder if the mats were even meant to be there haha though I think the colour of the mats may be a bit off (though they are genuine jaguar mats) Now this may only be my second ever car, but already I have a 100% record of buying cars that someone has used household carpeting in. OK so this wasn't the mess I pulled out of the MG but the brown carpet in the boot wasn't an entirely welcome sight rooting through the boot gave me a chance to look at a couple of the detail bits on the car such as the spare wheel bracket, its a very neat design that incorporates a jack with a ratchet (!) handle and an extendable (!) wheel brace. Maybe its because I'm a sad engineer but this things make the car for me The Jaguar toolkit is another such thing, its a shame its not the under bonnet one on the inner wing, but it does fit in the boot very neatly with its elastic strap Though me and my mate did kinda question why someone who could afford a Sovereign new would need a tool kit as they would surely just pay someone else to fix it? must have been a lot of old school drivers who like to tinker So this is what the boot carpet looked like under the brown stuff Had a quick look at the boot floor and was pleased to see that all was well In fact the whole floor of the car is solid but there are a couple of spots of surface rust under the drivers carpet which I shall deal with in a future update. Bit of time working my magic on the boot carpets and it was all looking nice back there Quick shot of the back looking clean, seats are perfect and look great after a bit of leather cleaner And a couple shots of the aforementioned drivers mats There was a foam underlay under this mat which was missing elsewhere, it was a bit damp so got that out to stop any chance of it rusting the metal any more, with the thickness of the carpet and mat on top, I don't think there'll be any noticeable increase in road noise I didn't quite get a chance to do the service bits today but I did get to change the air filter Bit mucky, and it looks as if the car is well due a service so hopefully I shall see a decent result for my efforts The other thing I have noticed with the car recently is a little bit of blue smoke on startup which appears to be valve stem seals which is apparently a common problem on XJ6's bit annoyed I didn't find this out before I went and bought one as all the buying guides just go on about the AJ6 being a solid, unbreakable engine etc.... Its not the end of the world though as its only a small amount of smoke, the service should help and I've got some oil additive stuff to chuck in there for piece of mind Service tomorrow!
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Mark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,097
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That's lovely - I'm currently on the car hunt myself and trying to decide what to get. Pictures like these don't help narrow my focus!!
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,886
Club RR Member Number: 71
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The other thing I have noticed with the car recently is a little bit of blue smoke on startup which appears to be valve stem seals which is apparently a common problem on XJ6's bit annoyed I didn't find this out before I went and bought one as all the buying guides just go on about the AJ6 being a solid, unbreakable engine etc.... Its not the end of the world though as its only a small amount of smoke, the service should help and I've got some oil additive stuff to chuck in there for piece of mind Service tomorrow! Try the oil change without additives first - not a huge fan of the snake oil treatments
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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That's lovely - I'm currently on the car hunt myself and trying to decide what to get. Pictures like these don't help narrow my focus!! Do it Not sure about in Australia but here at least they seem to be cheap and parts are cheap too, plus I'm still on the first fill up on fuel since I bought it haha The other thing I have noticed with the car recently is a little bit of blue smoke on startup which appears to be valve stem seals which is apparently a common problem on XJ6's bit annoyed I didn't find this out before I went and bought one as all the buying guides just go on about the AJ6 being a solid, unbreakable engine etc.... Its not the end of the world though as its only a small amount of smoke, the service should help and I've got some oil additive stuff to chuck in there for piece of mind Service tomorrow! Try the oil change without additives first - not a huge fan of the snake oil treatments Aye I will do, I'm not really a fan of them myself either but have got it anyway in case it helps, but we'll see what the new oil does first as it may not have been changed in a while judging by the condition of the air filter!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Also completely forgot to mention. The car felt a bit sluggish on the drive back when I bought it, as I was having a closer look at the mats I realised that the mat on the drivers side was impeding the kickdown switch thus causing the car to hold gear when accelerating. Moved it and the car feels much more lively, especially in sport mode. I also swapped the two front mats over as the drivers one was actually on the passenger side, I could tell it was the drivers one as it has a cutout to avoid the kickdown switch...
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dbdb
Part of things
Posts: 821
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Jun 15, 2014 17:29:12 GMT
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The over carpets look to be 'Smoke grey' to me (though it can be difficult to tell on a computer monitor) - whereas your car has 'Rattan' carpets. Bizarrely though, the over carpets were always a dubious colour match, even when they were new. My car had Smoke grey over carpets fitted new to Smoke grey carpets. The carpets are a bluish grey, whilst the over carpets are slightly green. They clash and always have!
A 4 litre XJ40 should definitely feel brisk, so it may be a little down on power. It could be simply that it needs a service. The fuel filter may be original too. The throttle body can also get quite dirty on the AJ6 engine. It is supposed to be cleaned at major services, but may not have been for some time. Symptoms of a dirty throttle body include hesitancy and a less than smooth idle. The AJ6 should idle very smoothly.
Luckily, cleaning it is fairly easy. You detach the MAF sensor and the rubber bellow from the throttle body (the bellows is held on with a big jubilee clip. The bottom of the bellows can be filled with oily slime from the crank case breather system. Clean the butterfly too, but be careful not to soak it with loads of carb cleaner - it can damage the throttle potentiometer which sits under the throttle housing. If it hasn't been done for a while, the car will run far better.
Strictly speaking, you should remove the throttle body, then clean it upside down to avoid poisoning the potentiometer, but most people clean it in situ, but are careful to dampen a cloth with carb cleaner rather than spray it willy nilly.
Don't worry about the smoke at start up, unless it is considerable. "They all do that sir!" It is a shortcoming in the design of the cylinder head which allows a small quantity of oil to weep past as they age. Earlier AJ6 engines didn’t even have exhaust valve seals fitted to them at all. Your car will have been smoking slightly at start up for at least 15 years by now. If it gets worse at all, it will only worsen very slowly. My car started very slight start up smoke at about 5 years old - and is little different now, even after all these years.
The other foible of the AJ6 engine is that failed or flaky oil pressure senders are very common. They under read or fluctuate when the oil is hot, but can read correctly when the engine is cold. Lots of XJ40 owners have been scared by them! Real oil pressure problems are very rare indeed. I have only come across one car with low oil pressure problems on line over the years - and that had been parked up and the engine had been allowed to rust.
Other than these, the AJ6 genuinely is as robust and trouble free as their reputation suggests. They can survive all kinds of abuse; I have seen several which have been allowed to overheat after hose failure, without any damage.
David
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 15, 2014 20:06:30 GMT
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Thanks again dbdb for that great info, I'll have a look at the intake system probably next weekend and give it some attention with the carb cleaner. The smoke isn't actually too bad and the engine is relatively low mileage at 77500 but the last service looks to have been at least 3 years ago with not many miles put on so it could well be down to that, oil pressure has been fine though Speaking of servicing, I got on with the ignition side of things today changing the spark plugs, HT leads and distributor cap and rotor arm. The spark plugs looked a little grey if not yellow which seemed a bit odd to me.. 6 new Bosch plugs went in their place though, along with new leads which helpfully were all labelled up Heres a shot halfway through the job The distributor cap and rotor arm looked in good condition and the paperwork with the car indicates that new genuine items were bought in 2011, considering the car hasn't done a huge amount of miles in that time its understandable that the arm and cap are still decent. In any case I'll keep the cap and arm as spares. I didn't get a new ignition coil because I forgot about it to be honest! I may get one on order Annoyingly I didn't quite get a chance to change the oil today but it looks like the sump plug is pretty easy to get to, so weather permitting I should be able to do that one evening in the week
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BiAS
Club Retro Rides Member
Insert witty comment here
Posts: 2,230
Club RR Member Number: 147
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Jun 16, 2014 21:03:52 GMT
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Good choice dude, Love mine don't know why I didn't get one earlier
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Last Edit: Jun 16, 2014 21:04:45 GMT by BiAS
(car+wheels)-rideheight=WIN
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 16, 2014 22:53:14 GMT
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Cheers, I do like yours, need to get mine looking a little more mean
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 22, 2014 19:53:18 GMT
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After a whole week of putting it off, I finally got round to changing the oil today While the sump plug was vaguely easy to reach, it was rather tight, so I ended up having to kick the ratchet to get it to turn but got it done in the end, time will tell if it helps the smoke on start up at all. While I had the car up in the air with a wheel off, I had a chance to double check on the sellers claims that new brakes and shocks had been fitted, looks like he was telling the truth as the parts all look new or nearly new to me I also took off some of the plastic undertray and arch liner bits to have a look at my supposedly non-working fog light, I found this hanging down once I took the undertray off The bulb itself does work, but clearly this seems to have succumbed to the fairly common issue of the bulbs melting the fog light housing.. great piece of design there.. Not entirely sure how to solve this, I could buy a second hand unit and it would melt again or I could try using some araldite to bodge this one together, since I don't use fog lights much (if ever) I think I'll bodge it for the time being, could always sling some LED H3 bulbs in there to reduce the heat but would have essentially useless foglights (not that they're much use at the moment!) Also found this random connector in the loom by the foglight going to the headlight washer and the sidelight/indicator assembly, couldn't see anywhere to plug it in but could perhaps be something to do with why my headlight washers don't work? Lastly I went to go pick up a tailgate for my brothers Mk2 Fiesta which handily fits pretty well on the back seat
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,865
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Jun 24, 2014 13:57:07 GMT
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Well the good news is that the oil change seems to have reduced the amount of smoke on startup such that theres almost no smoke at all I'm off on holiday for a week or so soon, but when I get back I'll crack on with more Jag work and more importantly some work on the MG which has been a little neglected since the arrival of the new daily
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Jun 24, 2014 14:50:03 GMT
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This is such a nice car... Cripes I do love an XJ40!
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Jun 24, 2014 15:06:32 GMT
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Great car and great write up .
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I had one when I was 18 ish
Loved it
:-)
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