Yes, I fell for the charms of the Jaguar I reviewed a few weeks ago. How could I not? A couple of days after seeing it the first time I headed back up to Laramie, talked some turkey and after handing over 2,000 smackeroos, it was all mine. In the intervening two days I spoke with Paul to ask if he had a CarFax subscription (who then right afterward invoked the CC effect and found another X-Type wagon for sale on his next walk, amazing with only 1602 total in the U.S.), I ordered a CarFax, somehow cajoled my wife into going along with the plan and had my older son eagerly in my corner.
Paul graciously suggested we make this into a Curbside Project Car (Cat) and was willing to kick in a portion of the purchase price (Thank You, Paul!), thus continuing the CC tradition of Jaguar projects – this is the second one, the first one ran into some unforeseen complications and unfortunately withered on the vine if you’ve been around long enough to remember. I wrote the review piece on this one after the car was already in the driveway of a rental I’ve been rehabbing up in Laramie. Boy, was it hard to not spill the beans.
The two days before actually purchasing it were spent perusing a lot of forums and parts sites to see what I might be getting myself into. The main impetus was that my older son will be getting his driver’s permit soon and an interesting car that is relatively safe and modern (no deathtraps) was appealing. He was interested in getting his hands dirty, we decided if he were to unfortunately prang into something, then better it be something cheaper than shinier.
And lastly, if the car turned out to be a nightmare perhaps that would turn him on to cars with entirely trouble free reputations for the rest of his days. If conversely it all worked out easily, well, then he’d be treading down the dark paths that so many of us have trodden down over they years where emotion and passion beats a perfect Consumer Reports score, physical and financial pains be damned. I dutifully showed all the pictures I had taken on the used car lot to both my wife and son; she somewhat apprehensive, he delighted.
The CarFax I paid $39.99 for surprisingly came back better than expected. No accidents, three owners, Owner #1 had it for just over four years and owned it in the city I live in (so it’d be a homecoming of sorts). It was traded in to the local(ish) Lexus dealership who then sold it to owner #2 who owned it for nine and a half years in the Boulder area up to about 135k miles and paid for a transmission rebuild amongst some other maintenance that was noted.
Then it was owner #3’s turn who racked up the rest of the mileage (I purchased at 168,268 miles) in the same general area and seemed to have a little more trouble with it with it getting less and less use, of course Covid happened too so that’s perhaps related – most notably there was an emissions issue a couple of years ago that resulted in the intake gaskets being replaced, a very common issue. My rose-tinted glasses showed me that a car that had a second owner for 9.5 years could not possibly be a total POS and a third owner for 3.5 years well into the six figure mileage range wasn’t bad either. If it had totally sucked I certainly wouldn’t have kept it that long.
When I revisited the dealer they let me take it out again which I did for about a 45 minute session wherein I looked the car over some more and drove another dozen or 20 miles. It still had the Check Engine light illuminated along with some other issues and thus I went back, listed everything I had noted and offered $1,500 take it or leave it. They left it… But we ended up chatting about cars for a while and he eventually suggested that my price was too low but if he still had it in a couple of weeks, then $2,000 would probably be acceptable.
I then left, did some work on the house and towards the end of the day called back to suggest that instead of waiting for two weeks, how about I just bring over $2,000 in cash then and there and we be done with it. That worked, I’m sure he made a profit of closer to $2,000 than to zero on the deal, but so be it and I got the car along with a temporary Wyoming 60-day registration, I think we were both happy with the final price. Incidentally, the car Paul came across in Eugene was asking for around $6,000 with fewer miles, some body damage at the rear side and had a salvage title from being rear-ended at one point.
That 60 day temporary registration’s a key piece – my main focus is to get the emissions issue resolved, if I can do that within the 60 days (before January 15, 2022), then I can register it in Colorado after passing an emissions check here (can’t have the light on). If it doesn’t get resolved by then it’ll simply be registered in Wyoming for this year at my address up there since they don’t require any inspection. Sales tax is less up there too.
My wife took me up to Laramie a day later and we got the car out of the driveway. Her first words were “Oh, it looks so much worse than I thought.”. Hmm. An auspicious beginning.
The first thing I did was buy a full tank of gasoline after dumping a full bottle of Chevron’s Techron Fuel System Cleaner into the tank which I like to add to the first full tank in my older cars. Then I checked the oil and since it was low I bought a quart at O’Reilly’s for a usurious $6.35 but it wasn’t worth crossing town to Walmart for a couple of dollars at that point.
With those two fluids being low the dealer was definitely not setting me up with any false or otherwise implied expectations, everything else seemed alright enough to get me home though with the tire pressures right at a somewhat high 40psi. Then it was time to hit the road, I think Allison was probably already halfway back by the time I left.
I shot another (shorter) video of part of my drive home, some of the noises are noticeable as well as some other things. There is a sort of growling noise that I thought was likely a wheel bearing, it’s there when going straight and turning left but not when turning right. OK, usually that means right wheel bearing. Otherwise it ran quite well, besides some suspension clunks over expansion joints and the like as well as the intermittent hesitation at 3,000 rpm. The seat heaters worked like a champ, in fact pretty much everything inside the cabin works flawlessly.
Happily when I got home and my son came to the driveway, his words were: “Oh, it looks so much better than I thought.” I suggested he have a discussion with his mother, my wife. He looked it over and seemed genuinely thrilled, then we went for a short ride and he was even happier and excited to get started working on things.
Our order of items to be addressed will start with:
- Basic Maintenance
- Figuring out the trouble codes
- Tires
- Suspension and Brakes
- Fluids – Transfer Case, Transmission, Coolant, Brake
- Ongoing continual improvement/repair/upgrades as opportunities arise – this means getting rid of the bubbling window tint, transplanting better junkyard parts (mainly cosmetics), doing what we can to help the paint, etc.
Might as well begin with a decent baseline and what’s more basic than an oil and filter change as well as the air filter? We had sourced two 5-quart jugs of Castrol 5W-30 High-Mileage Full Synthetic Oil along with the recommended Motorcraft (Ford brand) oil filter and a can of Carb Cleaner (I’ll explain below) at Walmart for $59.57 including the bottle of Techron Fuel System Cleaner. We put the car on ramps, crawled under it and I showed Max exactly where the filter was as well as the drain plug. 13mm wrench in hand, he opened the drain and watched the black gold pour out.
While underneath we noticed that the front portion of the belly pan was lower than the front edge of the bumper so with a couple of T-25 screwdrivers and a normal slotted one we took out the almost a dozen fasteners, realigned it, and snugged it back up again. One fastener was missing, another would not loosen due to rust, luckily it was a corner one so it was not needed in order to slot the pan into the bumper correctly. After retightening, we realized it would have been easier to loosen the filter with it down. But it worked anyway, just more difficult and needed a strap wrench to loosen it.
What came off was a Wix filter a little longer than the new Motorcraft one. I showed him how to make sure the gasket came off with the filter and also to pre-lube the new gasket so it would seal and not stay stuck the next time.
Hand tighten the new one and clean up the oil that dripped all over the exhaust manifold once it slowed to a slow drip. Then, after all of the sump oil had drained into the catch pan, clean that area up as well and reinstall the drain plug after cleaning.
After that it was time to come topside again, find the funnel, clean it, and pour 6.1 quarts of oil into the filler. After pouring it in, start the car, then turn it off, wait a few minutes and check the dipstick.
The new oil was so clear it was hard to get a good reading, eventually we realized it was still low, and we added another .4 quarts for 6.5 total at which time it read full.
Next was noting what else seemed low and the main culprit was the washer fluid, something used often and with vigor here in Colorado when the snow and slush start flying. He topped it off using my inventory with the other funnel I have on hand after cleaning that one too. Two days later we realized there must be a slow leak as we could no longer see the level however there was still fluid in the system when we sprayed the windshield.
Obviously there’s an issue somewhere along the bottle, we’ll need to figure out how high or low it really is and either fix it or find a better bottle in the junkyard. Or just live with it if it’s towards the top.
We drove around the block a few times until the car warmed up, checked for leaks, found none – well, none from the oil filter and drain plug anyway. There are several others. After that we drove to the auto parts store and I showed him what you do with the old oil, he carefully emptied it into the giant tank and wiped the drips off the container. Then I let him drive around one of our huge church parking lots with me instructing for about 45 minutes which he enjoyed, it was his first time behind a wheel. The parking lot was so large it had its own lanes, turn lanes and stop signs, so sort of a mini highway system, a good way to start.
The next day a new air filter showed up so it was time to look at that and start to figure out the code issue. The two codes that show are P0171 and P0174, they denote a lean condition on each bank of cylinders (it’s the 3.0V6 in this case, basically the same as also used on the Jaguar S-Type and Lincoln LS). There are at least a dozen reasons for these codes ranging from the simple to the more complex so we began with the simple. The first step is to start the car and carefully spray carb cleaner around every fitting where air could possibly get into the intake without being designed to. If the engine note/speed changes whilst being sprayed, there’s likely the problem. However that didn’t show/change anything so on to actually doing work rather than continuing going all Zoolander with flammable chemicals.
Removing the airbox cover required loosening about seven Phillips head captive screws. The old filter was dirty and a new Bosch one (made in China) was only $5.99 plus tax, not bad, I see why many of the junkers I see have a new filter in them, it’s what we started with too…The new looked just like the old except the old was made in the USA. Easy enough to install. Of course that would not have anything to do with our intake air issue, rather the opposite, but there is no reason to drive around with a filthy and clogged air filter.
We looked at the battery (date code 1/18), so almost four years old but starts the car immediately and the terminals were spotless so that’s good. I don’t recognize the brand/source, something to keep an eye on, I’ve not been getting much more than about three years out of batteries lately. Jaguar puts these in a box with a lid, kind of nice, except on ours one hinge is broken. And then I leaned on it and broke the other one accidentally. I’ll look for one of those as well I guess…
There are three things that are the main culprits in regard to the trouble codes we have – first is the brake booster line that plugs into the intake manifold. Ours looked brand new as did the fitting, I think someone changed it at least semi-recently. Second is the PCV line (above), the early cars had frequent failures with a slightly ruptured hose, ours has the updated hose and it looked fine.
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I am really loving reading this, especially compared to the videos where they point things out but then leave you to guess how the problem is resolved.
Of course, as the owner of 2 older cars, I am finding that I am also being re-acquainted with the whole junkyard experience, too. Probably the most frustrating part of shopping for parts for an older car is something you (inadvertently?) point out: that parts for cars are sourced from several, far ranging, countries.
I look forward to the further chapters of this ” saga “.
Congratulations – what a great car for a new driver – and one for Dad to cruise in occasionally also.
Here’s hoping the emissions test goes well and the other fixes are easy and cheap…
As you may have guessed from my recent auction purchase of the 2015 X5, I endorse this purchase 110%! Sounds like a super fun project car, and a great way to spend time with your son too.
Figuring out the state of everything on an older car like this is a load of fun to me (and it sounds like to you all too). Drives my wife nuts when all the RockAuto boxes start arriving.
I just got the X5 back from my local dealer for the fuel pump recall job, and they pronounced everything dry and undamaged underneath, no leaks, with all brake pads near new. I had them change the oil & filter while they had it, I was feeling lazy. It failed our NC inspection because the aftermarket tint is too dark (19% light transmission, but 30% is the cutoff IIRC), so I’ll have to have the front doors re-tinted lighter, or just take it off and leave it off the front doors, before I can get a proper tag. The rest of the windows in an SUV can be as dark as you want them to be.
Like you, I have done the engine filter and cabin filters because why not. Cheap and easy. Engine was clean but the three cabins were nasty.
Super Start is the O’Reilly brand of battery. The closest auto parts store to my house is O’Reilly, and their prices are higher than WalMart…..but the convenience is often worth another dollar or two. I have two cheap Super Start deep cycle batteries in the RV and they have worked fine. Google says East Penn makes Super Start and they are a good/legit company.
I saw your post and I think the phrase “Hold my beer…” came to mind.
The nation’s fleet of RockAuto delivery vans is slowly starting to converge on my house, let your wife know the traffic congestion in your neck of the woods should be starting to ease.
I’m glad to hear the X5 is performing well! It struck me as a great buy.
I have 2005 X-Type and did many of the same fixes you did before finding the vacuum leak that was the cause of my similar hesitation. There is a small vacuum line from the back of the manifold that routes to the front connecting to a fuel rail pressure sensor. I still recommend changing the upper intake gaskets along with the plugs and coils at this mileage. Good luck. These are fantastic cars.
Do you have a code reader of your own? I have a cheap one from Amazon. You should be able to turn the light off with a reader (“clear the codes”) and get your inspection before it comes back on, unless it comes back right away of course…..just a thought. I have used it for years to read and clear (and therefore ignore) codes on various older cars.
The BlueDriver is a popular scan tool. It works with your phone and can read engine, SRS and ABS codes.
Yes I have probably the same one – known colloquially around the house as “that red doohickey with the weird plug”. Jaguar is smarter than the rest of us. Clear the code without clearing the underlying issue and it comes right back on with a message in the cluster informing you that you’ve now been locked out of every gear but fourth. After the heart attack a simple restarting of the engine takes care of that. And the light stays on. In the good old days of Lucas you’d never have a light glowing so brightly for so long.
I did order a newer code reader with enhanced capabilities including display of fuel trims etc. so I can learn more about the Wide World Of Imports.
Since this is fundamentally a Ford underneath, you may be able to use FORScan software and a bluetooth dongle. It’s freeware and it can access *everything* including ABS, BCM, TCM, etc. You’ll get fuel trims and datalogging to boot.
Clearing the code will result in a P1000 stored in the PCM, this is not the same as completing the OBD2 monitors. Don’t know about the inspection process in other states, but in MA the PCM has to have PASS status stored in memory, meaning all the monitors have been completed and passed. Having the MIL off is not sufficient.
For a pretty robust scan tool, look into forscan, it’s free software that can be downloaded to a laptop, and you just need to get an appropriate OBD 2 cable. Not sure if Jaguar is supported, but Mondeo is, and you might be able to trick the software into thinking you have a Mondeo. https://forscan.org/home.html
Good to know, N.C. is just “MIL Light Off” as far as that item on the inspections checklist.
Apparently some Jags do have limited ForScan support. Definitely the way to go if that particular powertrain is supported.
Well, congratulations! I laughed out loud when I saw this, and had not realized how deeply the cat had got its claws into you. This will be a great project with a son who is into it.
You mention that you have been getting about 3 years out of your batteries. I just replaced one in the Kia last night, after having to boost-start it twice in the last two weeks. (When heavy use of the dome light interferes with starting, there is a problem). I could not remember when I had last replaced it, and checked – July of 2015, so I got almost 6.5 years out of an Interstate battery from Costco. So I just re-upped for $94.
I will look forward to the updates.
Meow. Yeah Costco is where I go to replace mine now assuming it doesn’t die at night while packing the car for a two week trip in which case WalMart is open later…
Congratulations!
Does your car has self-adjusting headlamps for height? If so, in case of the low beam aiming low, it might be a case of a broken bracket inside the lamp. I had that in my car and had to take off the lamps. Which means the front bumper has to be removed. And the lamp dismantled – glass separating from the housing. Good news is there are repair pieces available made of aluminium instead of plastic. All work is not particularly difficult but it is time consuming.
Looking forward to read more about your adventures!
pic attached
Great, thank you, I’d read something to that effect but having you confirm it helps. I’ll add it to the list (item 6?)
“Good news is there are repair pieces available made of aluminium instead of plastic”
Another good example of why cars won’t become as disposable as many are predicting. As long as there are people that want to fix things someone will figure out how to fix the fatal flaw and then start producing them for others if it is a common enough problem.
Two wins here, an interesting car project, and an interested kid. I seem to have the problems where my car projects are TOO interesting, and my kids aren’t interested enough so you’re doing well already.
Looking forward to the further repair updates and the epic father & son roadtrip that ensues! Thanks for taking the lead on this Jim, everything is put away for the winter here so it’ll be fun to have a view of someone else’s project.
Very cool! Really looking forward to reading this installment and what valuable time you’re spending with the boy!
So, it appears that the last installment of the Jag marked X was more akin to the preliminary ramblings that a miscreant teen might offer to a distracted parent as they tested the general attitude that said parent might have towards becoming the parent of the parent to the new arrival that may or may not be soon coming from the said teen’s girlfriend’s house in swaddling clothes. Hmm.
Well, now that the truth has outed, and revealed itself as transport for an actual teen, my opinion opinion has not varied from the last, though now I need a seat and some smelling salts. Since I can no longer say “Don’t!” – despite your blatant dissembling in the last piece, it would be impolite – I CAN say “Divest! Immediately!”
Since the foregoing deception suggests strongly that that advice will also be ignored, may I wearily suggest at least an overdraft? I know the days are early, and the bloom on the rose still smells of hope, but do know that unless that rose is well fed and watered and probably moved to a warmer climate (in another State), it will fade and soon pong and the stink may overwhelm you, and that overdraft may come in handy for the celebratory vacation you undertake once the rest of it has been sunk into the bowels of Brown’s Lane’s unknowns.
Lest you think me a Cassandra, may I point out that just one post in with a Jag – just one – you have oil leaks and oil on your hands and a pretty, if faded, car that alas has an issue that “..comes and goes, (is) not entirely predictable”, a car upon which others previous have lavished monies and upon whose long ownership you base the conceit that it must’ve been good, rather than unsellable?
Apart from these few small trifles, I heartily commend you upon your purchase, in which such felicitations I am sure I am joined by your bank manager.
Mankind has a long history of not learning from prior mistakes and in fact doubling down on them at times., I am in very good company here and on very solid ground, kind sir!
Anyhow, the best car for a teen learning to drive is a very cool car that “just needs a little more work” before it will be on the road. Not only does the teen take an enthusiastic interest in learning vehicle maintenance, he or she also gets all the glory with his or her friends of owning a very cool car, street cred for doing his or her own wrenching, but also has an excuse for driving around in mom’s slow old mini van et al while ‘awaiting parts’ ( “Yeah, I was gonna bring thr Jag, but the turbo encapsulator hasn’t come in from Romania yet so I just grabbed mom’s car).
After a year or so of work and wait, both he or she and the car will finally be ready for each other. Best of all, it’ll be driven carefully since said teen will have developed am appreciation of the trouble, time, and expense of fixing stuff that gets broken.
(Lokki’s Theory of First Cars for Teens)
This is going to be great fun to watch unfold. I think the Jag is a good one, and it simply has a few signs of age to address.
With your luck you’ll likely find a twin to this in the junkyard and it will have everything you mentioned needing. Keep the updates coming.
Congratulations! A project with a teen that they look forward to is a treasure. And finding a reasonably running vehicle for $2,000 is a steal (check engine light and all). I look forward to your continuing adventures.
I had an intermittent “stumble” on my 4runner under light throttle/coasting, took forever to find. Ultimately I found a specialist who replaced all the intake/rubber parts with OEM parts, which made it better, and then determined a bolt that was missing in the middle of the intake manifold attachment, and that bolt was allowing air to pass by the seal. It had been missed when a shop had detached the upper half of the manifold to do the valve cover gaskets. Good Luck solving your issue!
Congratulations! I didn’t see where this was heading from the previous post. One thing that’s changed from my day: a teen being excited about getting a 6 cylinder station wagon with 160k miles as a first car. One thing that’s no different: a teen excited about getting a Jag as his first car. That’s priceless.
Kids these days…he has zero interest in any kind of SUV, CUV, no “mom”-cars so perhaps there is hope for mankind. He is interested in minivans, sports cars, drift machines, sedans, and wagons. His skateboarding group is into cars as well with a surprising variety of older CCs represented (80s prelude, 80s 3000zx, 90s Civic hatch, newer Toyota 86 etc) and all heartily approve “That’s sick, dude!”
A highly satisfying read Jim, this is 100% up my alley as far as the type of car, the DIYer approach, hunting forums, shopping parts, etc etc. I’ll be following this one closely.
The intake gaskets might be fairly inaccessible, but for hunting intake/vacuum leaks, I’ve found an opened-but-unlit propane torch to be the handiest tool, especially if you can attach a piece of flexible hose on the nozzle to help stick it into tight corners. The other powerful tool could be a scan tool, prices have come down dramatically in the last few years as a number of Chinese companies (ThinkCar, Launch) have come onto the scene. In cases for lean conditions like this the fuel trim signals off the oxygen sensors can be invaluable in honing in on a culprit.
As far as tires go, I would definitely prioritize getting a decent set of 4 matching tires, as this type of AWD system can definitely experience undue wear due to mismatched rolling diameters. My go-to these days is walmart’s online tire finder, though i’ll check amazon and other online retailers as well. Most recently I scored a nice set of Kumho Ecstas for $72 a pop for the Infiniti I30t I flipped.
Good luck with the Jag, this is awesome content so far!
Oh yeah one more time/labor saver: Harbor Freight sells a dual action polisher and different pad accessories, I’ve had awesome luck using it along with some basic walmart sourced Turtle wax products (polishing compound) on some of my flip cars and personal vehicles. I typically start with a claybarring, then do the DA polishing, finish with a wax. Stunning results on the cheap. Soft bristle brush on a low speed power drill and commercial interior cleaner for the inside (I’ve tried the Adam’s product so far, a bit pricey but effective).
Excellent, thank you for all of the info, I appreciate it! I figured this would be right up your alley…😀. I’ll break out the propane torch from my old plumbing kit as soon as I get back into town again (out for the week).
I do all the maintenance and repairs on the fleet of cars in my somewhat extended family. Over the course of the last few years, I’ve found some of the best pricing at Advance Auto Parts. If you sign up for an online account there are significant discounts to be had, often 15% to 20% when you order online and pick up in the store. I don’t know if they have any presence out west, but on the east coast, especially where I am in Worcester county MA, there are at least a dozen within a 30 minute drive which makes parts availability excellent. If you rack up enough business, you’ll also get significant $5 and $10 coupons added to your account. The coupons are restricted to one per purchase, so I’ll break up my purchases into single items to use them up before they expire. Kind of nice to get a half dozen cans of brake cleaner for 85 cents a piece.
Regarding that lean concern, and trying to find unmetered air leaks with carb spray, the PCM can make some pretty quick adjustments, fast enough that you may not even notice any surging in the idle. If your scan tool can monitor PIDS, pull up long and short term fuel trim for both banks. With a lean concern, the long term trim will likely be about 25 to 30 percent positive, and the short term trim close to zero. As you spray, and if you hit a vacuum leak, the short term trim will quickly go negative, as the PCM is adjusting injector pulse width to account for the hydrocarbons that you are adding. Also, until you get that lean concern issue corrected, the PCM isn’t going to complete the cat converter monitors. That would be probably the first thing I would tackle, and I’d want to see a month or so of completion of the OBD 2 monitors with full pass codes before I’d sink any more money into it. New cats for this are going to be neither cheap or easy.
As to PCV valves, Fords can be fairly temperamental, a PCV valve is essentially a calibrated vacuum leak, and often aftermarket valves aren’t accurate enough in that regard. Surprised to see the oil spec is 5w 30. The engine is essentially a Duratech with some differences in the valve train, all of the Ford versions are 5w 20. In any case, I’d go with a high mileage full synthetic. Motorcraft or WIX would be my filters of choice. For spark plugs, I’d use Motorcraft only. Make sure to use the proper coolant, stay away from the “services all makes and models” types. By around 2005 they likely came with Motorcraft Gold extended life from the factory.
The Duratech is a pretty stout motor, the main issues as far as oil leaks are concerned tend to be the seams between the timing cover and block, ladder frame to block, and oil pan to ladder frame. There aren’t really any gaskets between these, they used RTV from the factory, and they generally don’t leak until the mileage gets over 100k. These aren’t really something that you’d want to do without dropping the powertrain and subframe out from the bottom. It can be done in car, but not a lot of fun. Everything is a tight fit in that engine compartment. Unless the leaks are more than seepage, it’s better to just keep an eye on the oil level and add accordingly. If you do get into dropping the motor, some of the ladder frame and possibly pan bolts are torque to yield, so you’d need to replace them, they can’t be used again.
For the fuel pump, I’d absolutely go with the making of an access hole in the trunk. When the common/mistake came out, there was a fuel tank recall upon introduction. Every hose clamp attached to the various fittings had the worm screw essentially inaccessible from below, as the tank and hoses were assembled prior to installation in the vehicle. With the addition of a driveshaft and rear differential to the mix, I wouldn’t want to drop that tank unless it was being replaced.
Good luck with the car. If you get the major issues sorted out, it will be quite the learning experience, and it might just serve you and your son well.
Awesome, thanks for the details! My new code reader is able to go into fuel trims so that’ll be what I’ll be learning about very soon. Better to double check everything topside before diving in even/ever deeper. Thank you.
Thanks for the advice – that’s good stuff for anybody with a code scanner that can read live data.
Good luck with the car, Jim!
I have only seen one of these in my life–they are very handsome. Congrats.
Very satisfying read. It is going to be rather interesting to see the progression and
various challenges along the way. You may want to clean as many electrical connections
as possible and apply dielectric grease. I would also continue to use the Techron fuel
cleaner for at least the first 5 tanks, preferably 10. Regarding tires, Discount Tires house
brand is made by Hankook, and is a great budget choice. In addition DT is usually
open to negotiation. I recently purchased a set listed at $660 from them for $360,
and this was for 31″ snow rated truck tires.
On a final note, I have had great success with finding NOS parts on Ebay through
factory part number searches, often at less than 50% of retail prices, and less
than generic and questionable replacements.
Happy fiddling!
Agree with the eBay part. I have a favorite seller there for the last 10 years who I have bought more NOS engine parts than I can recall all. Most for the 91 626 at super cheap prices like Mazda NOS distributor for $45. Mazda engine mounts at $25. Ford (626, probe) NOS clutch pressure plate assembly for $75. The distributor from Mazda lists over $400 alone. I just bought a NOS throttle body today that just came up for sale from him for another $45 only. I grab them whenever I can especially if NOS or OEM.
Excellent addition and project! I still think of these as relatively new but they are getting up there in age I guess. Should make a good and achievable project for your son and yourself. The wagon certainly ups the interest factor as well.
I wonder how many of us drove when we were too young to do so legally (though it may be legal if off-road or on private property, I am not a lawyer). I did but only once, to pull a car that was parked out in front into our driveway, although that did involve about 30 feet of driving on the road.
So now we both have 2005 vintage wagons. Which one will outlive the other. 🙂
I wish you all the best with this, and I certainly hope (and expect) CC Project Jaguar MkII will turn out more successful than Mk1.
Thanks!
Jim — your wonderful article is a microcosm of what makes CC great. I’ve always wanted one of these X-Type wagons; I think that inside and out they’re one of the most attractive wagons ever made (much nicer than the later XF Sportbrake that Jaguar sold here for about ten minutes), and my dream one would be British Racing Green with a tan interior.
Lacking any abilities to do any auto work other than topping up fluids and doing a mediocre wax job, I wisely never dared, so it’s going to be great to experience this vicariously. I admire your skills as well as your relationship with your son.
And, who could criticize your purchase when so far, you’ve only spent the amount of money that most cars depreciate by when they leave the showroom? Or the amount of “added dealer markup” that stealerships here in California are currently adding to just about every new car they sell!
Cool, that last article seemed just a touch too in depth for some random used car that caught your eye, so I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that the stray kitty has found a home with you.
As ExFordTech noted ForScan is the way to go for scanning and reading PIDs IF it works with that power train.
The next step in diagnostics is to look at the Mode $6 data. Specifically the missfire data, both current trip when you do a test drive and the hesitation occurs and the EWMA (Exponentially Weighted Moving Average). That will reveal misfires that aren’t frequent enough to cause a miss code to set but can enough to cause a noticeable driveablity issue.
Missfires create a lean exhaust condition as the 02 sensor sees all that oxygen that was not consumed because combustion didn’t occur.
If an accessible cylinder shows up with EWMA numbers much higher than the others then swap its coil with one of the other accessible cylinders and its spark plug with the other one and see which one if any it follows. If it doesn’t follow the plug or coil then your intake gasket is highly likely.
As noted you’ll also want to follow the missfire, MAF, MAP, Fuel Pressure, STFT and LTFT PIDs on some drives where the problem occurs. This again is where ForScan is preferred since it will log all the data for a drive and you can then step through it in sub 1 sec intervals, once you are home.
I’m in the middle of a “project car” with my future Son In Law. He has probably less experience than your son but has the most important things, a willingness to learn and pay attention. My Daughter and I both told him some time ago that he could no longer drive the car his parents had given him since it is well worn out, unsafe and not worth investing any time or money in.
Because they are young, don’t have a lot of money, want to be self sufficient and basically cheap the current state of used car pricing meant a project car was a good option. So when she found this one cheap because it needed some work she called me up and we made a plan for us to go see it. The seller noted that it would shut down on occasion due to a problem with the hybrid system, but he also claimed that he had a Ford dealer look at it and they found no problems, or that they found an issue with the Motor and Electronics coolant pump. Yes contradictory.
My code reader said it was the fans for the battery pack. A little quick googling said it was worth moving forward so a deal was struck.
Once we got it home we pulled the battery cover and used ForScan to run the self tests, confirmed no fan operation but power to the motor controllers, and put it back together. We ordered up the fan kit and once it came in we installed them and all is good. It also got a fresh oil change as the tell tale said it had 1% oil life left when we looked at it. He has ran it for a couple of tanks worth of gas and all is good on the power train front.
The next project is the front brakes as the rotors are a little warped. It needs the compass module, which inexplicably is completely missing with the wire hanging behind the mirror. Just need to have the time to hit the wrecking yard for that one, snap it in place and plug it in. It also needs a set of tires, they are still legal but they have crappy traction in the wet due to age and being a set of cheap tires.
All in all he is happy and since they had been looking for a bit he knows he got a great deal because by fixing it himself (with my tools, help and guidance).
Forgot to mention that battery appears to be a Super Start which is O’reilly’s battery brand. Most seem to be made by East Penn and they are known for making quality batteries that usually have a long life.
Thanks for the info! I think ForScan has been made to work with some of the diesel
X-types but not sure RE the gassers. Still, great info and avenues to explore…and. It sounds like you SIL is in good hands with his new car!
Nice looking car, one that I don’t remember seeing on the road. The back looks a lot like the fifth gen Accord.
Congrats on your purchase! The sport brake is the best looking of the X series, and your example with AWD is the most appealing variant. I’m enjoying reading your systematic approach to problem solving. In California, a used car dealer cannot sell you a car that has not passed the smog test, though private sales can be done, as long as a complete disclosure has been made. I have bought one car without the test, but I was lucky. Now I will only buy a used car that has successfully passed the smog test. I figure that I can get at least two years out of the car before the next test.
Jaguars are great cars but they can be very sensitive to tripping codes, and as the mileage adds up, the electronics will get even more sensitive. Good luck on your journey, I’ll be keeping an eye out for updates. The Jaguar Forums are a great resource, I’ve been on them for over five years and they have many knowledgeable and helpful people in their community.
There’s another point worth mentioning. The idea that a new, young driver should be driving a vehicle with modern safety features like three point seat restraints, air bags and ABS. Not to mention safer and sturdier construction. All too often the idea of a cheap old beater, sometimes something from the 80’s,70’s, or even ’60’s will be chosen. I’m not going to mention specific cars, but I often read magazine articles where an enthusiast will buy an old car for their new driver to use. Looked at objectively, and dispassionately, many of these old cars can be viewed as “deathtraps.” Especially when driven by an inexperienced driver with questionable, or at least undeveloped judgement.
2,000 smackeroos and no smog sounds like an a fine tradeoff. In CO anyone can sell a car w/o it being smogged first and, as Jim wrote, WY doesn’t even have emissions testing.
Hella have production plants all over the world—been many, many decades since all their stuff was made in Germany. Yes, these headlamps are very poor. The low beam projector is tiny; it has to be, to fit within half of the small allotted space (the other half being occupied by the turn signal). Small size minimises performance even when everything is new and perfect, because a smaller reflector gathers less light from the bulb than a larger reflector.
Also, that small reflector, because it is closer to the hot bulb than a large one would be, cooks to death faster. Headlamp reflectors are shiny by dint of a super-thin layer of vapour-deposited aluminum with a super-thin protective clear topcoat. The deterioration mechanism is that this topcoat breaks down and allows the aluminum to begin oxidising. Optical degradation of the reflector is grossly advanced well before you’d see it with the naked eye, though looking at it (even if you could) wouldn’t do you much good; by the time the reflector has degraded enough to be described as just a little imperfect, it’s past dead. For mental calibration on this point: even the most costly, beautiful chrome plating, the kind that makes bumpers look 10 feet deep on a show car, is only about 67% reflective. That’s not nearly good enough for optical purposes; an as-new headlamp reflector is over 95% reflective, and there is no bulb that can compensate. When the reflector’s optically dead in a projector lamp like yours, the result is a correctly-shaped beam pattern without much light in it.
Small size also greatly increases the heat load on the front cover lens, which accelerates its degradation (hazing and crazing). That’s in addition to sandblasting/pitting due to road grit, which degrades headlight performance a lot more than one might think.
That’s your front position or “parking” light.
If the goal is to maximise time between bulb swaps, “best” and “longest lasting” are the same, and in that case you’d want a Long Life bulb. But if you’re trying to see at night, “best” and “longest lasting” are opposites. Automakers like to put LL bulbs on their cars, particularly in the North American markets, because it keeps people from demanding new bulbs under the new-vehicle warranty. The filament configuration required to make a long-life bulb tends to reduce the luminance and beam focus, which shortens seeing distance and makes the light dimmer and browner. The opposite filament changes are made to create high-luminance bulbs: lifespan is shorter, but the beam focus is better so seeing distance is longer and beam coverage is wider. Light color is whiter and less brown.
And “lifespan” is a moving target, too, because the long-life bulbs not only start out dimmer, but they “last” (i.e., keep lighting up, even if not very much) long enough to lose substantial amounts of their original output. The higher-performing bulbs burn out before they drop much of any intensity.
The attached is from a Hella R&D technical paper. It goes into some detail on the performance difference between a standard bulb and a high-luminance one. When it was written in 1997, the state of the art was young, so this is a comparison between a long-life bulb and a bulb with modestly increased luminance. Additional research and development has brought us higher- and higher-luminance bulbs, so the difference is even greater. Note, though, that this won’t continue forever; there are certain hard physical limits of the technology. And a bigger plus-number doesn’t necessarily mean a better bulb; Most of the +130 and +150 bulbs have more and deeper blue tint on the bulb glass, any amount of which sharply reduces the amount of light reaching the road in exchange for no benefit at all except a bogus appeal to fashion.
These are better when they’re in good condition, because of ~double the light off the D2S bulb versus the H1 halogen. But the projector is still the same miniature size, so all of the above applies. Even with larger designs, the “good used” headlamp is almost a mythical creature. They’re always used, but seldom anywhere near as good as they look (or are described). Beware the used lamps with polished front lenses that look all crystal-clear; not only does this well-intended effort strip off the hardcoat that protects the polycarbonate from UV and abrasion damage, but it does nothing about the hidden projector degradation.
That said, perhaps you’ll get lucky and find a set of lamps that were recently replaced with new ones shortly before the car got junked. I’m seeing new genuine (Hella) lamps on eBay for around $225, which is a pretty good price all considered, but might be hard to swallow as 23% of the vehicle’s purchase price.
Shall we have a toast to sealed beams that came in large or small and round or rectangular?
…oops, here’s that Hella paper:
Very interesting information. When I had cars that came with sealed beams I always replaced them with what I thought was the best, either Bosch or Hella. They were certainly an improvement. When I got a Subaru that did not use sealed beams I (wrongly) assumed that I didn’t need to worry about them anymore.
My father was an automotive engineer. He was a pretty quiet man but I remember his going on about the headlight standards. He was not a fan of sealed beams. “You should never specify a technology in a standard; you should only specify performance requirements.” It must have made an impression on me because I still remember it and he died over 50 years ago and I was a teenager at the time. He was probably just back from an SAE meeting.
There’s merit to the idea of performance standards, and there is also merit in design-and-construction standards. I’ll be putting up an article about the sealed-beam subjects, eventually.
You’ve just nailed one of the best things about sealed beams: Since many cars used the same size and form of these headlamps for many years, you have many options available to you. I can still readily upgrade (or sadly, even downgrade) my 1962 Studebaker with lighting that’s credible-to-incredible by today’s standards. When a vehicle has bespoke headlamps, you’re pretty well stuck with whatever the manufacturer specified… with perhaps an option or two from other markets or a higher/lower spec model of the same car. And then there’s that point in time where the new parts are discontinued and you’re left scrambling in the dark for whatever you can get your hands on.
Though I still have a fondness for old school sealed beams, I’ll readily admit that almost everything on the road today will handily outperform them… what really does concern me, though, are the amount of twenty year old cars still plying the roads day in and day out with fried composites that are no longer producing anywhere near adequate levels of light… and there’s no hope of the owner laying out the cash for new lamps, which may add up to a large percentage of the vehicle’s market value. That’s a case where the sealed beam (or at least the idea of a standardized format) wins.
Thanks, that’s a whole lot of info, all of it good. I think we will avoid the night driving for now. Or just make sure we can hypermile behind a big pickup with dazzlers…
“Shall we have a toast to sealed beams that came in large or small and round or rectangular?”
Here here to the good old cheap and (formerly) universal sealed beam.
That is one of the reasons my truck and van are XL trim, for those sealed beams’ Every few years you can get actual new light performance for $$ instead of $$$. Sure those fancy trucks may have had better headlight performance when new but I’m pretty sure at this point I’ve got much better performance than the majority of those 12 or 16 year trucks with their original lights or worse, aftermarket junk (especially when “upgraded”).
That will be fun to follow as I have done similar things in the past – just not on Jaguars.
The lean codes could also come from rather unsuspected places. On a Ford Contour the leak was from PCV hose that connected way down on the oil pan. I detected this leak by accidental spraying into that direction.
Some Pontiac Vibes sprang vacuum leaks at the timing cover. Even the oil filler cap could let air in.
https://tirereviewsandmore.com/ is a helpful site for tire selection. The reviews saved me a lot of time when whittling down the choices.
That’s one cool project!
This is great- the working-garageless among us can live vicariously through you. And thanks to Paul for chipping in… a worthwhile investment in content 🙂 And to the commenters- I have a feeling we’re gonna learn a lot over this series with the combined brainpower, which is, like, the opposite of 90% of comments on the Internet.
Cool project! My only experience with the X-Type was when a friend owned a black sedan a handful of years ago, which was actually equipped with a manual trans. From the few times I rode in the car, I came away quite liking it.
When you’re attacking the front suspension, replace the stabilizer bar links. You’re likely to destroy them anyway when trying to separate them from the struts.
The o-rings that you refer to as being for variable valve timing are actually for the variable geometry air intake.
As for tires, make certain that they are a complete matching set, with the same rolling diameter. AWD does not play nice with mismatched tires. Might be hard to accomplish with a used set, and may necessitate biting the bullet and going with new. I’d get the suspension/wheel bearings and steering sorted before replacing the tires, no sense introducing unnecessary wear. When you have the front end apart, check the inner tie rods for any play. Also be advised the front wheel bearings are press fit, so you might need something like this if you plan to do them yourself (rears are a bolt in hub/bearing assembly):
https://youtu.be/kC5SbAj05Vc South Main Auto, somewhere upstate NY, he’s a damn good tech, and his videos are excellent. I’d put him in the same class as Eric the Car Guy, and FordTechMakuloco. Excellent resources for repair advice. Avoid scotty kilmer like the plague, the guy is a total hack.
Looking forward to hearing more about this as time goes by. I’m impressed by your thoroughness in fixing the defects and addressing the cosmetic as well
You have to suspect the previous owner either didn’t notice the hesitation or it was the reason he sold the car.
A little late here, but this is wonderful to read about. Honestly, I’d forgotten that these wagons were ever made, so I found it very compelling in your original post, and I’m glad to see that it’ll be with us for a while!
I have a 2007 X Type, they are great cars, especially in the winter.
I have the HID headlights, they are self levelling. If a lamp assembly has been replaced and not paired to the car, then it will stay always pointing to maximum dip, i.e. at the ground. The only way I know of to change this is you need dealer level software. That is available on the forums, I think V131 is the last version that doesn’t need an internet connection.However, you will need a Mongoose tool to connect between the laptop and the OBDII port, and that’s not cheap. There are Chinese knockoffs that work sometimes, and there is a genuine that was about $600 when I bought it. That may be a dealer trip if you don’t want to invest in the tool. The cars are not “just Fords”, no Ford dealer software will work,
Nice looking station wagon ! .
I too am piqued by your purchase and hope it goes well .
Certainly it was and remains so far, cheap .
? Are you the one who bought an old Jag and got stalled when the fuel tank(s) were rusted out ? .
-Nate