Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[xantia_v6]

With the correct tool, you can change all of the V12 HE spark plugs without removing anything, but it is a bit tricky.

Stripping the top of the engine down to replace the cam cover gaskets is quite therapeutic.

Don't forget to buy a new set of cap screws to replace the original cam cover screws which are tap-tite (or similar) and don't hold in very well if re-used.

You will have fun replacing some of the hoses, the one from the bypass pipe to the water pump has bad memories for me.

[Zelandeth]

I really wish they had changed at least the hoses up front when they did the radiator. I still cannot fathom for the life of me why they didn't change the belts while they had it out as well...There's no way that they were any less shredded a few months back when the radiator was changed. Would have been so much easier a job to do while that was out of the way.

Given how grubby the engine bay is I'd rather get as much access to the plug holes as I can so I can blast the recess out with compressed air before I start removing anything to prevent gunk falling into the cylinders. Plus the more I have out the way the easier cleaning up the plentiful oily gunk will be. It's one of those times that I really wish I still had access to the industrial steam cleaner we used to have at the garage. The cam cover gaskets have obviously been leaking for decades...but with it basically having been a car that trundled out to a couple of shows every year, that's just been ignored it seems. As far as access goes, I really want to minimise the odds of cross threading a plug as well. I've played that game before and would rather not have to do it again! At least on the previous occasion it was on a 1.1 Fiesta with the old OHV Valencia engine in when one of the plugs came out complete with the threads from the head, so removal of the head to sort it was an hour's work. We didn't actually sort it as a friend had a random engine laying around which we just robbed the head off instead. I think we had it sorted inside three hours, and that included an hour's trip into Aberdeen to pick up a head gasket.

Not too worried about moving the A/C compressor...For one it has no belt attached, secondly I'll be wanting to get access to the back of it anyway to change the line from it to the condenser, so it will probably be getting unbolted anyhow.

I need to make a point of looking up what size of bolts I need to pick up for the cam covers, thanks for reminding me of that. A set of injector O-rings seems a sensible investment as well now that I think about it...Plus I'm now thinking this would also be a good time to change the fuel rail to injector lines. This is how these jobs snowball isn't it.

I have actually done battle with some of the coolant lines on this engine before as I helped a friend change several hoses on an early XJ12 many years ago, and I do remember it being "fun" to get at several of the hoses. I imagine a few will be a lot easier to get at with the inlet manifolds off - so that will probably be a job done along with the cam cover gaskets. Really wish I had access to a proper lift or a pit. If our garage wasn't so uselessly narrow (the door is the best part of a foot narrower than the Jag) I would seriously look at getting a pit installed there. The oil filter was another thing which made me wish that...It's laughably easy to get at from under the car, but horrifically awkward with the car on the ground because the left hand exhaust is in *precisely* the most awkward possible place so you can't get at it. Need to find a couple of old railway sleepers or similar to act as extensions so I can at least get it on my ramps. Can't reasonably see me being able to get the bottom radiator hose changed without figuring out some way to lift the front at least a bit safely.

At least once it's all done in theory I shouldn't have to worry about the cooling system for a while.

[white exec]

Bio clothes washing liquid (in some warm water) is a decent alternative to Gunk or petrol for wash down of oily bits; amazingly effective. Air-line blast afterwards.
A small amount of oil in the coolant (at some point in the car"s history) would have attacked the hoses, and softened them. Frequently shows up near a hose clip, for some reason, maybe because of the 'ridge' of the pipe/component underneath. Before putting new hoses on, may be worth giving the system a clean-out with LiquiMoly #21309 (was #2506) Radiator Cleaner (KuhlReiniger) - excellent stuff at getting rid of the remains of oil, grease and calc. Buy 2 x 300ml for that engine.

[Zelandeth]

That reminds me...I need to investigate why the compressor has been taking out the RCD before I'll have access to proper compressed air again.

Good shout on it being worth flushing the system before putting the new hoses on. Hadn't thought about the possibility of the hoses having been attacked internally. Externally too to be fair given the sheer amount of oily gunge coating everything!

[Zelandeth]

Found that Mr. Injector do a nice kit which contains all the necessary bits to overhaul the engine bay fuel lines. Link here. Not a bad price either given there's 12 (or more or less) of everything and that that hose isn't cheap even on its own.

Then discovered their web shop is currently closed due to the lockdown. Balls.

Time to go digging for all the bits individually elsewhere.

[xantia_v6]

Just be sure to get the correct 7.9mm diameter injection hose. 8mm is not close enough for the clamp-less joints. Also don't b tempted to make the injector hoses a bit longer, as you may run into clearance issues.

[Zelandeth]

Most of the bits I've been waiting for the Jag have now arrived with the exception of course of the injection stuff because the store is closed and I've not yet summoned the energy to pick up everything individually. Oh, and bolts for the cam covers because I still been to dig out what size is the best fit (seem to recall it being mentioned in the PDF I've got which helps keep us XJ-S owners sane).

Looking at the bag full of coolant hoses I'm somewhat horrified by the number of really short bits there are... I'm used to these being an absolute pain in the proverbial rear based on my experience changing the water pump to heater feed connection on Skoda Estelles...and that's relatively easy to get at!



Changing half a dozen of these in hose twice the diameter, buried under the sprawling V12 mess in the XJ-S engine bay isn't my idea of fun...I'm guessing that it's probably going to be a lot easier to get to a fair few hoses while the inlet manifolds are off to get at the cam covers.

Today I decided that in the interests of getting the dogs (and me) exercise while being a far faster moving target for hassle that it was time to get the C5 out for the first time this year. I'd meant to a couple of months ago, but couldn't face digging it out of the back of the shed at the time.

Unsurprisingly it hasn't got any less scruffy over winter.



Star decided she wanted to model for us here too. It actually took me six attempts to get this photo without her being in the way.

Aside from missing hub caps, a missing front mud guard (I do actually have that, I've just never got as far as refitting it as it makes checking the front tyre pressure a pain) and every single surface being scratched to Hell and back the reflective stripes are falling off and are the wrong colour. They were applied in minutes by me with stuff that I just happened to have laying around about five years ago.





Completely at random I stumbled across some reflective tape in Halfords a couple of months ago which is a far, far closer match to the colour of the original stuff.

The two little squares on the wheel trim here are still the originally applied stickers, so you can see while it's not a perfect match it's a lot closer.



An empty paint tin I've found makes an ideal jack for working on the C5.



While it's still scruffy as anything if you look vaguely closely I think it looks a good deal more presentable at a glance now the stripes are all there, match each other and are the right colour.







Next up for it once the lockdown finishes will be a new battery as the one currently in use has pretty much had it. Can't really complain though, it's done five years of regular use and is just a standard car 038 type, so not designed for this type of application really. I'd really like to go down the lithium ion route as it's entirely possible to build a pack into the base of the luggage compartment that's a fraction of the weight of the original yet gives a real world range of 50+ miles even using motor assistance more than normal. However you're looking at several hundred pounds worth of batteries alone...plus obviously a charger and controller would also need to be factored in...and some form of monitoring as the original "fuel gauge" calibration wouldn't be suitable for a different battery chemistry,

Mentioning the instrumentation, here's the "dash" on the C5.



The right hand display is the fuel guage. Simple bar graph that ticks down as energy is used. It will start beeping at you before you run out of juice entirely, and about that point will cut power to protect the battery from damage. The left hand display is essentially an economy gauge. When the motor is energised a single LED lights to show how much power is being used - moving to the right (red) if the load is heavy, or left (green) if the motor load is low. The two amber LEDs at each end of both gauges are simply there to act as an indicator to the user that the power is switched on. The left display also acts as an overheat indicator for the motor - if it gets too hot the whole display there will flash to warn you. The electronics in there are actually pretty clever for the time. The LCD display at the far left is just an off-the-shelf cycle computer to give me a speedometer, odometer and clock as there's nothing like that built in. The two green lights at either side are also additions of mine tied into the indicators so I don't go for miles before remembering to switch them off.

I have thought about doing a more thorough modernisation, doing away with the original lead-acid battery, the original primitive motor controller (it's just a relay switched feed so on or off, there's no throttle or anything like that) etc. However given that this C5 while cosmetically rough is actually very original and works well I'm quite reluctant to go gutting it. If I came across the necessary hardware cheaply enough (finding an e-bike that's been accident damaged beyond economic repair would be the ideal situation really) though I may well be willing to reconsider that situation. A modern hub motor even though still rated at the same maximum of 250W can provide a lot more torque a lot more efficiently than the comparatively primitive one the C5 uses. Speaking of the motor...no, it is NOT a washing machine motor. Yes, Polymotor, company who made it do also make washing machine motors...but the press seemed to conveniently forget that as well as washing machine motors, they also make motors for torpedos and other industrial applications. There's actually nothing whatsoever wrong with the original C5 motor - quite a few folks get impressive performance out of it running it on 24V with some additional cooling without reliability issues, it's just that technology has moved on from 1984. A modern hub motor will perform better than the original, is lighter and does away with the need for a separate gearbox and belt drive as it's just one integral unit. We'll see...If I came across the parts needed for an upgrade, I might instead look to revive the "spares" C5 which lives out the back of the shed. It's got a dead control system and is missing a lot of bits, so would be a better candidate for a complete drive system overhaul. It's in a lot better shape cosmetically than the one I actually use too. I don't really mind it being scruffy though, it's a working vehicle and being a mess visually makes it less appealing to thieves - especially as the accessories like the indicators and rear view mirror are things I've grafted on myself rather than factory accessories which have quite a bit of value these days.

It's good fun to ride around here where we've got so many off-street cycle paths, don't think I'd fancy using it to actually commute on a public road though!

[Zelandeth]

Decided it was time to stop putting it off and start getting some of the jobs on the Jag done. I'm waiting on bits for the injection system so can't move forward there but I do have a full set of coolant hoses so can start on those. I don't have enough antifreeze in stock to refill the system if drained fully, so just stop on the top layers for now, done in such a way as to minimise coolant loss.

The bottom hose is going to be a barrel of laughs as the only real access is from underneath, but even then there's still an anti-roll bar and two oil cooler lines in the way - will need to get the car on the ramps before I can get at it though...and I'll need to find some chunky bits of wood to extend the ramps before I can do that as the splitter is several inches too low to drive onto them.

Got a full set of hoses in as it seemed a far easier solution than trying to figure out which ones I needed to buy.



It's easy to see how much the top hose has swollen with the new hose next to it (it looked ten times worse once there was some pressure in the system too).



I'm still baffled as to why the garage that fitted the radiator didn't flag up the state of the hoses and the belts when they fitted it. The belts especially would have taken them minutes to change and only cost pocket change.

Getting this hose off was made slightly more awkward on account of the hose clip having been fitted the wrong way around. There's a hole in the slam panel which would have given easy access if the screw was on the opposite side of the hose. It wasn't though...so it was really fiddly and had to be undone 0.1 turns at a time.



Once I got that undone changing this took about two minutes. Looks rather better than the hose which came off.



The other top hose didn't look so bad but it seemed daft not to do it when the radiator would need bleeding anyway.



New hose does look better.

The bleed line between the top of the radiator and the filler neck was the other one which had swollen alarmingly.



That was swapped with barely a drop of coolant spilled.



The other hose done today was the bypass hose that runs between the nearside thermostat housing to the radiator. That's four down, nine to go.



The two I'd spotted bulging were by far the softest so it seems they have broken down more than the others. The whole lot will get done, but I'll need to get (a lot) more antifreeze in before I can tackle the lower ones. This is as far as time allowed this afternoon, so got things bled through and we'll come back to this project in due course.

I did put a bowl under there before pulling any hoses but predictably with the amount of things for water to bounce off in the engine bay it managed to capture about 10% of what came out. I did hose down the area thoroughly afterwards to hopefully dilute any remaining coolant beyond being harmful to critters.

Definitely need to get the injection lines done soon... here's a close up look at the state they're in.



Lots of fine surface perishing. They definitely need changing ASAP.

Finally got around to digging out the combination imperial and metric socket set a friend gave me a while ago. This will definitely prove useful in the future working on this car.





Having had a closer look today I reckon it should be possible to get into the distributor without removing too much so might have a crack at that soon.

This evening I got interrupted by the apparent death of my web server's hosting machine. As far as I can tell it seems to have corrupted the BIOS or suffered a similarly catastrophic failure. I wanted to test something but figured as it hadn't been restarted in nearly six months it made sense to reboot it. It shut down normally...then just sat there with the CPU fan running flat out, no life from it whatsoever other than that. Nothing I've been able to do has any effect on this behaviour.

It's a Celeron based laptop which is the absolute definition of cheap and nasty (why I relegated it to sitting quietly in the corner as I reckoned it would fall apart in minutes if moved around...plus it ran stone cold and silently so worked well as a 24/7 running machine). Quite how cheap and nasty was apparent as soon as I got the cover off (planning to do a CMOS reset).



Doesn't even have the spot on the motherboard for the battery populated...and the CPU cooler doesn't even have a heat pipe... it's literally just a tinfoil thin stamped bit of aluminium. There isn't a bit of structural metalwork anywhere on it save for the tiny bit at the hinges. Whatever is going on I don't think the CPU is running as it doesn't seem to be generating any heat whatsoever.

Nothing I've been able to do has had any effect, so I've finally got around to sticking Apache on an *actual* server grade machine (HP DC7800, which I have a pair of) which already serves as our NAS which I've been going to do for the last 18 months.



Monitor and speakers are there as it also serves as the "TV" in my bedroom.

Only got an old Core 2 Duo E6750 at its heart so hardly a powerful machine but it's more than up to this sort of job.

It's gained an extra hard drive, my old Nvidia GT 710 graphics card and had a major cable tidy since this photo was taken.



This has finally resolved the file permissions issue I'd been arguing with for ages too which made updating the site a faff too. Still don't know why that used to play up...but it's now a moot point. Might actually kick me into finishing one of about fifteen half finished new pages waiting to be finish.

[xantia_v6]

On the XJ-S hoses, you should check that the metal bleed pipes are not blocked, and that the one-way valve near the top filler cap is operating.

My 'favorite' hose to change is the short one taking the bypass coolant to the water pump. You need to lift the steel bypass pipe that runs between the heads, which probably requires lifting the A/C compressor.

Re ramps, my garage jack will lift the car just enough that I can slide the ramps under the wheels.

[Zelandeth]

On the XJ-S hoses, you should check that the metal bleed pipes are not blocked, and that the one-way valve near the top filler cap is operating.

Good call on the check valve. I'd forgotten about the existence of that. Definitely something that I'll want to check.

The metal lines above the radiator got warm pretty much immediately which suggests that coolant was circulating through them as it should. I've read quite a few descriptions of the cooling system, but really need to find or draw out a diagram showing the actual circulation path of the coolant through the system given how complex (and in some places downright odd) it is.

The delivery of dog food today never materialised...so my heading out to get more suddenly became non-optional. It was meant to arrive on Friday, and I had enough to last until yesterday evening.

Figured given I haven't even started it since early-ish February, was about time I gave this a run.



Always a bit nervous about whether vehicles will start after being left for more than a few weeks, so was interested to see how she'd start.

Did I need to worry?



Of course not. Brief chirp of protest from the fan belt (think I need to turn the idle speed up a little) was the only sign that it hadn't been out yesterday.

Ignore the brake warning light by the way, there's a slight leak to ground through the pad wear sensor circuit which is putting the light on. I'm just going to disable it entirely before the MOT as the issue as best I can tell is simply that modern brake pads are more conductive than the old asbestos based ones. With the relatively tiny mileage this one does I really don't need a pad wear sensor to be honest.

The exhaust has been rattling noticeably the last few trips out, especially when the engine started or stopped, giving an almighty clatter. This was quickly traced to the downpipe to mid section clamp not being done up quite tightly enough. 1/2 a turn on the pinch bolt and we just had honest diesel clatter without a metallic accompaniment. I didn't realise quite how much it sounded like there was a tumble drier full of gravel under the van until I sorted it.

While it's quiet around town but there is still traffic around, the A5 itself though was utterly deserted. Only saw one other car on there...an old gent dawdling along at about 40 in a 51 plate Fiesta. I think he got the fright of his life when I went howling past in full juggernaut mode.

Later in the afternoon I escaped outside to get a couple of things done on the Jag. I still haven't quite got used to walking outside to see this thing...and while it may be an utter pain to work on, has cost me over a grand in fuel alone since I picked it up, it's impossible not to like it. I mean...just look at it...



I really need to do something about the exhaust tips though. Their being at the wrong (and mismatched) angle is really bugging me.

First task was to top up the coolant, I expected it to have dropped a bit once it had cooled after the work I did yesterday. Sure enough it took a little to bring it back to the level specified in the handbook.

Task number two was to pull some of the carpeting out in the boot to see if I could pin down why it always absolutely reeks of petrol. It doesn't make any odds whether it's warm or cold, tank full or empty or whether the engine has been run recently. It always smells...and if you open a window the smell then gets drawn into the car.

Now while it's always been bone dry in my ownership I knew there had been water getting into the boot in the past at some point because I'd seen a bit of mould on the spare wheel cover. Once I took it out it became apparent that there was quite a *lot* of mould on the spare wheel cover.



I had a feeling I was going to find worse once I started digging, so I sensibly donned the mask I picked up when painting the Invacar and gloves before delving further than this.



Sure enough, what was hiding behind the carpets was truly gross.



Fuel filter has a 2003 date code...though obviously it could have been changed far more recently having been sitting on a shelf for fifteen years. Nevertheless it will be changed shortly anyway (honestly can't remember if I've already picked one up or not, I'll need to go digging in the ever increasing box of bits of Jag currently occupying the driver's seat in the Invacar) as I'd rather look after the fuel system.

Again, the willingness of Jaguar to use normal hose clips (or mere friction fit without any fasteners whatsoever) on the pressure side of the fuel injection system on this car never ceases to surprise me.

Yep...I think we've located the original source of the bubonic plague...that would be the mould in the general vicinity of the surge tank and fuel pump in my XJ-S!



There's definitely evidence of historic fuel leakage here but nothing that looks recent. The closest I can see is this sticky, tarry deposit on the fuel pump itself. It doesn't smell even vaguely like petrol though.



The breather system does look predictably over-complicated. In total we have seven connections to the tank, eight if you include the filler itself.



(The drain tube from the tailgate surround crammed into the same space just to add to the clutter...which is of course right next to the engine ECU just to ensure that any leak there is as catastrophic as possible.)

I'm guessing this is the return line? The pickup itself is from the centre it looks like.



Of course thanks to Jaguar being themselves we also have vacuum lines all the way back here. I believe these are what operates the vapour purge system.



Everything is bone dry and all connections seem to be secure so I'm no closer to figuring it out. I can't get to the vapour purge assembly as it's buried behind the fuel tank. The tank currently has about 80 litres of fuel in so it's going nowhere for the time being. I'll have a nosey at it next time I have a tank that's more near to empty. Ideally all of these lines will want to be changed soon as they're undoubtedly not ethanol safe.

The next thing on my to do list after an initial visual inspection was to attack everything with disinfectant wipes to hopefully remove the need for biohazard tape to be wrapped around the car every time I open the boot. I got about half way through it when I ran out of time...will be picking up where I left off tomorrow.

[xantia_v6]

I don't think that the bleed pipe above the radiator should get hot until the thermostat opens, but I am not sure now, as my current XJ-S is pre-HE and has a simpler bleed system.

The vacuum hose in the boot is primarily to get the manifold vacuum to the sensor in the ECU. There was a modification introduced in about 1985 to add a plastic resonator (low pass filter) in the hose to prevent resonance in the pipe from the front of the car upsetting the ECU. The vacuum does also control the tank vent valve (there is no carbon canister, just a vapour separator on UK cars).

The vapour separator for the fuel tank is not behind the tank. On the cabriolet it is above the tank, but on the coupe it is in the C pillar, and I think can be accessed (with difficulty) by removing the plate that the ECU is fastened to.

[Zelandeth]

I'll need to look closer. I'm 70% sure that the bleed pipe bypasses the thermostat...Though now I'm second guessing myself. I'll double-check next time I get a chance!

To be fair, the 'stats open pretty quickly with 5.3 litres of V12 heating the coolant anyway...so it's entirely possible that it was just warm enough that they were opening by the time I'd done a bit of faffing around bleeding things and such.

Nice to know the vapour separator isn't totally inaccessible then! Just looks like there's a lot of pipework vanishing down behind there so I made a bit of an assumption. I'll dig a bit deeper next time I have a chance.

[Zelandeth]

Having discovered quite such plentiful quantities of mould in the boot of the Jag I decided to go in there armed with a bleach solution before going any further. Hopefully I've now eliminated as much of it as possible. There's never really been any sign of damp in the boot since I got the car anyway so I'm hoping it's just a sign of a historic leak.

The carpeting which covers the fuel tank was utterly disgusting you can see in the above photos, so this was pulled out and put through the washing machine. I'd like to do the same for all the carpeting in the boot, but it's all quite firmly glued down so that's not really practical. The fuel tank trim though didn't clean up half bad - a lot better than I was hoping for really. That piece is just glued in at two spots so was relatively easy to remove.



I know 90% of it is hidden behind the spare wheel, but I feel better in the knowledge that the carpet doesn't contain its own ecosystem any more. I do note that even after a trip through the wash that this carpet still smells quite strongly of petrol, so I am leaning more towards the thinking that the smell in the boot may indeed simply be residue from a leak some point in the distant past. In which case getting rid of it entirely may well be challenging without stripping out and replacing all the soft surfaces.

Will get that put back in later today hopefully.

While I was in there I figured it was about time that I actually put the battery clamp back on. It has been rolling around in the boot since I got the car. I suspect on account of the fact that you need to assemble it *before* you attach the battery leads. A fact which I'm sure has resulted in many XJ-S owners spending a not insignificant amount of time with untethered batteries when that realisation has dawned right after the owner has reset the clock and reprogrammed all their radio stations.

I also discovered that the threads on one of the retaining hooks were damaged preventing it from being tightened up properly. This was resolved by grabbing a few random nuts out of the drawer of random fasteners to use as spacers allowing me to use an undamaged area of the threads. Not pretty but it's hidden away under a cover normally and does the job of ensuring that things are secure.

I also made an adaptor out of a bit of brake pipe offcut to hook up the battery vent tube properly (the far end has a bung in).



Probably the first time that's all been properly bolted in place in a while.



Not a huge battery for the size of engine really is it...at least the leads are satisfyingly substantial though.

The strap over the top would originally have held in place the vent assembly which used to sit over the top of the cell access caps on the original battery which are obviously not accessible on this modern maintenance free type.

Then the covers were all put back in place and given a wipe down. Looking a bit less disgusting now I think.



The fuel pump cover really wants a lick of paint too, but that's about item number 39409385398 on the priority list. Likewise there should be two press-fit clips to hold the cover over the battery on. They are quite a pain to remove though so rather than replace the missing clips like-for-like I'll probably put a couple of thumbscrews there which won't require wrenching on a relatively brittle bit of plastic to remove.

[white exec]

Quite a mix of petrol and electrics in there.

Do make sure you always have the battery secured down and well covered. I had a 1970 Mini 1000 for a while, which was getting its floor and boot-floor repainted, and I was carrying a steel 5L fuel can, firmly (I thought) strapped into a corner of the boot. This broke free, knocked the cover off the battery, and landed on the battery terminals.

First I knew of it was when there was a loud whoooomfff, the lights dimmed, and flames shot into the cabin through the rear parcel shelf speaker!

Got out of the car PDQ, and managed to persuade a Jag driver (who had been tailgating) to pull back. Just as well, as the car then went up big-time, but not before jetting lighted fuel from the main tank across the road and into a neighbour's prized hedge.

Fortunately, all this took place (one November evening) right outside Hurstpierpoint Fire Station. As they lads ran down their garden paths, donning helmets and jackets as they went, they asked if - next time - I could get the car into their station yard, as this would mean it would save them the trouble of getting the appliance out!

[Zelandeth]

Thankfully the leads on this are sturdy enough that it can't really move even when not fastened down - it is now properly fastened down though, and there are two layers of protection against shorts with the plastic cover and the very thick rubber caps over the terminals.

The fuel tank cover carpeting has now been reinstated which makes it look more complete.