1991 Jaguar XJ-S
Moderators: MostMint, wxo, Fred32v, Basement Paul, ttamrettus
Problem#18 - Central locking is wacko
I wasn’t going to pull the door skins just for this lock issue, but as I used the key a few times to lock and unlock the car, I realized that things were really stiff, not quite break the key stiff, but close. BP was right, I needed to lubricate the locks and window tracks. I was right, the issue with the locks was lubrication. The position switch is actuated by a rod attached to the key lock. The key lock is linked to the latching mechanism by a rod. The latching mechanism is linked to the interior lock lever by a rod. The motor is somehow attached to the interior lever. That puts no less than three linkages between the motor and the position switch, and everything was very stiff. Things move very smoothly now and the power locking system works reliably. Problem is resolved.
Problem#9 - Sun visor clips broken
The new sun visor clips arrived. I quickly found out why the old ones had broken off. There is something wrong, either the clip part number or the sun visors, themselves. The clips were way too tight. I had to file them to open them up so that the visors would easily clip in and out. I hate taking a file to a couple of cheap pieces of plastic that I just bought for $53 combined, but there was no way those were going to work as they came out of the packaging. It is nice having the visors secured now and the color seemed a perfect match. Problem resolved.
Problem#12 - Dome light not working
Since I was working overhead, I decided to take a look at the dome light. I pulled down the assembly, pulled out the bulb, and then tested the connections. I found no power to the fixture. Since I couldn’t figure out how to troubleshoot wiring behind the headliner, I decided to just put it back together with a goal of getting the fixture to sit more level. As I pushed the assembly into place, the light came on. I have no idea what I did to fix this, but it seems likely that the ground wire was loose, and I somehow reconnected the ground just by playing around with it. Not only is the light now working, but it is also sitting a lot nicer. I will consider this problem resolved.
Re: 1991 Jaguar XJ-S
I registered my car. I really like that I have yet to find a line at the treasurer’s office. I also like the fact that it is one stop for title and registration. I am not overly thrilled with paying sales tax on a 33-year-old car, but at least it is only 4% here. I had four options for plates, regular, custom, historic, or use a 1991 plate with the historic registration. The 1991 plates are just as ugly as the new ones and don’t even have the year on them. The historic plates aren’t exactly attractive. Historic registration either way adds annual mileage reporting and a few extra dollars. I couldn’t come up with an exciting custom and it was just going to be printed on an ugly SD plate anyway, so I just put on regular plates. I think with historic plates I could have avoided a front plate, but the front bumper has holes and a recess for a plate, so this is one car that looks better with than without.
Problem#21-Keys
My new ignition key arrived a couple days ago and it works. My new key blanks arrived today. Ace Hardware cut them for me and they work. The new key blanks were the thin-flanged universal key for my car, so they work all of the locks (the thick-flanged valet key only works the doors and the fuel door). The old universal key was bent so it will not squeeze into the glove box lock. The new keys now allow me to lock the glovebox. The bent key does work in the trunk, but the trunk lock is bent so that is likely where the key got bent. The new keys work the trunk just fine so the lock isn’t that messed up. I get pretty excited about solving stupid problems. I now have two sets of fully functional keys (only one valet key). Getting that second set of keys cost me $62, including tax and shipping. My new keys don’t exactly match the original key logos so I will use those as my functional set rather than the originals.
I also have two original Jaguar key rings. One came with the car and is engraved with the original dealer and phone number. The phone number is still used by Kempthorn Motors, but it is currently area code 330 instead of 216 as shown on the fob. The 330 area code was created in 1996 which further supports the key ring being original. The other Jaguar key ring is one I received from Jaguar Cleveland when I bought my 1999 XJR. Some eBay sellers list this one as late 80’s through early 90’s, so period-correct for my current car but not the ’99. Perhaps Jaguar Cleveland was just sitting on some old key rings when I got my car. On eBay, I see that key ring listed from $50 to $150, not that anyone is paying that much for them. For the other one, I have found some similar dealer engraved key rings on eBay listed for $25, but I haven’t found an exact match. Those might not be original Jaguar promotional key rings. Those might be something dealers purchased through other channels. Either way, both add a little interesting history to my car. Perhaps a future owner will find this as interesting as I do.
I also have two original Jaguar key rings. One came with the car and is engraved with the original dealer and phone number. The phone number is still used by Kempthorn Motors, but it is currently area code 330 instead of 216 as shown on the fob. The 330 area code was created in 1996 which further supports the key ring being original. The other Jaguar key ring is one I received from Jaguar Cleveland when I bought my 1999 XJR. Some eBay sellers list this one as late 80’s through early 90’s, so period-correct for my current car but not the ’99. Perhaps Jaguar Cleveland was just sitting on some old key rings when I got my car. On eBay, I see that key ring listed from $50 to $150, not that anyone is paying that much for them. For the other one, I have found some similar dealer engraved key rings on eBay listed for $25, but I haven’t found an exact match. Those might not be original Jaguar promotional key rings. Those might be something dealers purchased through other channels. Either way, both add a little interesting history to my car. Perhaps a future owner will find this as interesting as I do.
Problem#30-Gasoline smell in trunk
The fuel odor in the trunk seemed to be getting worse so I tore into the trunk yesterday to investigate. To my relief, the fuel system is very clean. Rusty tanks and lines are the scary problems with fuel odors in the trunk. I was also happy with the layout of everything. I hadn’t realized that the fuel tank sits up high behind the back seat and over the differential. This allowed Jaguar to use an inline fuel pump mounted low in the trunk. I had to start the car to find the leak. Once pressurized, I noticed a steady drip coming from the outlet side of the fuel pump. I disconnected the outlet hose and cut it a little shorter to give the hose clamp a new bite. It still leaked. This morning after a stop at the parts store here in town, I replaced the entire line between the pump and the filter, including replacing the hose clamps. It still leaks. Throughout this process, I kept watching underneath the pump with my new inspection camera and it really looks like the pump housing is leaking rather than the hose connection. I still find that hard to believe, but a new pump is on the way, along with some better high pressure hose clamps. The pump that is in there is the original.
Jaguar has such a bad reputation, so I am continually surprised at how straightforward everything has been I have had to pay ridiculous amounts of money for cheap plastic interior bits, but the mechanical parts continue to be cheap and readily available. The fuel pump is used on dozens of different brands and models. I could get a cheap Chinese pump for less than $20, but I did spend a hundred getting a Bosch as the cheap ones have a reputation for being noisy.
Jaguar has such a bad reputation, so I am continually surprised at how straightforward everything has been I have had to pay ridiculous amounts of money for cheap plastic interior bits, but the mechanical parts continue to be cheap and readily available. The fuel pump is used on dozens of different brands and models. I could get a cheap Chinese pump for less than $20, but I did spend a hundred getting a Bosch as the cheap ones have a reputation for being noisy.
Problem#10 - license plate lights deteriorated
Today my new license lights arrived. I couldn’t bring myself to pay $100 for the originals and it doesn’t make sense in the modern world. I took a few measurements and surfed the internet until I found some aftermarket LED license lights that had dimensions I could work with. By a funny coincidence, they were Jetta lights, but they were an earlier generation of Jetta than mine. It was a relatively easy project. I used my new soldering iron to attach wires and my new crimping tool to put on ends that would work with the existing wiring. The spade ends had to be modified as the originals were not as wide as normal spade connectors, so I used my new rotary tool to fit those. I had to drill a couple of holes and then screw the new light into place using the original housing. There is a gap and I did add a couple of plastic pieces over the gap. This is not a fully sealed assembly, but this is not a rain car.
Final installation
Old vs New
They work
Final installation
Old vs New
They work
Problem#30-Gasoline smell in trunk
The fuel pump arrived and I installed it. The electrical connections had to be changed. I had to fabricate a rubber mount for the pump as the old one was glued to the old pump. I adjusted the hose length of the new section of hose I put in the other day which improved the routing. I installed a new “fuel injection” hose clamp on the outlet of the pump. I also adjusted the mounting bracket to allow the pump to sit at a slightly less steep angle to allow the outlet hose to bend less abruptly against the floor of the trunk. I fired the car up and found no leakage. I have not test driven the car yet as the roads are wet right now (heading into better weather tomorrow). I don’t see anything obviously wrong with the old pump, but I have solved the serious dripping leakage, so I don’t think there was any downside to replacing the pump. The rate at which it was leaking was significant; I calculated roughly a tenth of a gallon per hour while pressurized and likely still some loss with the pump off. I have marked this problem as resolved, but I will be monitoring it to verify that. I was confident enough to put the entire trunk back together (spare, carpeting, fuel system cover, and battery cover).
It was the first time I had pulled the spare tire out and the date code on that one is 330 which is a pre-2000 3-digit date code which can only mean the 33rd week of 1990. The tire was made in Germany, which further supports the tire being original. I am sure this Goodyear V-rated tire is a collector’s item. Let me know if you are interested. It still holds air, probably the original air, if that helps.
My Amazon order today also included the Repair Operation Manual (aka ROM) for my car. It is 600 pages of schematics, drawings, and procedures for repairing most of the systems in the car. This was published by Jaguar, themselves, and was intended for their mechanics. This will help tremendously when I start diving into more complicated systems. It wasn’t cheap, but I suspect it will be money well spent. This thing is like a Haynes manual on steroids.
It was the first time I had pulled the spare tire out and the date code on that one is 330 which is a pre-2000 3-digit date code which can only mean the 33rd week of 1990. The tire was made in Germany, which further supports the tire being original. I am sure this Goodyear V-rated tire is a collector’s item. Let me know if you are interested. It still holds air, probably the original air, if that helps.
My Amazon order today also included the Repair Operation Manual (aka ROM) for my car. It is 600 pages of schematics, drawings, and procedures for repairing most of the systems in the car. This was published by Jaguar, themselves, and was intended for their mechanics. This will help tremendously when I start diving into more complicated systems. It wasn’t cheap, but I suspect it will be money well spent. This thing is like a Haynes manual on steroids.