02 Jag X-type

[95naSTA]

Thanks but I'm just trying to balance cheapness with worsening OCD and mediocre diagnosing skills.

[95naSTA]

A couple more updates and memories with this car.

This car had some custom collision bodywork done to it over the past few years on the passenger side. It wasn't super bad but it's been bothering me. A few months back I was browsing car-part.com and I saw that there were passenger doors available locally in the same color for $75/door. Now I know the color might not be 100% but I've had success with miss-matched panels on 4-5 cars in the past. I checked the paint depth when I got to the salvage yard.. it did not match my car (thinner) but at the price I was willing to take the chance.. especially since the door skin seams all around was in better shape. My doors are starting to hint some corrosion. The doors had been sitting for a while but looked like they would clean up nice.

Clean up:





Custom body work:





Installed:



So, I did not completely win the color match lottery but it is very hard to tell in-person. I actually thought it was a 100% match until I looked at the pictures. I'm a pack rat so I'll hold onto the original doors for a while just in case the color match bothers me more. I did eraser wheel the pin stripe off and do a quick polish in that area. The area behind the rear door still has some damage and the bumpers have been bumped but I think this car is a paint and headlight polish away from something that presents well.

With regards to the memory making - this car has now taken me to H.S. graduation, been borrowed for dates with my now wife (when my Bonneville was broken), seen both east and west coasts, has taken my newborn son home from the hospital in San Diego and last week took my newborn daughter home from the hospital in Philly. This certainly isn't a forever car for me but it's a cool car to keep on the road given it's family history.

[Sirius]

Wait...what?! New daughter!? Awesome! Congratulations!

[95naSTA]

Yessir! Thank you!

[95naSTA]

After replacing several parts of the AC system last year it ended up getting weak at the end of the summer. I made that a later me problem and picked back up with it a few weeks ago. First I checked the pressure and it was zero.. Then I bought a UV light and yellow glasses kit because I lost my last one. I found a couple possible areas that may be leaks but it was hard to tell if it was just dis-colorization or a leak.

My painter buddy suggested I make an adapter from a cheap AC recharge kit to put shop air into it then soak it all down with soapy water. I bought a cheap AC charge hose then started to look up how to properly adapt the 12 oz R134a can threads to an air hose fitting. It started getting expensive and annoying so I decided to see how far off the threads really were.. I was able to get maybe a turn and a half out of the air fitting into the AC charge hose fitting. So, I decided to take it apart and JB Weld it in. It held pressure without issue and I found out the pressure relief valve near the compressor was leaking.. Jag doesn't sell it separate from the line assembly ($250) and the closest example I could find with someone only replacing the valve was someone with a S Type that found a Ford part that worked. I started going down that rabbit hole but just decided to get a used line assembly with the valve ($47 shipped).

I swapped the used valve in with a new o-ring and there was no more visible leak. I pulled a vacuum on it for 7 mins or so, waited to make sure it held, then charged it. The high side seems a little high for 63*F ambient when I looked at reference charts but the AC temp was getting 15* below ambient parked and up to 20* below ambient while driving. So it's definitely working ok right now.









One other thing that was bothering me was the trunk seal had let go in a couple spots. It's NLA so I got a good used one.

[95naSTA]

My wife has wanted a backup camera for a while.. I've been putting it off mainly because it would take me longer to be satisfied with my choice in direction than it would to actually install. Originally I wanted forward rear dash cams integrated in with a reverse cam and have it all in the rear view mirror. I opted not to go that route since it seems the only options for all those features are either heavily reliant on input via touch screen and/or use the rear camera as primary display. That also just doesn't seem robust to me and I know it would be annoying for my wife. So I went with an older AUTO-VOX T2 setup. I'll take the simplicity and relatively decent reviews from the last 5 years over the additional tech. The primary thing here was a backup camera so that box is checked and the wife is happy.

Installation wasn't terrible mechanically. I had to drill a hole and add a rubber grommet behind the trim above the license plate. The camera mount is just a bracket that gets screwed in with the license plate and other than fishing the wire up through the C pillar, the rest was easy. Electrically, it was dead simple. Power comes from the reverse light and it took 10 seconds to find with a power probe. That gets tapped and all that's left is a ground. Once you put the car in reverse, the mirror goes from a normal mirror to a combo with the LCD camera display.








Quick wash from the other week.


One of these years I'll refresh the headlights..

[95naSTA]

My wife called me the other day on her way home to let me know this car had a new noise. There was some fluid leaking from the engine bay on the driver side and a noise coming from the passenger side of the bay. One of the power steering cooler hard lines was rubbing on the transmission case and sprung a leak and the p/s pump was starved of fluid. I think I bent/tweaked this line back when I did the transmission when I got the car. It never quite sat right and the trans mount might be sagging at this point.

Since the line was low pressure, not seeping anywhere else and looked like a pita to replace, I decided to splice in another soft line to replace the damaged section. I used Continental fuel injection line and some fuel injection style clamps. I also bubble flared the ends so the new soft line would hold.





It's not the best angle for the picture but there's plenty of clearance near the trans and LCA bracket. The line by the axle is secured by a bracket. I isolated the line in the front (Left) to the subframe with zip ties and made sure to have a section of hose so there wouldn't be metal on metal.

Finally, I did a partial flush by filling the reservoir, clocking the wheel with the engine running, removing the fluid from the reservoir with a baster, then repeating 7-8 times.

[95naSTA]

The car was still making some noise presumably from the PS system so I decided to change the pump. It's sort of a PITA since it's in the back of the engine packaged under the head and against the firewall. Basically the same as a 3800 but way less space.

I bought this green fold-able flexible funnel for this car since the oil filter is right above the pre-cat. I got to use it again here so I didn't soak the subframe, LCA bushing and exhaust.




While the pump did help, there's still a low RPM hydraulic noise transmitted through the column. I searched the issue some more and there is actually a TSB that describes my symptoms. They call for mixing in 50ml of a specific additive. I have that on order so I'll try that next.

The car seems like it needs wheel bearings. That's on the horizon..

Also.. this car was involved in a minor accident that requires some paint work to fix. I'm thinking of having more of the car painted at the same time since we're trying to hang on to this thing for a bit longer. I've talked to a painter about it but plans are just that until moves are made.

[Sirius]

So was the PS pump R&R unnecessary? That's my usual M.O. Like the time I replaced the driveshaft carrier bearing on my 03 Silverado because of a rhythmic humming coming up from the floor. Turned out to be a completely toasted left front wheel bearing. Whoda thunk? lol

The price of paint is redonkulous anymore. House latex is pricey enough, but automotive paint is like liquid gold. Gonna spray it yourself?

[95naSTA]

Hard to say on the PS pump. There was an improvement but who knows if the TSB additive I have on order would have worked with the old pump.

I may have done the same thing on this car with the driveshaft carrier bearing. That's why I'm moving on to the wheel bearings. I ordered the front only, for now, since I know I can only knock out one pair, fronts or rears, in one day at my buddies shop (11a-430p). The fronts are like my old i30 where it presses into the knuckle and onto the hub. At least I have that fancy new trick with the oxy-acetylene torch to get the inner race off the hub. The rears are a full assembly like the Bonneville.

I'm not going to try shooting it myself.. Maybe one day I'll try hopping back on that horse when I have more real estate. I tried dabbling with shooting 2k primer on the Bonneville and failed miserably. My painter buddy did mention that this particular color will be cheap since so many manufactures used some variant of it in the 00s.

[95naSTA]

I knocked out the drivers side front wheel bearing a couple weeks ago and it took way longer than I would have liked. The other shouldn't take as long but it'll be fun. I also have to do the rack. With the reviews of the available aftermarket racks being terrible, OEM being out of the budget, I decided to go used OEM (80k miles) and replace the inner/outer tie rods and boots. The outer tie rods on the car were new when I did the suspension less than 2 years ago but I noticed the boots were already starting to tear when I did the one wheel bearing.




Here's some potato phone (texted) pics of the repaint progress. I have the car back but still have to finish reassembly. The door+drip moldings will be ready next week. After it's fully together, I'll post some real before and afters.

I'm extremely happy with how this turned out. My painter buddy absolutely killed it.

[95naSTA]

I wasn't sure if I would get to re-assembly today but I did. Still need to get the door and roof/drip rail trim.

Before and afters:

[Sirius]

It's a beaut, Clark!

[95naSTA]

Haha. Thanks. It certainly lights up like a Christmas tree for me.

[95naSTA]

Snuck in some more work on this.

The front door card plastic that holds the mounting clips at the top is basically too crispy to plastic weld anymore. I've tried it a couple times with mesh and each time is lasts less time. I tried to figure out another way to secure the door card and realized I can probably hide some fasteners behind the wood trim above the arm rest. I figured out where the sheet metal was closest to the card behind the trim and drilled 2 holes there, through the card. I put some riv-nuts in, verified the window wouldn't make contact and it ended up working out really well. I've been meaning to get a riv-nut kit for a while and I'm happy I finally got one for this. Also, the leather conveniently ends up being like nylon on a lock nut at the head of the fasteners.






Now, if I just threw the molding back in, I would have to probably break it to get it back off due to how the metal clips cut into it. I decided to bend the securing teeth back some then add some foam tape to the trim to make sure it's still tight. The teeth will bite into the foam but I can still slide the trim out without ruining it.





I didn't have time to knock out the other front door card but it's not as bad and doesn't see nearly as much use. I'll copy/paste on that side sometime in the future.

I also picked up some cheap ebay center caps that did not fit correctly. The diameter was right but the depth was too far so it would sit loose in the bore. I tried adding the smallest zip ties I have to the ends of the mounting tabs but it was too thick. I looked around for rubber bands but all I could find was my daughter's hair ties.. Since there was probably 100 of various colors, I permanently borrowed some and they worked out perfectly.

[Sirius]

Hair ties...is there anything they can't do?

[95naSTA]

Haha. Guess not.

[95naSTA]

The starter on this car started acting up again last week.

May '22, 106k, OEM starter started to get a lazy solenoid, causing gear not to fully mesh with flexplate. Replaced with OE Bosch (FCP Euro)
Feb '23, 111k, OE Bosch replaced under FCP warranty due to intermittent lazy solenoid and residual noise after starting. Somewhere between 106 and 111k, I pulled the starter to deburr any problem teeth on the flywheel through the starter hole. There were a hand full of teeth that were damaged but after deburring still had probably 80% or so of the material left.
Aug '24, 119k, Lazy solenoid issue causing it to not start 4x in a row. After the car cooled down for 10 mins, it started. The solenoid issue maybe happened 1-2x prior to the 4x in a row issue over 8k miles. Teeth were checked again with no new damage. Replaced with another Bosch unit under FCP warranty.

For the last two starters, it seemed like the intermittent lazy solenoid issue was only when the engine was hot. I was thinking 22 year old cables might be a contributing factor getting the correct amperage to the starter. So, I picked up a 4 GA OFC power/ground kit and ran an additional power line battery to starter then a new ground from starter to battery. I personally think this is a Bosch outsourcing quality issue. But, since I'm not buying a Jag starter or taking my chances with other parts store chinesium, I figure I would at least address any other variables I can think of.

I also replaced the PCV since I don't have any record of replacing it.

[95naSTA]

The drip rails and door moldings are on. I don't have a before pic but the drip rails previously had clear failure for a few years now. The painter had to take them down to metal and I'm glad he went the extra mile on that too.







I also installed the refreshed (tie rods) steering rack. I was able to sneak it out of the driver's side wheel well after dropping the subframe slightly. It went pretty smooth, smooth enough for me to have time to commandeer my buddy's alignment rack for a toe and go.






I didn't mention this a few posts back when I did the front driver side wheel bearing but the outboard brake pad shim on that side twisted and was grinding on the rotor. I clocked it back and bent back the mounting tab that was supposed to prevent that from happening.. I didn't check the passenger side then but had a chance to now. Turns out it was exactly the same. Pretty strange. This is at least my 3rd Powerstop Z23 brake kit I've used and the first time with this issue.

[95naSTA]

The drivers side rocker molding had a couple broken mounting tabs before paint and a couple more either let go or cracked during the R&R for paint. I found some Devcon 2-part plastic welding epoxy in my garage and gave that a shot for reconnecting after roughing up the mating surfaces. Most of the vertical mounting clips crumbled when it was removed also. The original clips were superseded and NLA. I tried some generic clips off Amazon which turned out to be too big then went for a set from ebay (China) that took a while but fit good.