msmicksmith

Welcome to the club.

You did well with the Rover. I've owned 3 in the past and, like my French cars, vowed never to own another so long as my lungs have air in them.

Either you got the pride of the production line or I got all 3 Friday cars!!

I found build quality to be dreadful and the chassis on my 820 Vitesse would have been better use supporting fairy cakes instead of the 2.0 Turbo!

I've had some excellent cars but the Jag is firmly in my top 3. All 3 Rovers are in my bottom 6 along with my 3 other French cars.

Hope you have a long and lasting relationship with Jaguar and if you need any assistance, this forum is great!

Some seriously generous people on this forum!! What a fantastic gesture Peter!

Mark at Classic Cars is a really nice guy and well worth a trip. I'd check the car out myself but I'm nearly 2 hours away.

My car wasn't perfect when I viewed it.It had a split rear tyre, the front brake discs were knackered and the front spring snapped on test drive, but Mark sorted the spring properly with a Sport spring too not just some cheap replacement. I negotiated my price with him based on me having to replace the discs and replace the tyre but when I collected the car he had fitted a new, matching, rear tyre so I only had the discs to sort.

The overall condition of the car was so good though, that despite leaving him a deposit for a car which had a broken spring, buggered brakes and a knackered tyre, it was too good to walk away from. Now it's all fixed, the car is excellent and I see no reason why this black one should be any different.

hey thanks a lot for this..I'm no mechanic type,  but my brother is, so thanks again..

Can you recommend the best place to look for an X type for 3.5k?

Autotrader??

I actually found mine on eBay. A small dealer who trades from home. Have a look on his eBay site as he usually has a lot of Jags in.

Check this one out on his eBay account - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OUTSTANDING-2005-JAGUAR-X-TYPE-2-0D-SPORT-DIESEL-103000-MILES-LONG-MOT-/131072021811?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1e84805533

If you look at his other items, he has a petrol Jag for sale too. I recommend him as a trader (which is rare for me!!) He was a pleasure to deal with, honest, straight talking and sold me a cracking Jag.

He had a 2.0D in at the time I bought mine, but I specifically wanted the 2.2D Sport. This black one of his looks superb and he is worth travelling for. His cars all seem to be very good examples. I'm chuffed with mine and I wouldn't hesitate to view another of his again.

Let us all know how you get on if you decide to go.

Thanks Peter, that is logical.

I just found a pair on eBay from Kent Jaguar. Genuine pair of fronts for £30 delivered. Needless to say, they are now sold ;-)

Welcome aboard. I bought my first Jag a couple of months ago too. I'm 40 and have owned 47 cars now but won't be buying anything other than a Cat in future. X-Type 2.2D Sport for now but working towards a 3.0D XF next!

Enjoy your new Jag and feel free to ask for any advice on here. Pictures of your car will be most welcomed

Can anyone shed any light on this for me please?

I bought the rear anti roll bar bushes from my local Jaguar dealer in Peterborough yesterday for £6.50 each.

The front ones aren't in stock but are priced at a shade over £30 each!! Why is this??

Given that they are virtually identical in shape and size, why the cost difference? The part numbers are indeed different, but I can see no obvious reason for the price.

I've had a look on some pattern part websites and they also show a vast difference in price between front and rear. I don't want to fit pattern parts. I favour genuine parts every time, but I'll settle for a quality set of patterns as the price is just ludicrous.

Check the front springs aren't corroded as they are prone to snapping. Mine did but it's an easy repair if you have the tools and springs aren't costly.

I'm fitting rear anti-roll bar bushes today and am ordering the front ones to do next week. That will cure the slight body roll mine has. Given that mine is the 2.2D Sport, the cornering is a shade wallowy so the  bushes will correct that. Again, an easy repair.

Check out my post from last month regarding ECU tuning and fuel additives - http://www.jaguarownersclub.com/forums/topic/9483-ecu-tuning/

Some good info there regarding keeping the engine internals clean and the EGR etc.

Apart from that the only thing I'd recommend is that you check panel fit on any X-Type you view. The bonnet of some doesn't fit around the headlights as neatly as it should and is an indication of a repair job. It should fit perfectly around the lights, but some have uneven gaps.

The 2.0D is a good motor but I think a little lacking in 'oomph'. I know of one member who had his 2.0D ECU chipped and it made it quicker than the 2.2D his son has, but it still is a 5spd gearbox. The 2.2D is a 6spd and is a cracking motor. I had mine chipped a few weeks ago and it's !Removed! mental!! Outran a 3.0D XF the other day!

Pics are obligatory when you find your pride and joy  ;)

Excellent. Glad you got iy sorted easily.

I'll take a look at thay website. Thanks for the feedback

I paid 4k for my 2.2D Sport a couple of months ago. In regard to cam-belts, the 2.2 has a chain, which, provided the car has been maintained well and serviced properly, will last the life of the motor.

Things I've found with mine - 

Front discs were sh@@ged! I replaced both discs and a set of pads for £63 though (Apec parts).

A bit smokey, but after using Millers Diesel EcoMax and 2-stroke Oil, it now runs quietly and completely smoke free. Read one of my earlier posts regarding the fuel additives.

The Oil in the engine was like treacle. The servicing garage obviously used their bulk-bought Oil which was too thick. I replaced it with Mobil 3000 5W/30 and a genuine Jag oil filter.

Apart from that, mine is faultless. The 2.2 is a much better motor than the 2.0

I had mine chipped a couple of weeks ago by Celtic Tuning, and it now performs like a petrol turbo instead of a diesel and still returns the same economy.

Well worth the £295. Totally transformed the drive!

I can't see the point of the 2.2 in any form other than the Sport. It's a lively motor with loads of low-down grunt and without the Sport suspension it would be a waste of a good engine in my opinion. The response of the engine fits well with the firmer ride and sharper handling, especially now it's chipped!

Welcome aboard!

Easiest way is to find a breaker, possibly eBay, and cut the wiring leaving one longer than the other to ease insulating them, and solder it onto your wiring loom having cut your plug off leaving the wires in similar staggered fashion. Once insulated it'll be fine. If you can, get some insulating sheath. This is slipped over the wires prior to soldering, then you simply slide it over the soldered section and heat it gently with a heat gun or a naked flame if you don't have one and it shrinks to form a tight, weatherproof seal around your repair.

Autoglass it is then ;-)

Not sure what they have in stock but try these - http://www.justjagsuk.com

Thanks Peter. I'll do just that!

Cheers

Can't recommend Autoglym products enough.
Spent a couple of hours with the Body Protection shampoo, and the Deep Gloss polish today and the Jag wouldn't look out of place in my local dealers showroom!

If you love your Jag, buy it some Autoglym. I forgot how good it is but can safely say I'll never buy anything else in future!

Welcome to the club Graham.

Can I get one too??

Are you fully comp insured? 'Accidently' drop a brick onto it and crack it. £65 on insurance and usually it's Autoglass who fit it and I can recommend them highly. In fact, I never call my insurance company for windscreens. Call Autoglass with your insurance policy number and they'll tell you if you have windscreen cover and book a date and time to suit you either on your drive or your workplace

Anytime Peter

Oh, I forgot Peter, the 8p a litre more expensive diesel will probably make no noticeable difference to your car. It might run a little smoother or little more responsively, and you might get a marginal increase in mpg, but you won't really notice it. How these fuels differ is in the additives they have in them. All fuel refineries do it a little differently from each other. The bog-standard supermarket diesel will be like a version of Tesco Value or Sainsbury's Basics. Same fuel, none of the frills.

The more expensive supermarket stuff will have a few more things added to it to aid cleaner running, anti-foaming etc.

The branded stuff, such as BP or ESSO, is where the most 'extras' are found. These will have more additives in them to aid lubrication of the fuel pump and to prevent noisy detonation etc. You get what you pay for really.

The Millers EcoPower that I mentioned is around £11 a bottle and treats 10 tankfuls so it works out to be less expensive than using the top branded diesel and probably does a much better job. I add the 2 stroke Oil just to give a little reassurance that my pump, injectors and other essential components are being lubricated properly regardless of what fuel I use.

If I were to run my Jag from new on branded fuel and add a little of my own additives, I'd expect virtually nothing to go wrong with my fuel supply system, egr valve etc for around 200k miles and I've known cars with in excess of 300k with no faults! If I ran it on supermarket diesel from new, I'd expect to be replacing things such as the EGR valve from around 80k mile. Injectors will clog up give poor atomisation from around 50k and I expect would fail completely after around 100-130k. A lot of what you hear about failing injectors, pumps, egr valves etc on diesel cars is partially as a result of running on poor quality fuel.

Peter, I won't claim to be an expert as I'm not. I turned 40 last weekend, so you could say that with 36 years of doing it myself, I'm very experienced, but not an expert. My dad and I used to strip engines, gearboxes, cylinder heads etc etc when I was in single figures, but he taught me the value of doing the job right and using the correct tools and parts.

I am meticulous with everything I do, and I get increasingly frustrated when I find people I know who have taken their cars for repairs at a garage only to find they've used cheap alternative parts and not done a thorough job. For example, how difficult, costly or time consuming is it to pop a smear of copper grease on brake pad locating lugs, or onto wheel stud threads when refitting wheels? Or to use a torque wrench to tighten wheel nuts instead of an air gun?

It's the simple things and the attention to detail that make a repair correct and worth the money you pay. If you've found a garage you trust that does things properly then stick with them. They are a dying breed. Many garages now buy Oil in bulk drums as it is cheaper for them. Modern cars run on much thinner oils these days due to tighter fitting components where thicker Oil just cannot penetrate, and the local 'backstreet' garage offering £60 services will undoubtedly use their bulk bought 10W/40 in your Jag engine which requires 5W/30, simply because they either don't know or don't care.

Feel free to message me if you need any help. If I don't have the answers I know several people in the professional trade who can help find out.

Peter, I use supermarket diesel as well as branded. If the price is right it goes in the tank. There's a lot of controversy surrounding it on the Internet but I've never had any problems with it. The reason I add the Millers and the 2 stroke is because diesel has been stripped of a lot of its engine saving ingredients in recent years and isn't the great, combustlible, lubricating stuff it used to be. A bit like leaded petrol vs 92RON. These additives boost both the combustibity of the fuel, and clean dirt deposits from injector heads, valve surfaces and gas channels in inlet and exhaust, which aids smoother running, response, economy and rattling (which is just noisy detonation and can be heard in the top of the engine and exhaust manifold) and the 2 stroke helps with lubricating the vital parts. The 2 stroke is designed to burn in an engine as it is mixed in a 2 stroke system to aid lubrication. The top quality stuff simply burns up completely into smaller particles than normal soot and is expelled fully through the exhaust.

No manufacturer recommends the use of additives purely because they can't control what you are putting in and they have warranty claims to consider. I don't use engine Oil additives as a rule. I simply use a good engine flush solution and religiously use only Mobil oils. My Jag currently has Mobil 3000 in it and a genuine filter, not a rubbish pattern part which actually costs more!

Glad ot helps someone Steve.

I've worked on cars and engines from the age of 4. My dad started me by showing me how to strip and rebuild a Mercedes Benz carburettor. Although I'm not a qualified mechanic, I never use garages for anything, and of the 46 cars I've owned (I'm 40!) None of them have seen inside a garage except at MoT time.

I've used just about every additive there is and most of them are useless. Millers tops redex in my book. Another one I've found to be excellent is Ametech Engine Restore. Not cheap, and you need to add it at every old change, but does exactly what is says on the tin!

It's not the Oil that makes the engine quieter. The Oil just adds more lubrication to the fuel delivery system and the valves and seats. Modern diesel is low sulphur and has various additives depending on which you buy. Supermarket diesel lacks the quantity of additives that you would get from say BP and as a result burns differently. The Oil just gives a bit extra lubrication which isn't a bad thing obviously. Most diesel these days doesn't have the lubricating properties that it used to have 10 years ago thanks to EU emissions regulations. By using the 2 stroke oil, it is designed to be burned in the combustion chamber and using the fully synthetic, low ash stuff you get fewer, if any, deposits in the exhaust system, EGR valve, catalytic converter etc.

The Millers EcoMax is what does the quietening and gives the extra engine response by raising the cetane level of the fuel. With a higher cetane level the fuel ignites more readily and burns faster, hotter and more completely. Because of this, it makes the engine run smoother, quieter and more responsively. Just the same as unleaded having a 92, 95 and a 97 Octane rating. The higher the Octane, the more combustible the fuel.

Hi Steve,

Jaguar did produce cars with a lot of optional extras. Sounds like yours is like mine. Mine is the Sport but has cruise control, bluetooth, xenon lights and a few other bits that weren't standard on that model.

Good result from CT. You should book with them. You won't regret it.

As for Millers, it is the diesel eco max that I use. I've used redex before and it does the job of gradually cleaning but it isn't a patch on the Miller stuff. The difference is noticeable within a couple of miles. As soon as it's mixed up in the tank and delivered to the pump, you can hear and feel the difference. Throttle response is improved almost immediately and the engine quietens noticeably.

Try this link for the Oil. This is the stuff I use -http://shop.1stmx.co.uk/castrol-2-stroke-motocross-oil-power-1-racing-2t-13268-p.asp

Cheers

Mick

In addition to my last post, I have been running my Jag with 'Millers EcoPower' fuel additive and Castrol fully synthetic, Low-Ash, 2-stroke Oil.

I add both to the fuel tank with each fill-up. Millers uses 50ml per tank, and I put about the same in of the 2-stroke Oil. The difference is a massively quieter and smoother engine and it is noticeable immediately. Cold starts no longer sound like a Massey-Ferguson, and at a 50-60mph cruise I can no longer hear the engine.

Millers raises the combustibility of the diesel so you get a cleaner, more complete burn which results in less soot and nothing to block EGR valves, and the Oil adds lubrication to the fuel system and the top end of the engine. You need to make sure you use top-quality fully synthetic 2-stroke oil. It must be the low-ash variety. It leaves no particles in the exhaust system so doesn't clog DPF's  or EGR's. 

Before using this combination, I would get the usual diesel smoke under low-rev hard acceleration which could be clearly seen at night in the car headlights behind. Now it emits nothing! No smoke at all regardless of what I do. And if you do the maths, it equates to an additional cost of around £1.40 per tankful. Well worth it in my opinion.

Hope this helps someone