The Voices

Guys, I really hate to rain on the parade but basically the Sport 200 was just the standard 2003 model year Sport with the 2004 facelift front bumper and a few bits from the options list added as standard. It doesn't have the 2004 onwards rear lights so isn't the full facelift version. The only 'R Performance' bits I can think of that came with the car are the the 18" split rims which were listed in the R Performance accessory brochure and the S-Type R style bumper. If memory serves me correctly they came to us without the Sport 200 badge and we stuck them on at the dealership (up until last year I had a jiffy bag full of the 'XS' limited edition badges in my desk drawer !) They are a very nice car and nice spec but I don't think the value is much more than a standard S-Type Sport with the same engine size. Unfortunately there are lots of incorrectly described S-Types out there, XS versions especially but plenty of 'Sport 200's' as well. Many have the incorrect description registered with the DVLA / HPi' Having one the 200 produced is still fantastic !

I am using a 16GB stick at the moment with no problems ? I know very little about computers and file storage formats but I have in my mind someone mentioning 'FAT 32' format and inability to work with more than 32GB USB sticks but bear in mind this may be absolute rubbish on my part !

I have been doing a few miles over Christmas and using the S-Type instead of my company car (at the moment I have a 163ps manual XE Prestige and the manual gearbox is not my weapon of choice in the XE) All seems fine at the moment but could be famous last words ?

The new rear discs and pads are on, no obvious cause for the incredible rate of wear on the NS outer pad which was down to the metal. The piston and slider pins were moving freely ? Only suggestion was that the rubber brake hoses may have 'perished' with age, possibly allowing the piston in the caliper to 'extend' but not 'retract' I will monitor the situation, the only braided stainless brake hoses I can find are made by Stoptech, I would prefer to upgrade rather than replace with standard rubber hoses if I do have to replace them.

Respect ! I wish I had the motivation or the energy ! Should have some more information by tomorrow evening on the cause of problem.

Thanks Peter, I will get to the bottom of the problem one way or another ! What are you doing up and about at 4.45 AM ? I got up at 7.45 today but only because I have to go to work !

Bought new pads and discs today, £60 including VAT which is cheap for any car, let alone a Jaguar. Another one of our technicians is going to investigate the problem on Monday after work. I just want to get to the bottom of the problem, if it needs a replacement caliper I can get one ordered. My wife is giving me earache as she is having to 'slum it' in the Impreza and the manual gearbox is annoying her !

The honeymoon period is over ! My wife came in this afternoon and said 'the Jag is making a strange noise !' Took it round the block and indeed, there is a strange noise. On closer examination, the NSR brake is sticking on and has worn the outside pad down to the metal. The pads were only fitted a few weeks ago and the sliding pins on the caliper were 'freed off' and cleaned / greased at the same time, the piston did not appear to be sticking. The car has done less than 1,000 miles since. I am glad I only got the 'pattern' brake pads for £15, I would be really annoyed if I had just fitted the genuine ones at £95 ! Typically, I have been off all week and could have sorted this out if it had occurred earlier but back to work tomorrow. To make it worse, the technician that usually works on my car is now off for three weeks ! I need to investigate to see if replacement caliper, pins or just another clean and re-grease required. The park brake was re-calibrated after the pad swap as far as I am aware ?

The S-Type bluetooth setup won't support 'streaming audio' as far as I know. The cheapest solution would be one of the widely available FM transmitter type adaptors (I think Belkin do them ?) Used to be around the £20 mark. Headphone output from your phone plugs into the FM adaptor which then transmits an FM (VHF) signal which you can tune in on a spare preset on your radio. Sound quality varies but an easy / cheap way of getting music playback from your phone via the car stereo. There are various other ways including adaptors which use the input for the CD multichanger or the Parrot type kit that was fitted in my S-Type by the previous owner which does bluetooth streaming, USB input, SD card and I Pod !

My wife has reported back (as she is the main driver of the S-Type), she tells me that the gearbox behaviour has noticeably improved in terms of smoothness ? Glad that I got it done !

Replaced the drivers side on mine a couple of weeks ago. New price from a dealer is less than £20 so didn't bother buying a used one. I had to remove the door card (I used the guide for fitting new speakers to tell me what to do !) There are two screws under the rubber mat in the door handle that need to be removed and the trim clips around the edge of the door panel need to be 'popped' free (might be worth buying a few spare, they are prone to breaking) The trim panel around the chrome door release was a bit of a pain to unclip / remove I think. There are a couple of wiring plugs to disconnect if you want to remove the door card completely to get it out of harms way. I then removed the speaker from the door to give me better access to the check strap mechanism, two nuts attach it to the door, two screws attach the other end to the door frame. I have made it sound more complicated than it is to actually do the job ! Took me about half an hour I think, make sure you have the correct torx / spline bits for your screwdriver, don't think conventional cross heads are used ? Hope this helps.

I was blown away by the price, seemed too good to miss. The price included postage (from Germany I think ?) and took about a week. I work at a Jaguar dealership so got one of our technicians to fit them when he did the service !

Your car will be the 2004 onwards, facelifted model so I think it is on a different tyre size ? The 2002-2004 models like mine should run on 235/50/17 tyres from the factory as far as I am aware but 235/45 seems to be the common replacement option (our workshop fits this size to customers cars) I did a quick search on the 245/45/17 size and it would give me a speedo reading slightly closer to the 'reference' figure on the factory size for my car which would be better. The price for the Nexens in 245/45 is £64 each on mytyres, I only paid £70.40 for a pair of the 235/45 Goodrides from the same source ! Nexen tyres also get good reviews, I just looked for the best wet weather performance for the price and ended up with the Goodrides.

You want to spend some time on the Subaru forums where I hang out ! Most of the 'posters' are unable to construct a sentence and punctuation is just something that happens to other people !

I have been off work again this week as I only have until the end of December to get in as much of my annual leave as I can ! Had the gearbox oil and sump / filter replaced today using this kit purchased from my old buddy 'Ebay' http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252072504468?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT I checked and the oil specification appears to meet the ZF 'Lifetime 6' guidelines. The 'guide sleeve' was also replaced, new part number is C2C39599 and only costs around £10 from the dealership. Easy to spot the new version as it has black 'o' rings instead of the red / orange ones. My favourite master tech (and new best friend !) did a full service at the same time and replaced two tyres, only one was worn on the inner edge but I prefer to replace them as a pair. In line with the 'budget' nature of this cars remit, I went with some budget tyres on the back wheels. A pair of 'Goodride' 235/45/17 97W XL cost me £70.40 including delivery from MyTyres. I know that some people will question the use of a 'non-branded' tyre but the reviews were good and the 'B' wet weather performance, 'C' fuel economy and 72db noise rating is better than many of the brand name tyres. The correct tyre size is 235/50/17 but the previous owner had done the same as many S-Type drivers and gone for the cheaper and more widely available 235/45 profile, the speedo will read about 2mph 'optimistic' (true 58mph at indicated 60mph) Only driven 35 miles home from work in torrential rain but the tyres seem fine (bearing in mind that they have not been 'run in' yet) The gear box seems to be slightly smoother on the changes and not as eager to downshift, the oil and sump swap was done as a precautionary measure, not to solve any issues. Still enjoying the experience but wondered if anyone has dropped the 5.0 V8 engine into the S-Type R ?

I think that one of the navigation set up options is 'calibrate' ? This allows you to check that the navigation system has recognised the cars current location. It uses the current location as a reference point for guidance so if the cars position is incorrect on screen, the instructions given by the guidance system will also be incorrect. It is also worth checking that the route options are set to your preferences, if 'avoid major roads' is active you end up on a magical mystery tour !

Check the navigation settings in 'route preferences' Weird things happen if someone has set it to 'avoid major roads' or similar !

The leaper is a nice finishing touch but I am not sure myself ? Taking a drill to your car is quite traumatic but I used to have a customer who purchased a new XJ from me every 8-10 months but only on the understanding that I personally fitted a leaper for him (our workshop would not touch the job as we would be liable) Drilling holes in a brand new £50k Sovereign is a somewhat daunting experience as I remember !

My only regrets are that I did not buy a Jaguar sooner and wishing that I held out for a 3.0 V6 (minimum) or the 4.2 V8. 'She who must be obeyed' is the main driver and already loves it to bits. I already have itchy feet for the 'R' version but have been told that the Impreza has to go if I want the supercharger ? This is a real tough call for me as it is the 5th one I have owned and also puts a huge smile on my face when I drive it. All the best with your V8, had a read of your thread and sound like the seller was a graduate of the 'gestapo' charm school !

I have been off work this week and decided to fit the aftermarket heated seat kit from Ebay. The kit is the type with two pads per seat with 'carbon fibre' elements so the pads can be cut and two heat settings. I now realise why the guys I use at work charge £400 to supply and fit these ! Both seats out of the car, partially remove the leather covers (cutting the 'hog rings' is a pain in the.....) and then the real fun starts ! The sports seats in my S-Type have metal rods that run across the foam to attach the hog rings too as well as the usual metal rods running front to back. The instructions are poorly translated from the original Chinese but from scouring the internet it seems that I needed to cut out the mats to avoid contact with the metal rods running laterally. This was another pain in the..... neck, as was threading the cable ties under the metal rods to reattach the seat covers. I ended up removing the centre console and running new power feeds to each seat from the cigar lighter with individual heater switches on each seat. As far as I can tell from the Jaguar tech manual, the existing power supply to the seats is a constant live rather than switched so could leave me with a flat battery if I managed to leave them switched on. I took the opportunity to add an extra 12v socket in the armrest, my poverty spec car did not have it as a factory fit. So I now have heated seats that seem to work reasonably, take longer to heat up than the factory fit on my XE but I don't expect perfection. However..... I now have a bad back from carrying the seats around and covered in cuts and scratches from wrestling with the seat covers and hog rings ! I did consider taking some pictures but my antique digital camera has decided to expire, my mobile is so old that any attempt to take pictures on it results in sepia tinted pictures of people in Victorian dress !

Old thread but just out of interest the 'J' rating is not the speed rating ! It is 'J' for Jaguar, as in tyres developed specifically for use on Jaguars. Pirelli in particular developed specific tyres for Jaguar for the level of road noise and comfort required by the manufacturer. This is why dealers are often 'more expensive' for what appears to be the same Pirelli tyre you can buy elsewhere, usually the P6000 (as an example) you buy from Kwik Fit will not have the 'J' rating on the sidewall so will not have exactly the same characteristics as the OEM tyre.

The S-Type I purchased recently is fitted with a Parrot MKi9200 kit which I think is very impressive. It consists of a small colour screen attached to a the dashboard, wireless remote control and a control box hidden behind the dashboard. The control box has its own amplifier so uses the cars existing speakers for telephone calls but also bluetooth, USB or SD card playback. I found this a bit strange at first, the cars own headunit and volume control work for radio and CD (and autochanger if fitted) but when the Parrot kit is in use, the cars volume control is inactive and the Parrot remote controls its own volume. The Parrot amp is quoted at 20 watts and sound quality is adequate for music playback. The handsfree bit handles voice activated dialling and downloads your contact list, incoming calls are clearer than the factory bluetooth on my XE ! I don't know how much these cost as it was already on my car, someone told me £200-£250, so not cheap !

Sorry to arrive late for the party, I hadn't spotted the post. As far as I know any of the DVD based nav discs should be interchangeable, but I have only ever swapped X / S / XJ discs between cars. The last XF's to use a disc were the 2011 pre-facelift cars but the XK carried on with the disc based system until it was discontinued last year. Are you sure that the 'genuine' disc is not damaged / unreadable in any way ? Does your original disc work straight away when you put it back in the drive ? I can check with our parts department to see if the part numbers are the same or see if any of the technicians have any experience if it would help.

Usually gains on non-turbo charged cars are small (in comparison to what you can get out of a turbo'd engine) I would be suprised to see 20 BHP+ even with the panel filter, adding uprated exhaust and sports cat would see some gains as well but an expensive option. Would be cheaper to look at swapping the car for a 3.0, extra 40 bhp out of the box ? My guess would be that the remap would just improve 'driveability' improving throttle response and get rid of any flat spots ?

Thanks for the heads up ref the gearbox. The master tech that did the radiator and rear brakes is on a course this week but will be doing a service when he is back, I have considered gearbox oil change (think there is a filter in the plastic gearbox sump tray as well ?)