Fuse

Even though my car is 18 years old. Not many cars will tell you that a fuse has blown and which one.


When I started the car last night to come home I noticed the "Lightning bolt" on the dash which means a blown fuse. I pressed the VCM button and the on board computer told me it was in fuse box one, which is the right hand fuse box.


Only to find out it was the cigarette lighter fuse that hand blown. Nice and simple! 5p Fix.

Hot Hot Hot and Still Hot

Had some one out today to take a look at the Air conditioning in the Jag. I was hoping that it would just need re-gassing but guess what... Its not that simple.

The electrics checked out OK but there is a leak in the compressor. So it needs a new one and they range from 150 to 300 quid... Ouch... It will be winter soon... LOL

Boot lock

This afternoon I set on the task of fixing the boot lock. Since I have had the car, I have had to use the key to unlock the boot.

Where, this is not a major problem, it was a fault that needed sorting.....

For some reason you could not unlock the boot with the button in the glove box and when you unlock the car with the remote the lock would pop but not unlock!!

(Yes that is a driving cap that Rash and Ramus bought me)

I first set about checking the fuses in the car but quickly realised that the car would tell me if a fuse had blown and which one...

Maybe there was a wiring problem with the button!?

I started by checking all the wires under the glovebox. I did some continuity checks and after about 45 minutes I was certain that it was not a wiring problem...

Then I turned to the lock and release unit. I stripped the units out and checked the mechanical workings of the lock. I noticed that a small micro switch did not look right... I bent the metal contact away slightly and hooray, it seems that the micro switch told the car that the lock had manually been locked and was over-riding the central locking!

Now the button in the glove box unlocks the boot and pops it up a little.

Now I could set to work on wiring the boot release up to the alarm. The alarm has a trigger relay for the boot. It took me some time to figure out how to wire this up but by cutting into the wires and getting the relay to complete the circuit, the alarm now unlock the boot as well.

The cool feature with the alarm is it unlocks the car and deactivate the alarm, then it unlocks and pops the boot.

Not done yet

Well, what can I say. I have not had chance to sort the headlining.

Now its about time for the Jag's six month service. Bit's I need to do on this service are as follows:

Air Filter
Spark Plugs
Oil Filter
Oil Change
Coolant
And if I feel brave, Transmission fluid!

When I do the service I will look at taking the headlining out. At the moment I have a temporary fix, which is working.

Miles Per Gallon

Well,


Since I have changed the wheels and done the major service the car had six months ago, the MPG from the car now averages 30 MPG.




Not bad for a 4 litre monster!

Also the Car Tax is nice and low, costing me only 185 quid a year and if I take it into the London "Low Emissions Zone" they report...

Not subject to LEZ - Based on the information you have entered and information held by Transport for London (TfL), the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) does not apply to this vehicle. As long as the vehicle remains not subject to the LEZ the daily charge does not have to be paid for this vehicle when it is used in the zone.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/lez/

HA HA

Headlining

Next week is all about getting the headlining fixed. Its a logistical nightmare

• I am going to have to drop the car down at Motor World Car Body Shop on Monday
• Arrange for the Windscreen company to take the windscreen out on Tuesday
• Tuesday night remove the headlining from the car (Joy!)
• Wednesday arrange for the headlining to be dropped off at the trimmers
• Allow a couple of days for the job to be done.
• Hopefully Friday its should be finished... Fingers crossed!

Great!

Bloody great, thanks Mr Audi driving **** who cut me up and I hit the curb!

Red brakes

Today was all about painting the callipers red. Total time spent doing this was 4 hours!



Masking tape and last weeks news.... Joy!



One finished, 3 to go...

Petrol Cap + Rear Bumper

Today was about sorting out the petrol cap. Last week while filling the car up, the hinge broke. I gave the trusty people at Howard's Car Spares a call and they said they had one, but I had to remove it myself!

I enlisted the help of "The Ramus" and we set to work. It was a sorry sight seeing an old Jaguar the same age as mine rusting away, being taken to bits.

LOL Me doing some work!!!

5 quid later we headed down to Motor World to fit it.

Changing the hinge was a nice and simple job. Only took about 30 minutes to complete but was worth it as the petrol cap now pops up.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5enSAaZKLVM - Yes I did upload it to YouTube!

Then I wanted to fit the new bit of chrome from the rear bumper and have a look at sorting the dent in the rear bumper.

The rear bumpers are really easy to get off, but I had to cut the cable to the rear fog lights as there was no connector to disconnect. The look on Ramus' face when I just cut the cable was priceless... LOL

I will get it to fit!

It took some beating but I got it looking a lot better... Not perfect, but it looks really nice.

The view most people have of the car....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTylVoq6VSQ

Alarm issues fixed

Just fixed the small problem that I had when I installed the alarm. I wired both indicators up to the same relay to save time but in fact when I singled to turn left or right both flashed... lol

I fitted another relay and now both indicators flash with the alarm. Job half done, all finished now.

Below is a basic wiring diagram to show how to wire up the indicators in a Jag...