Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

I've been trying to drive my cars a bit.

Why is this pavement wet?

I have been cycling through my stable.

Using one car after another for errands. This way the fuel systems get a jolt of fresh fuel flowing through the injectors, the oil gets up to operating temperature, so does the coolant. The battery gets a chance to charge itself back up again. Fluid flows through the braking system and the automatic transmission. The brake rotors get that film of surface rust skimmed off, even the tires get to roll round for a while.

I get a chance to recharge myself a bit also.

Uncovering my nice clean car and driving around the extended neighborhood gives me a little opportunity to enjoy the things that made me like the car in the first place.

This was the second run-about that I'd taken the XJ6 on.

Wouldn't you know it, I was almost back home, approaching my street, when I started to notice the smell of hot coolant! I can't say that I was completely surprised, as the same thing  has happened several times before. The radiator connection of the upper radiator hose, the spigot perhaps? has been eroding over time. This leads to the hose end popping off the remnants of the spigot dumping most of the coolant on the road. Luckily this has happened close to home and I've been able to reattach it and refill the system.

Since I've always been able to stop the car before it pegs the gauge I've been lucky to avoid any damage to the engine.

I parked at the curb in front of my house,parked at he curb, shut it down, and opened the hood. Sure enough, the hose was detached from the spigot. I could see that the spigot was even shorter than it was the last time.

Houston we have a problem. I think I know what it is.
I even used two hose clamps!

I've known for awhile that the probable remedy is a replacement radiator. Either new or used.

I will admit that I did enjoy the episode, at least until this happened!

The biannual smog test is coming up soon, and the CEL has been on since shortly after I passed it last time. The car always seems to run fine, starts easy, idles fine, and never stumbles or stalls. Even the fuel economy is normal. The last test didn't reveal any basic problems. It's not that the tail pipe emission levels were out of whack. It usually some relatively minor condition that trips the CEL.

Every time that I visit the Jaguar forums I often read posts from some unfortunate owner that is having some real problems passing the smog test. You can't cheat with OBD II, and it seems that Jaguars are very sensitive when it comes to the emissions control electronics. It appears to be our cross to bear.

I scanned for codes before I left on my annual Oregon vacation. I figured that I'd have time to do some research on the problems.

Uncovering the meaning of the codes.

There are three codes that presented themselves; PO411, PO420, and PO430.

The first, PO411 states that there is insufficient airflow to the exhaust, I take that to mean that there's a problem with the exhaust air injection system.

The second two codes are related, PO420 and PO430 deal with catalyst efficiency. In other words the catalytic converters are not working properly. It could be the oxygen sensors, or it could be the catalysts themselves.

Further investigation is needed, obviously.

I've also have to investigate finding a used radiator for the car. I see them on occasion in the Pick and Pull, and there is a couple of Jaguar wreckers within a couple of hours of me. There are also some large ones, Galaxy comes to mind, located near Los Angeles. My initial explorations have shown that the bottom pricing of a new unit is around 400.00. I think that it will be worth my efforts to find something cheaper, if possible.

And then there's the suspension.  The traditional Jaguar bugaboo.

This car finds itself in a position that most old Jags will fall into: some pretty pricey repairs are called for. Objectively, they will amount to more than the value of the car. However it is still so beautiful!

That's a whale watching boat. I can actually see the whales from my deck.
That dark speck to the left of the boat is a dinghy.

I'm sitting at a table overlooking the Oregon surf. The second time we came here was in my XJ6. I had just bought the car and driven it home from L.A. a couple of months before. I decided to drive the car everyday, which I did. No guts, no glory! I decided that if it was going to break down, it was going to break down. I wasn't going to treat it like a crystal figurine. Something that I treat delicately and handle with so much care, displaying it with so much caution. It actually ran so well that I developed a lot of faith in it.  I ended up driving it on a nearly two thousand mile vacation trip with my Wife.

Glory Days.

It was a dream trip, and the best initiation into the Jaguar experience. I found that a Jaguar is the supreme highway touring car.

I have three major issues that have to be addressed with the XJ6: suspension, emissions, and the radiator.

I did some initial pricing on oxygen sensors, as well as a replacement radiator. I'm in no hurry to spend any more money than necessary.

Again, I have the luxury of time. I don't need the car for transportation and if I can't resolve the problems than this car will just have to go on non-op.