Part 21 - Life (and Rust) Gets In The Way

In preparation for the autumn rallying season, the XJ-S was scheduled to have an upgrade during the summer, with the fitment of a sump guard, some added protection for the rear suspension and a little cosmetic attention.

None of the above was ticked off the list as one by one, other family cars developed more urgent needs to take up my time.  The one taking most time and trouble was Davina's Range Rover Sport.  I had replaced a failed alternator earlier in the year, a job that I thought could not have be more inconvenient if had been designed that way.  Little did I know that a few months later, the designers had a better treat in store!

Returning from Cornwall (a round trip of 600 miles), as we exited the M25 a few miles from home, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree with instructions to stop the car IMMEDIATELY.  Obviously I ignored the warnings and bongs and continued home.

The following morning an ominous puddle of oil was spreading on the drive underneath the car.  It wasn't engine oil and didn't appear to be transmission fluid either.  A hunt underneath the car revealed it was coming from somewhere near the front right hand wheel.  The brakes were fine, but the inside of the wheel, the wheel arch and the front suspension was liberally coated in oil.  I recalled that our Range Rover has active suspension - this means more complication - lots of pipes filled with oil, a pump and some sophisticated electronics.  Could this be the source of the problem?

A little searching on-line quickly revealed that this is a bit of an Achilles heel issue.  This magnificent car is let down by a small bit of daft design:  A short section of two of these pipes snake their way around the front suspension and in so doing, they are exposed to all the muck, salt, water and debris thrown up by the front wheel.  Over time, these steel pipes slowly rust away until they can no longer contain the oil within.  Problem found.  The solution, however, appeared less than straightforward.

It seems that the pipes are fitted to the chassis before the body of the car is attached.  The only way to replace the pipes is to lift the body off the chassis.  The pipes are therefore not the big issue.  The big issue is the work and equipment needed to separate the body from the chassis (i.e. disassembly of much of the car).  I obtained a quote for the work, which turned out to be far in excess of the value of the car.  Davina was downhearted to hear that her beloved Range Rover was likely headed for the scrap heap.

The car remained lifeless on the drive for a week or two whilst I scratched my head for a better solution.  Richard P came to look and suggested a remedy he would use on his commercial cranes.  It turned out not to be feasible, but did provide the spark for the eventual answer.  Meanwhile we were fairly resigned to losing the car.  Happily, inspiration came in the middle of the night when I realised the solution was basically a plumbing job.

A few days later, and for less than the cost of a tank full of diesel, I set to work with a pipe cutter, some 10mm industrial hydraulic pipe, a few high pressure hydraulic compression fittings and a pipe bender.  A few hours later (well, most of the day really), we had a working Range Rover.   I had ignored the doom mongers on the internet and was feeling justifiably smug!

Before inspiration struck, I too was convinced the Range Rover was going to be sold for next to nothing as a source of spares, so had arranged test drives in various alternative vehicles.  It transpired that our now working Range Rover Sport, despite her age, seemed more than able to see off some young pretenders.  The upshot is that she is staying put for the time being!

Next in line for some TLC was the Jaguar XKR.  For some years MOT technicians had been cautioning me about the rust under the car.  I decided I should actually take a look before this year's inspection.  It wasn't difficult to find the area....it had definitely developed into an MOT failure and explained the damp carpets on the passenger side..  A little gentle tapping with a hammer and a chunk of the footwell fell onto the drive!  As luck would have it, I had just completed exactly the same repair on one side of the rusty XJ-SC, so I set too with some new metal and a welder without delay.  A few hours later all was well again.

A quick look around the car before the MOT reminded me that play in the rear drive shaft universal joints had been on the advisory list for a while.  The car has been serviced (not by me) regularly, so I had assumed the relevant grease nipples had in fact be lubricated.  To my surprise, it looked as though they hadn't been touched in years.  A quick application of a high pressure grease gun and no more play was apparent....potentially saving us a very large and unnecessary bill from the garage.  I decided to carry out the rest of the service myself!

The MOT was passed without advisories (but more rust to deal with before next time!).

Footwell Before

Footwell After

Dexter's Honda was next up:  In the Summer we had replace the worn rear brake pads, but I was not convinced that all was well with the rear brakes.  The new pads wore down again in a matter of months (normally one would expect them to last 30,000 miles or more).  A seized rear calliper was diagnosed, and while I was at it, all four discs and pads were replaced too.  I gave the car an oil and filter change to cheer it up and hopefully all is sweet again.

Max's Mini was suffering from two inconvenient issues:  The first was that the boot kept filling up with water whenever it rained and secondly, the bonnet could not be opened,  Happily both were fixed fairly quickly without cost, but exposed more inexplicable design flaws once the vehicle is past the first flush of youth.  

The two bonnet catches sit behind the front grill, perfectly placed to be blasted by water and salt.  They are out of sight and out of mind, so don't get much attention.  Naturally, over time, they start to seize up to a point where the single wire and the very flimsy bonnet release inside the car can no longer operate them satisfactorily.  Result: You can't open the bonnet to lubricate the catches!  In the end, with a little persuasion and some jiggling we did get the bonnet open, but it was a few hours of my life that I won't get back.  

The boot leak revealed more weird design:  Under the boot floor is a plastic vanity panel in the shape of an open box.  Said box appears to scoop up water as the car moves along, and if the car is not parked pointing slightly downhill, the water remains festering in the base.  We released at least a litre of water.  Actually this had nothing to do with the leak!  As I sat inside the boot, Max hosed down the back of the car.  Instantly water poured in from the top of the hatchback.  The application of a silicone spray on the rubber seal magically solved the problem...although I'm not sure how it had such a big effect, but it was the quickest and easiest fix of all.

You may recall that earlier in the year, a potential road trip to the Italian Alps had been mentioned.  The plan had been to get the restoration of the rusty XJ-SC completed before this trip.  It was a six month window; so in between times,  I continued work on the car.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be a tale of one step forward and two steps back as more and more rusty metal had to be cut out and replaced.  September came and went and the XJ-SC is still VERY far from complete!  The full story continues on a different thread on the blog - Click here for all episodes.