My 2007 Jaguar XK: Update #1

 Installed Bluetooth streaming adapter for infotainment system + 12v battery.

Click here for original post about this car

In 2007, The Jaguar XK came with a 6 disc CD changer, (they did offer a factory USB Aux input for the sound system a model year later, I think) Mine did not have that.

However there was an aftermarket option available. I had to have the dealer activate the aux input software with their factory scan tool. That was $165 labor.

Then I bought this item for $129. Came with good installation directions

As you can see in these photos the stereo is integrated into the infotainment console, so replacing it with a single DIN or double DIN is not an option. the harness above is inserted between the stereo connector and the wire harness with a bluetooth receiver attached.

The infotainment console needed to be pulled out to get at the connector. and the glove box needed to be dropped to get at either the ground, or power wire, I had to connect to. So now, (like all other modern cars) I can stream music from any app on my iPhone through the cars sound system.

Dropped the glove box to access this power or ground wire on the glovebox light. the adapter has the red wire to run over and connect.

also just recently changed the 12 volt battery. it sits in the back next to the Nav DVD player. The wires coming off are for the battery tender.

Costs on this post:

Jaguar dealer labor (AUX enable software install) $165

Bluetooth streaming adapter $129

Battery $160

Next Post:

I changed the wheel and tire package from 20" Sentas to these 18" Venus, for a more "rough road" friendly sidewall. More on that next time.

My 2005 Scion xB: Update #3

 Replacement of all front brake hardware.

I recently heard squealing coming from my front passenger side wheel when applying the brakes. I thought I had checked my pad depth in the last year or two, but maybe it had been a while. I decided to check it again, and my passenger side was down to the metal warning tab on the inside pad (meaning the pads needed to be changed out ASAP). There was a little more material left on drivers side.

All front and rear hardware 

Old driver's side hardware, about to remove

New stuff installed on passenger side

I ordered a kit from Ebay that had front pads and rotors as well as all rear drum hardware.

brake caliper diagram

This car is basically my daily, and winter car. The calipers had been though 16 Wisconsin winters, and were covered in a layer of rust. They still worked fine, as far as I could tell. However, the look of the pistons made me decide to go ahead, and replace calipers and hoses, since I was in there.

Piston was rusty, and I thought now seemed to be a good point to replace.

New caliper next too the old.

I bought Raysbestos brand, new hoses and remanufactured calipers. 

I applied synthetic brake grease to both sides of the new pad mounting clips, and to both the piston, and the opposing side of the caliper, where it would contact the shim of the outside pad. Basically, any metal on metal, or pad contact, got grease to eliminate rattles. Slide pins were newly greased from the manufacturer, so I didn't do that.

New pad and rotor sandwich, in the mounting bracket, before caliper is attached

The backing plate on the passenger side was completely gone. (it protects the inside surface of rotor from dirt and grime, extending pad life) Probably removed by a mechanic, the last time pads and rotors were done, at the dealership, 5-ish years ago. This explained why the passenger side pads, were worn down more. Similarly, the drivers side backing plate was hanging on by a thread, so I ripped that one off too. (Not replacing these, as that requires the hub to be pulled.)

Remains of drivers side backing plate

I got all hardware attached, and unlike a standard brake job, this one required brake fluid to be bled. After that, I took it for a first drive and "bedded" the brake pads by doing a series of smooth brake applications from 45 - 5 mph, and then from 60 - 10 mph. This is to transfer some pad material evenly to the rotors, before use.

Torque specs:

Mounting bracket to knuckle: 65 ft lbs.
Caliper to mounting bracket: 25 ft lbs.
Banjo bolt connecting hose to caliper (2 copper washers) 22 ft lbs.
hose to brake hardline fitting: just tightened by feel (11 ft lbs.)

Project cost:

Brake hardware kit - rear and front (pads, rotors, drums, shoes) $141
Front calipers (Raysbestos - remanufactured) $251
Raysbestos front hoses $64

(core charge refund for 2 old calipers, from seller +$75)

Total : $381

Coming up next time: Rear drum brakes changed out

My Rusty Beater: Update #3

 Replaced oil pan

My beater was starting to drip some fluid in my driveway, I believed it to be oil (another candidate would be P.S. fluid).

Click here for my original post on this car.
Click here for update #1 on this car.
Click here for update #2...

The oil pan was original to the car and was wet with oil, and quite corroded. Of course oil can get blown around from driving, and it can be hard to locate the source of a leak. The plan was to clean oil and grime from the block, replace the pan and gasket, and monitor for anymore fluid to appear. I bought a new pan off of Ebay for $26, it came with a cheap gasket. I also got a tube of Hondabond HT (a hi-temp RTV) for $12. After some consideration, I decided to get a Fel-Pro brand gasket ($25) rather than go with the cheapie I already had.

Old and new oil pan

Exhaust flex-pipe already taken off. Removing the aluminum shield for the flex-plate, transmission side, to get at all the oil pan bolts.

The Honda factory does not use a gasket. They apply a bead of hondabond all the way around and torque to spec. No doubt that is cheaper than installing a gasket. The heads of the bolts on the pan were quite rusted, but I managed to get them all off, then use a pry bar to separate the pan, from the block.

Except: there are 2 studs with nuts used in the center of the pan, front and back. ( no doubt to guide the pan on without sliding it around on wet RTV. this is a photo of the surviving one. The other (the front one) would not budge, and by the end, I had rounded the nut pretty good. So I decided to cut it off, remove the pan, drill it out, clean the threads, and replace with a bolt

Old pan off, you can see the oil pick-up and the flex plate

Ready to drill out this frozen stud, and replace with a bolt.

Only big mishap:

While I was drilling it out, I snapped off my titanium coated drill bit, inside the stud.

This was the face I made....

Now I had to pretend this fastener didn't exist.
I put a bead of Hondabond across the span, where the missing stud was, on both the top, and bottom, of the gasket. I tightened all pan bolts to 100 inch pounds (roughly spec). I also had to modify my tightening sequence, as the busted fastener was #2 out of 18. I then let it cure for 3 days. It seems to be working so far.

A side note: I actually took my angle grinder and removed some material from the inside of the aluminum shield that straddles the pan, because the thickness of the gasket threw off fitment. I tightened the shield bolts to 20 ft. lbs. as the receiving threads of the transmission housing were aluminum, (guessed on this, don't know the factory spec).

Fel-Pro gasket, pan, and a tube of Hondabond HT

the white shape in the center is Hondabond forced out the hole in the pan where a bolt should be.

Finished product - new oil pan installed 

Cost of parts for this job

Oil pan - $26
Fel-Pro gasket - $25
Hondabond - $12
hardware - $8?
Total - $71

Just some Tool Porn

My favorite drawer: socket drives, extensions, adapters, breaker bars, and cheater pipes.

My Rusty Beater: Update #2

Replaced: dented front fender, hood latch, headlights

In order to replace the fender, the following needed to be removed: front bumper cover, one headlight, and the right rocker panel. Here was a "kill 3 birds with one stone" situation.

Old parts off, ready for new

Fender

When I bought this car, it had a dented front, right fender. It had always been my plan to replace it. So I finally bought a new, primed fender from Ebay for $57. It showed up with a few small dents in it. I complained to the seller, and since they did not have another in stock, they refunded my money, and said "keep it"...not asking for it back. I decided to still use it, as they were small dents, and it was an improvement over what was on the car. I painted it with rattle-can, gloss black rustoleum ($7) and it looked fine. I also painted the grill, satin black. Which after 20 years, was simply faded, unpainted plastic.

Dented fender, before and after

Hood Latch

Since the bumper cover was coming off, I replaced the hood latch, ($28) which has a contact switch, and electrical connector. This tells the computer that the hood is closed, and allows the car alarm to be armed. Since the old one was very dirty, and gummed up, it was not telling the computer that the hood was closed, So I could lock the car with my fob, but not set the alarm. The latch was easy enough to access, with the bumper cover off. The new part fixed it. Now... when locking/unlocking with the fob, the parking lights flash, indicating that the alarm is working.

New and old hood latch

Headlights

Since I had to remove one headlight anyway, I decided to get a new aftermarket set from Ebay for $75. I had originally restored my headlights, but even so.... these looked better, being new. I also added a bead of silicone caulk ($4) around the housing/lens union, as this was chinese made, and I decided to take charge of quality control, to prevent the occurrence of condensation.

The brand new headlights, seen with the patina paint, contrast nicely IMO

Total cost of parts in this post - $121

Coming up next: Oil pan and flexpipe

My 2005 Scion xB: Update #2

Complete exhaust system replacement

2005 Scion xB

15-year-old, original exhaust, time to go.....

I noticed about 6 months back that my car idled louder than it had before, so I figured a hole rusted out somewhere in the exhaust. I got it up on a lift, and felt exhaust puffing out the top of the muffler. So I ordered a direct fit Bosal muffler. However upon trying to remove the old muffler from the rest of the piping, it snapped off just upstream of the muffler connection. (The whole pipe was probably rusted thin.) Ok,... I guess I'm replacing most of the exhaust. I ordered the rest of the system from the downpipe to the muffler. So I got downpipe, cat, resonator, muffler, hardware, gaskets, and piping for about $350 total.

Old muffler visual inspection

On disassembly, the pipe broke, on the upstream side of this connection

The OE stainless steel muffler lasted about 15 years before the seam came apart.

The old spring bolts, between the header and downpipe, wouldn't budge with my big breaker bar. So I bought a 1/2" drive, 1200 ft. lb. impact wrench, from harbor freight for about $280. Worked like a charm, and now I will have this tool handy for other stubborn bolts down the road.

The old exhaust parts

The first round of new exhaust components - $350

First attempt ended up being a "manufacturer fail."

The Bosal muffler was fine. However....The center section made by Eastern didn't fit right (supposed to be direct fit). It was a subtle thing. I didn't pick up on it right away. The spring bolt connection (female end) was not made to the proper depth, so it leaked, and was louder than it should have been. I wouldn't be able to see the nature of the problem, unless I mocked it all up, off of the vehicle.

Second try at new exhaust system

I decided, if my exhaust manifold was going to come off, for a mock-up to check fitment, I would replace it. So I found a brand new, 4 into 1, DC Sports-type, stainless steel header, for the bargain price of $98, from some private seller, on Ebay. Not sure what brand it is, but it is SS, nicely welded, with thick flanges.  Plus I ordered a downpipe, cat, resonator, and pipe to the rear axle from Davico ($294), to use instead of Eastern, keeping the Bosal muffler. Confirming my suspicions, the Davico was made with a deeper receiver on the downpipe. It looked like it would work fine, and it did.

the 16-year-old OE manifold with the new aftermarket header. 

I'm using stainless steel zip-ties to hold the shifter cables away from the heat.

There is no heat shield, and the primaries take up more space than the OE

The car does sound a little throatier now. Especially at cold start. Probably the header. Fairly factory sounding though, not too loud.

The new header is NOT meant to be a performance thing. It's just the cheapest option for the factory manifold I could find. The rest from the header-back is just meant to be factory. Even though I do have a short ram intake (and now the header), A performance cat-back alone, would run me at least $750, so I decided to pass on that, since we are not talking about any big power numbers.

I happened to have a chrome tip from an exhaust on another car, so I am using this to extend the tailpipe past the end of the bumper cover. You don't want exhaust gases released underneath the car. I had to get someone to weld it on, as I don't weld yet, but I will be acquiring that skill soon.

Project = success

Costs

Header   $98

Cat-back   $295

Muffler  $115

miscellaneous hardware  $15

(OE cat recycle  -$70)

Total - $453