Hello all,
I have a 1993 XJ40 and water is pooling in the rubber channel surrounding the gas tank. Does anyone have any suggestions how to deal with it before asking a repair shop for advice?
Does anyone have a preference regarding replacement tires on the XJ40? Size; brand?
Much obliged for any useful suggestions.
Hi Phillip and welcome. The gas cap area has a small drain tube towards the rear of the enclosure. This gets blocked with debris and needs to be probed with some strimmer line (weed eater).
Tyres are a personal choice and can be dictated by your driving style/requirements so a bit more difficult to advise on. Also I sold my ‘40 a few years go now and run a XJR V8 so a couple of iterations later vehicle. However I run Champions on it and find they are suitable for what I do with the car (a bit of track work and fast road work up to 130klm/hr on closed roads)
Regarding size I would stay with the standard as thats what Jaguar designed the car around, although having said that I have taken the tyres on the XJR and my wifes Mazda 6 up one ratio to try to bring the speedo more into line with the GPS speed reading. (Mazda was 8kph slow at 100)
Hope this helps
Hello Robin and Mike, Many thanks for the suggestions and photos. Very much appreciated. Also thanks for the welcome, Robin. I have always loved Jaguars, and this is my first Jaguar as well as first choice. All Jaguars are beautiful to varying degrees, but I have a particular fondness for this one, partly because I was a teenager when I followed its development and introduction closely.
Phillip if you tap on my icon/avatar that was my old ‘40, the car was traveling in the direction the front wheels are pointing 
Ah, a lovely machine, Robin! And BRG!
I suppose tire choice depends on your location - but if you’re in N. America, go on to Tire Rack and the site will list the appropriate rubber for your model year.
The 94’s have 16" wheels, do the 93’s have them too or do they run 15’s?
I’m on my second set of Kumho Excsta Platinum 225/60 R16 98W - happy with them as they are nice and quiet, pretty good grip and very long life. They’re also 98W rated - many other brands in the same size are glorified van tires, often H rated and while I do see some XJ40’s and X300’s running these, I wouldn’t. The 40 is a heavy and occasionally 
fast car.
Hello Larry, and thanks for the suggestions. I’m just south of the Canadian border in NY State. The '94s were the first year to run 16s, and although they look fantastic, I want to keep my '93 bone stock as best as possible, and has the 15s, alas. Tire Rack doesn’t have that size. That’s great to know about the Kumho tires because I’d love to supplement my current XJ40 with a '94 sibling.
My current Bridgestone tires are cupped, and make an awful racket. It’s the only thing that is interfering with a pleasant ownership.
Actually it was/is Blue 
What year was it manufactured? It looks like an earlier model. I actually prefer blue and wish mine was!
Incidentally, my question regarding proper tires leads to another question: the current tires are cupped or scalloped. I am not sure if this was from previous issues in the shocks / dampers / struts etc that have since been rectified, or if there is an issue that has not been addressed by the previous owner. Any recommendation on this before putting a new set of tires on my XJ40?
That one was 1992 I previously had a 2.9 from 1989.
Regarding the scalloping could be shocks so a shock test is in order, but more likely alignment.
These cars have wishbones not struts BTW
Cold also be the bushes in the wishbones are flogged out. Probably need to get the car onto a hoist and have them checked out.
Thanks for your valuable information, Robin! It is greatly appreciated. Are the shocks / bushings / alignments something I can trust a competent local garage to do correctly? I am wondering when to entrust my XJ40 to a specialist, and when it is all right to hand over to a more general mechanic. Thanks you.
Front shocks can be done by a competent home mech/wrencher
Bushes are a little bit more involved but any workshop worth their salt should have no trouble. I always asked the wheel alignment guys to set the toe to max allowed as they are supposed to be set up at a certain height which no shop that I know of does.
Thanks again, Robin!
