Hello all, I picked up an 87 XJ6 VDP (champagne with ‘biscuit’? interior) about a month ago that was in warehouse storage for 13ish or so years. The warehouse owner (specialty car storage) fired it up twice a year and drove it around the large parking lot so I knew it was at least a runner. Bought it basically sight unseen for a song and have been waking it up over the course of the last few weeks.
The brakes were dragging, the right fuel tank would geyser fuel out the filler if selected, massive clunks in the front end and very vague clanky steering.
I got all the brake pistons unstuck, exercized them until they retracted smoothly and had a noticeable slight ‘pull back’ when pumped, flushed the system, and move on to the clunks. Upper shock bushings took care of the clunks, and new steering rack bushings took care of the suggestomatic clanky steering. I siphoned 5 gallons of varnish out of the right tank so I could start diagnosis. With fresh clear petrol in the left tank and yellow old petrol in the right tank diagnosis was suprisingly easy, as was the fix: after verifying that both return valves worked as should and the switchover valve was receiving 12v but not changing which tank the pump was pulling from (clear fresh gas returning to the right tank with a rising level), I bashed the valve with a plastic hammer a few times. The pump chugged and gurgled for a moment and a few seconds later yellow old petrol was flowing into the right return line while the level stopped rising. Here is where the different coloured petrol in each tank really came in handy; every press of the button resulted in the corresponding return line activating, followed a few seconds later by a change in colour of the petrol- thus fully confirming that the supply valve was reliably switching between tanks. a quick drain of the right tank and fill up with fresh petrol also verified another related problem: the level sender is stuck on 1/2 tank. I’ll pull the sender and diagnose when I run the right tank dry.
The only cassette I own right now is the Vanden Plas Experience that was in the glove box. I’ve listened to it multiple times…
I’ve been using the info on this forum to get the car up and running again and I thank you folks for some nice write-ups on fixing common problems.
Since I already had the local paint shop mix up a pint to respray the horrible discoloured door trim I know this: MDJ Silver Birch Metallic. I still tell people its ‘Champagne’.
Nice score, just a tip, when posting photos you can add a space between each upload, not so important on the ones you have loaded as there is a clear demarcation between each one. Sometimes the background is very similar and they then tend to run into each other.
The other thing which is nice to have is your country flag, this can be added by going to your avatar top right of the page and going to preferences.
Beautiful, congratulations. You don’t see many of the Silver Birch color. You could consider removing the door trim if they are glued on and not riveted on.
Thank you for the complements! Unfortunately at some point in the car’s life it was repainted on that side and the body shop resprayed it without removing the trim. I carefully removed them, and was presented with 2 levels of paint. At that point they were hurredly stuck back on and will be masked off and painted to match.
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
8
I’d consider replacing those outboard headlights with the 7" units that Sir William intended.
I agree. My 1990 V12 Vanden Plas came with the 7" outer headlamps and after seeing them I replaced the original 5 3/4" outer headlamps on my 1984 XJ6 Vanden Plas. The before and after pictures are attached. This is one of the things that Series III XJ6 owners in the USA can do to improve the appearance of their cars.
Very nice car!
Exactly like mine, interior and exterior colours. And what a great shape interior.
It took me A LOT of work to bring mine in that state.
Before anything else, check your cooling system and centrifugal advance.
And replace that yellow fan.
Cooling system works great. The interior cooling system not so much. I’m leaning towards the amplifier, as all the mechanical things I’ve checked are good and it occasionally works exactly as it should.
Before I pay for a cosmetic upgrade (headlights) I’m going to do the free one- drill out the bumper struts and get those square behemoths looking a little more svelt. The headlight upgrade is hard for me to justify too because I have a complete set of 5 3/4 H4 ecode lights- 2 high and 2 high/low- leftover from another project.
The fuel sender in the right tank hung at 1/2 right up until the bitter end, then with about 1.5g remaining in the tank I took a railroad crossing at speed. The reading dropped all the way off. Whatever had stuck it was freed up and when I pulled it all I ended up doing was cleaning the contacts, introducing a bit more bend into the contact arm, and reassembling. Nice clean readings from empty to full.
engine tune up adjustment stuff is happening this weekend, as I got my air injection delete plugs from McMaster-Carr today.
And finally, not BC- but good old New England. The mountainous part, not the coastal part.
servo does buzz each and every time, but cold air comes from mostly the dash vents even if 85 is selected. Then it randomly works perfect, heat at the feet, heat through the center vents but not as much airflow. If I leave it on auto when it decides to not work it will blow max speed cold air through the center vents regardless of what temp is set on the dash. Set on auto when it is working and it blows high fan speed to get to the set temp, then starts blending and stepping fan speed down like it should.
Vacum plays a large part of the control of the climate control in these cars. The easy check up is in the engine bay. Does the resevoir hold vacum? Are the two tiny lines on the two spigots under the battery?
Is the one way valve functioning ?
Then by removing the dash cap, the unit itself ans vacum lines.
Aged rubber leaks!!!
Your climate control symptoms sound very much like the classic A/C amplifier failure that gets posted about regularly on this list. Search for “A/C amplifier” in the archives and you will find hundreds of posts about the symptoms that others experienced and what they did to fix it. I had a few A/C amplifiers fail myself over the past 20 years in my Series III XJ6s.
While the randomness indeed indicates an AC amp fault, as other say, Paetersen - there are some pitfalls…
The system is based on the ‘in-car’ sensor, resistance vary with cabin temp and the varying resitance set by the temp selector. It is advisable to verify cabin temps by a thermometer, to ensure that the system reads ‘true’ cabin temp - personal sensation of temp is somewhat untrustworthy. If the system reads more than 85F in the cabin it will cool the cabin even if the temp is set to ‘85’. And likewise heat if cabin temp is below 65F - even set to ‘65’.
There are system faults that may mislead the AC amp. The 'in-car sensor is connected by an air hose to the air box - drawing cabin air through the the sensor. Unconnected, the sensor may indicate a higher cabin temp than actual - or the sensor may be faulty, as may the temp selector.
The system is meant to give a stable cabin temp - it even has an ambient air temp sensor to ‘bias’ the AC amp.Generally, the first line to stabilize temps is the fan speed. High speed is used to rapidly reach the set temp - and as the set temp is reached fan speeds drop. To increase again if the cabin temp drifts off - the more efficient the system the longer the period of low fan speed…
All that said; if the temp changes are erratic for no apparent reason - the AC amp is indeed the main culprit…
The heat is starting to work more and more of the time, perhaps it just wants to be used. Regardless, I’ve still got bigger fish to fry.
The newest problem is the FANTASTIC gas mileage I’m getting- 205 miles on half a tank! With both tanks filled that means I have a range of 800+ between fill-ups!
Or, more likely, the changeover valve is not sealing the right tank feed line when the left tank is selected. I zeroed the trip computer at fillup, drove on the left tank. 1/2 tank remaining and 11.2 gallons consumed per the computer. Sure enough, switching to the right side tank shows 1/2 tank. They seem to be equalizing out automatically. Not sure if I need to fix that…
I spent the afternoon pulling the center console and cleaning up that area. Adjusting the shift selector light so it actually lights up the PRNDL display instead of the side of the shift console, repairing the horsehair gates, repairing some cracked and peeling veneer on the center console cover, and messing with the opti-not-gonna-light-up-much-cell.
I’m very pleased with how the veneer fix came out, I used the crazy glue method. Got the veneer flat with the crazy glue and pressure, filled in the cracks in the clearcoat with more crazy glue, then 1,000 grit wet sanding, then rubbing compound, then polishing paste followed by car wax. It’s a touch more satin than the dash/glovebox wood, but I actually like it better. You can still see the cracks in the veneer, but you cannot feel them and you can see by the light reflection that the panel is smooth and flat again. I think the cracks actually add to the character.
Before I started you could slide a dime under the cracks!
Great work on the ski slope veneer.
Yes, you will need to fix the fuel tank changeover valve. Otherwise you will have fuel pouring out one of the fuel caps. This problem is posted about on a regular basis, particularly in cars that have sat a while. Search the archives for “changeover valve” and you will find dozens (hundreds?) of posts about what others have experienced, options that they considered, and what they did to fix it. Bottom line, remove and replace a bad fuel changeover valve.
