Hi Alan,

I’ve just fitted some stainless aftermarket pipes to my car (from Simply Performance) – these are 1.8″ /45mm diameter.

Whilst there is generally plenty of room around these pipes over and around the drive shafts and through the suspension subframe, they run very close to the bleed nipples on the inboard rear calipers, so I would say these are about as big as possible – unless you repostion the pipes to give clearance which puts them at unsuitable angles for the connections at each end. Remember that these pipes are hanging on brackets at the top of the curve over the axle, so there is no much scope for repositioning them.

I can’t recall now if these were larger than the originals, but the originals had greater clearance to the bleed nipples, although this could be down to the form of the pipe.

In conclusion, I would say its not so much an issue of pipe diameter, more down to the shape of the pipe.

Hope this helps, Norman.

I guess only applicable to the Brits on this site, a few years ago, I bought a couple of Rechargeable Mini Dehumidifier from Coopers of Stortford (www.coopersofstortford.co.uk). I alternate these each week – when “wet” (there is a small window where you can see the crystals – they change colour between wet & dry), you simply plug it into the mains overnight and the crystals inside are dried out. They seem to work very well and the inside of the car is kept dry – my car is in a garage so don’t know how effective it would be if the car is outside. I guess that you could recharge the unit every night if they get wet very quickly.

Regards,

Norman.

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the info. Out of interest, do the systems you mention include a new manifold, or is it just new pipework connecting to the horrible original twin manifolds?

Cheers,   Norman.

Hi Martin,

Its no help but I’ve had the same problem – I have a few “loose”. The screws are chromed and always in good condition, but they must screw into something which either rusts or is a captive nut which comes loose or disintegrates over time. Recommend that if the others are OK, unscrew them and lubricate to prevent further deterioration! I’ve not checked to see if you can access these from inside – probably not an easy job.

Regards,

Norman.

Hi Martin, if you are talking about just replacing the wiper rubbers, I think that you’ll find that these are of a fairly standard profile and you should be able to find a suitable replacement blade in Halfords or other car shop.
I replaced mine with (old) rubbers from windscreen wipers that I had taken off another car.
If you still have any remaining rubber blade, take it along to the auto shop and buy a new blade that matches the profile (try to buy just the rubber blade if you can).
Then just cut the new one to length – you’ll have to do a bit of bending of the relevant clips to remove the old rubber and fit the new one but its an easy job.
Don’t forget to refit the spring steel strips on each side of the blade.
Hope this helps,
Norman Thomas.

Hi everyone again – good to see the engaging discussion and Bleasie – good to see you back on the circuit and that your hard work with the original Cabriolet register lives on.

(PS. all of my comments refer to the 3.6 6 cyl AJ6 engine)
At the end of the day, there are several components in the fuel injection system and unless you are well versed in fault diagnostics (which I guess most of us are not) and if you don’t have an “expert” at hand to pin the problem down to a specific component, then fixing these problems tend to be a process of tiresome elimination – so its best to pick the cheapest/easiest things first as its easy to spend a lot of money replacing perfectly good components (I’ve got a few in the garage!).
Back to AJ6 engineering which Stig and Alex mentions, this is a top outfit run by Roger Bywater – what he doesn’t know about the Jaguar fuel injection systems isn’t worth knowing. I think the mod that Stig has had done is referring to an idle richness problem on the 3.6 engine and AJ6 Engineering fit a small potentiometer in the ECU as part of this mod – this pot can be adjusted to give the best idle running (instructions are supplied with the mod). I don’t think that this problem would contribute too much to the flat spot which we are discussing – I had this done when trying to sort my engine out but it was the throttle pot replacement which eventually fixed it.
However, it may be a good idea to send the ECU to AJ6 for checking (not particularly cheap but good for peace of mind).
I sent Roger my engine ECU after the engine conked out (and after checking everything else in the ignition system) and he found a load of dry joints inside – upon refitting the repaired ECU, it was like having a new engine – fabulously smooth and improved power and fuel consumption compared to before.

Laurence – back to your comments – I bought a replacement throttle pot from SNG Barrett, but the other Jag parts specialist probably also stock these.

Also worth checking is the vacuum pipe which runs from the engine to the ECU in the boot – simply remove the pipe from the side of the ECU and if the idle changes dramatically, then the pipe is OK.
Don’t forget the injectors – these are all old engines now and any engine will benefit from an injector clean/check – there are a few places who do these – I’ve used “Injectortune” for this – remove them, send them off and you get the same ones back completely overhauled.

You may have gathered by now that I’ve been completely through the injection and ignition system on my engine in the quest to get it running like a new engine – I think that I’m more or less there now.
Don’t forget that these engines need to be used and don’t be afraid to use the power (when you legally can) – a good “clean out” works wonders!
Hope that these ramblings help……..
Norman.