The Daimler had only done about 301k kilometres. We consider that properly run in.
BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Best friend and spanner mate Peter has gotten himself another car! A 1998 Daimler!
As some of you might recall, which has been featured in this very thread several times, Peter’s regular drive is a gorgeous Jaguar X350. There is only one thing wrong with it: it is a diesel. And recently, towns such as Amsterdam and Utrecht here in the Netherlands have banned these older diesels.
Peter’s job as a classic car valuator takes him all over the Netherlands, including these towns. And he wants to show up in a real nice car. So he started looking for a petrol version Jaguar. He trawled the internet, visited several car dealers. Eventually, he found a place that advertised a nice 1998 Daimler! He went to see it, only to find out, they actually had two 1998 Daimlers in stock. These Daimlers are pretty rare. To find two, almost identical British Racing Green Daimlers at the same second-hand car place is almost unheard of. This place stocks about 500 second-hand cars, just about all makes
Eventually, he honed in on one of them. He managed to trace a lot of its history. This particular car had been in an auction a few years ago, and all of the photographs of the car, but also of the car’s documentation, including invoices, were still online.
So Peter called around to these various garages shown on these invoices. We both knew all of these garages. Reputable specialist. The Daimler had only done about 301k kilometres. We consider that properly run in. As it so happens, it is the exact same mileage as my Jaguar XJR X308. This Daimler is essentially the same. But the Daimler version is even more luxurious, which is also the long wheelbase version. The main technical difference is the different suspension set-up, with different electronic dampers, compared to the electronic dampers fitted on mine.
All of Peter’s research showed this could be a really nice car. Only one red flag. Peter had come across a mechanic’s report which showed cylinder 2 had no compression at all. And no evidence of it ever being repaired.
So we decided to go and see. Take it for a test drive. And whilst on the test drive, check the compression of cylinder number 2!
So yesterday Peter arrived at our place. We loaded all necessary tools and then some more into the boot of my Jaguar and set off.
The idea was to compare as much as we could between how my Jaguar felt and sounded and the Daimler, pull the coil and spark plug and measure the compression. In the end, we never did, because this engine ran so smoothly, somebody must have fixed it.
Here we are comparing cars, sounds, feel, looks etc!
This Daimler has been dealer-maintained mostly and was probably garaged for most of its life, too. Everything worked. We checked every switch (And there are an awful lot of switches in these Daimlers. Even the rear passengers get a complete control panel for their seat adjustment and evironmental controls
It even had its original tool kit. Such a kit alone retails these days for about Euro 350 (INR 37000)
We did hook it up to my fancy OBD scanner with Jaguar-specific software.
We found a couple of codes. We already knew there was a problem with the alternator most likely. This car has been sitting idle for probably 2-3 years and the garage had put a new battery in it, prior to our test drive. But it was not charging. We also found a problem with the ABS and the AC was not blowing cold air. The AC controls, including the actuation of all the various vents, seemed fine.
The car comes with a huge pile of original factory documentation
Overall verdict, a really nice Car in really good nick, given its age and mileage.
Long story short;
One proud new Daimler owner!
Peter agreed with the garage that they would sort the alternator, the ABS and recharge the AC system. In about two weeks, we will go and pick it up.
More to come!!
Back home, I decided to do some work on my own Jaguar. Next weekend we are heading over to the UK. The second daughter, Alice, of our oldest friends, Caroline and Philip, is getting married. Alice had asked me if my Jaguar and I would drive her to and from the wedding venue. Of course!
So I will be washing, polishing and waxing the Jaguar thoroughly. But first I had to fix one problem; The left passenger door would not open from the inside.
I have had the same problem on the rear passenger door and you will find a very detailed description of that repair earlier on in this thread.
So I got my tools out and got down to business
First order of business is to remove the Veneer trim. Which is absolutely nerve wrecking. Because if you break it, you can’t just get a new bit of trim. This veneer trim is only available as a complete set for the whole car. Which makes sense, because it needs to look as if it all came from the same tree.
But you need to take out a mortgage to buy said veneer trim kit! I have taken this trim out a few times. But not often enough so I remember. As always I consult the workshop manual of course. But even then it gets tricky.
Succes!
Next the door card has to come off, just one bolt underneath the armrest needs to come out. Then it just pulls off but you better use one of these trim-removal tools or you are likely to break various of the clips holding this panel in place.
Undo the electrical connectors for the speakers, doorlock and electric window controls.
Off it comes!
The inside of the door has this nice thick plastic, almost rubbery type of water protection. You can just peel it off. (And afterwards just push it back in place)
A bit fiddly, this door-lock-stop has to be removed with the lock still inside the door. Very fiddly.
The guide rail of the window needs to be loosened up.
You need to undo an even more fiddly attachment from the outside door handle to the lock mechanism. Undo three bolts and you can extract the lock
The problem with these locks is the mechanism wears out. So all the bits develop a bit of play. The trick is to bend everything a bit so it gets a bit tighter and add a few spacer rings here and there. I am using these clips as they slip on easily.
It is not a particularly difficult job, but it is very fiddly. And these locks are surprisingly complicated. Every time it takes me a long time to figure out how they should work, what to adjust and so on. But I got it working eventually.
Even with my special trim tools, one of the clips had broken. I searched through all my various boxes with trim clips, but I did not have a replacement. So I put the door card back with one clip missing. Seems ok, but I will order some just in case.
I also got to use my brand new tool! I bought this a few weeks ago. I have one of these scopes, but I was never that impressed with it. This one has a much brighter and clearer display, shorter minimum focus distance, and I can move its head, which is really handy!!
With Peter having bought his Daimler it is my turn next to buy another car. We suggested so much to Mrs. D, but got a rather frosty response!
Jeroen
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