Haven't done anything other than look at the fuse

 

Relay?

 

Heard a tick tick tick sound while engine was running. Narrowed it down to a black cylinder near the A/C ?accumulator. http://imgur.com/yiFioMq This should be a pic of it, if I did that correctly. Can anyone tell me what it is?

 

Evap system purge solenoid. It releases fumes from the gas tank into the intake. It's supposed to do that

 

Thanks. I have never heard it before. Before I discovered what it was I thought a lifter was hitting something.

Also, when you say "supposed to" should it be loud and very noticeable?

 

Well, that's kind of subjective. To me, loud means you can hear it over your engine. My engine is loud in the first place. If yours is really quiet I have no idea.

Maybe someone else will chime in. It could be on its way out, it's not exactly new... But, it's also non-critical, so I wouldn't bother throwing money at it unless it's presenting a problem. (eg CEL or exploded)

 

So did the gauge install went well, used a soldering iron to burn a hole in clear cover for the trip meter, everything works, except, wait for it, the speedo. Off to the JY Saturday.

 

Temps got above freezing on the way home for lunch, blower motor turned itself on. Guess the motor froze up (literally). I have another one in the shed.

 

Are the slotted brake rotors worth the difference in money?

 

For most of us, no. If you're asking, you almost certainly don't need them.

 

I'm not sure if you'd consider this OEM (part of it is, so I thought I'd ask here)

I'm planning a road trip, east to west coast and back, roughly 11,000kms (~7k miles)

Since a good chunk of the trip will be in states such as Arizona/Nevada/Utah/California, I thought about installing a trans cooler to make sure my auto transmission doesn't give up or suffer too much.

My question is, I'm leaving in eastern canada, our summer here isn't that hot (and only 3-4 months a year) and I was wondering if an auxiliary transmission cooler could be bad in the long run since it won't see that much heat once I make it back? I heard of bypass valves (I think that's the name?) but not much more, so I'm not sure if I should just run it with my stock cooling system -or- install a cooler and remove it once I get back -or install and leave it there.

I made a similar trip a few years back with my sister's old econoline, and as far as I know there wasn't any mods to it, and we only really had to stop 2 times due to over-heating in vegas, but the rest was #1 for the 5k miles we drove.

Thanks!

 

XJs are definitely different critters from an Econoline van. Overheating nasty things!

Is your XJ stock? With a stock XJ driven on pavement the only thing you need to concern yourself with is just the cooling system. If you're towing a trailer or running big tires with reduced aerodynamics (ie made your flying box taller...) an aux cooler is definitely a wise investment.

Fan clutch, good water pump, good thermostat, and clear radiator.

There ARE thernostats you can install for the transmission oil, but XJs never shipped with them. Instead the aux cooler is plumbed inline with the radiator, so the transmission can take heat from the coolant too.

 

My personal opinion is it's never a bad idea to install a trans cooler on an automatic. The more expensive ones do have thermostats built into them, but very few environments would over-cool trans fluid. In those areas, a block-off plate (or simple cardboard) could be used in front of the trans cooler just like people use for their radiators.

 

4.5" on 32s, 3.55 (stock) gears, that's the reason I started looking into an aux cooler, it's definitely harder on the trans during hill climbs and trying to accelerate (still has its torque-y feel but more sluggish).

When you say clear radiator, how can I make sure mine is fine. As far as I know looking back on the vehicle history, it has never been changed so it's most likely the stock one, but I've never had any issues with it, I don't leak anything and my coolant appears to be clean. Same goes for the water pump. Thermostat has been changed recently.


Thanks for the suggestion I hadn't thought of that. I'll probably put something for the winter and remove it during spring/summer/autumn.

 

Ohh yeah DEFINITELY put a cooler in.

Don't worry about the winter. It doesn't get cold enough this far south. Clown means like Yellowknife temps.