I have until now taken my SW to the dealer for servicing but after him quoting £460 in March for a set of lash adjusters PLUS fitting (she's making the common GDi tappety noise) I have resolved to use someone else! I figure I can do the easy things that require simple undoing, cleaning/replacing, etc.

She's taken to doing the erratic idle thing so I'm guessing I need new plugs and to clean the throttle body. The obvious place for the plugs is under that hunk of plastic slap bang in the middle of the engine but the thing is, that has a HUGE notice on it, warning of high fuel pressure. Does anyone have a step-by-step guide (inc. watch-out-fors, etc) for these two jobs?

Moving on to the lash adjusters, replacing these is beyond me but, as I say, £460 seems excessive, even at dealer prices. Has anyone else had this job done? How much did you pay?

At the time, I asked a colleague in the US to source there for me and I'm pretty sure he told me he can get them for equiv of £120. Even after paying duty and VAT, I'd be quids in.

Luckily we're not using this car so much, as I am a Jag nut and have a 3.2 XJ8 to play with but I had kind of hoped to get an answer in a year and a half...

HI


HOPE YOU SORTED OUT YOUR PROBLEMS, IF NOT , HERE ARE MY EXPERIENCES

AS YOU KNOW A KNEW THOTTLE BODY IS NOT AN OPTION COST WISE, I AM NOT SURE OF DEALER CLEANING COSTS . I USE A W..S COMPLETE FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER ( 1 BOTTLE EVERY 3000 MILES ) THIS HAS REMOVED THE HESITATION / IDLE PROBLEM AND COASTS ONLY £ 15.
I HAD A GO AT RELPACING THE PLUGS MYSELF , HOWEVER AFTER BUYING THE PLUGS AND STRIPPING THE PLASTIC COVER OVER THE ENGINE I SOON FOUND THAT NEITHER OF MY LONG REACH SPANNERS WORKED EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE THE CORRECT SIZE ( EXTREMELY NARROW SPANNER REQUIRED). MY MECHANIC TRIED TO REMOVE THEM , HE GAVE UP WORRIED THAT HE MAY BREAK THE PLUG IN THE ENGINE ( A VERY BIG POSSIBILITY IF YOU DONT HAVE THE CORRECT TOOLS)
AS MY CAR WAS DUE FOR A NEW TIMING BELT I TOOK IT TO THE OFFICIAL DEALER AND AND THEY REPLACED THEM AT THE SAME TIME ( MORE EXPESE BUT AT LEAST ITS DONE)

THE DEALER TOLD ME NOT TO WORRY ABOUT THE TAPPET RATTLE AS THE ARE HYDRAULICALLY ADJUSTED AND ITS PRETTY COMMON WITHE THE 2.4 GDI

I WOULD GIVE THE PETROL ADDITIVE A GO BEFORE ANY MAJOR WORK, IT WORKED FOR ME.

GPM

Thanks for the reply. I'm still ploughing on with the problem, as I'm still playing with the Jag. My wife drives the SW and she doesn't seem bothered by it.

Which fuel system cleaner did you use, BTW? Of was that it, where you said "A W S"?

I think I'll still get the LAs done, as I think it'll be a problem when we come to sell: I think most people will roll their eyes if I said "they all do that." Wouldn't you? :) Besides, the replacements I found are used in racing engines and simply do not suffer with the problem, so any buyer would be happy with that, I think.