STRIPPING BACK

1 The true extent of 1 the damage can only be appreciated after stripping off a number of components. We began with the headlights, whose mounts had broken, followed by the wheelarch liners, which were also snapped on the offside front.

2 The engine bed 2 should be checked, so we removed the undertray, which had suffered damage, but was still secured with several rusty 10mm nuts. After removing it, we could see that the engine bed was battered and needed to be replaced.

3 Fortunately, Eurojag 3 have plenty of engine beds that are not damaged, so a plan was hatched to remove the old one and fit a secondhand assembly complete with front suspension and steering components.

4 We continued 4 to remove more components, including the offside sill cover, which had been damaged. This is secured to the rear wheelarch liner and underside of the sill with crosshead screws. They can spin inside their plastic plugs, and if this happens, they need to be prised out.

5 The offside front wing was detached by undoing four 10mm bolts along the top edge, another 10mm bolt in the front corner and two more in the rear corner. There were two more 10mm bolts inside the wing, but hidden by the windscreen washer reservoir.

6 The windscreen washer reservoir is secured with two 10mm bolts. There’s also the pipework and an electrical plug to disconnect and a crosshead screw to undo for the filler neck. Once the reservoir was removed, we could undo the final two 10mm bolts for the front wing and remove it.

7 We needed to remove the bent offside front upper wishbone shown in Step 5 of the previous section, but access to its mounting bolts is restricted inside the engine bay, so first we had to take off the windscreen wipers, followed by the scuttle trim panel.

8 We still couldn’t access the upper wishbone’s mounts, so the strut brace was removed by undoing its four 10mm bolts. Next, two 10mm bolts and one 8mm bolt were undone to help release the fusebox and move it aside to access the mounts.

9 The offside front coilover needed to be pulled out to give us more space to access the mounting bolts for the upper wishbone. This is secured into the suspension turret with four 13mm nuts, and at the bottom with one Torx T60 bolt.

10 The Torx T60 bolt that secures the bottom of the offside front coilover was firmly seized inside its bush. It’s threaded into a captive nut, which can also shear off, so we decided to play safe and remove the coilover with the lower arm by undoing a 21mm nut and 18mm bolt for the lower arm’s inner mount.

11 Having to remove the lower arm meant the control arm (banana arm) had to be detached from it; they’re secured with a 18mm nut and 15mm bolt. Also, the drop link is attached to the lower arm, so we undid it with a 15mm spanner, gripping the stud with a 5mm Allen key bit.

12 Finally, after undoing four 13mm nuts from inside the engine bay and detaching the wiring for the headlight level sensor, the coilover and lower arm were removed together. And we could now access the mounting bolts for the upper wishbone.

13 From inside the engine bay and the offside front wheelarch, the upper wishbone’s 17mm nuts were undone, but we couldn’t remove the bolts or the wishbone because it was bent.

14 In the end we resorted to cutting through the arm of the upper wishbone, which took the pressure off the twisted arm and its mounting bolts. We could then remove all of the parts.

15 An undamaged replacement arm was removed from another XF in Eurojag’s yard and fitted to the XF we were repairing. Making sure the wishbone was at its natural resting position (to avoid damaging the inner bushes) its mounting bolts were then tightened.

16 On the nearside front, the upper balljoint was detached from the end of the wishbone. This brought us a step closer to removing the upright, to reduce some of the weight of the engine bed assembly.

17 The engine bed can be removed complete with all of the front brakes attached, but this makes it very heavy, so first we removed the brake caliper (secured with two 15mm bolts) and brake disc.

18 After undoing a 21mm nut for the track rod end, the nearside front upright was removed. As mentioned, it could remain fitted, but would add more weight to the engine bed.

19 The power steering pipes that connected to the steering rack were detached, allowing the power steering fluid to drain out into a container. We also detached the end of the steering column from the rack by undoing two 10mm bolts.

20 Next, the steering rack was taken out by undoing two 15mm bolts and one 18mm bolt and unclipping the power steering pipes from it. This reduces the weight of the engine bed when removing it.

21 An engine support was fitted over the top of the engine, while underneath a transmission jack supported the gearbox bellhousing. A couple of 15mm engine mount bolts were undone, followed by a 10mm bolt for the gearbox oil cooler.

22 The engine bed is secured to the XF with two 15mm bolts at the rear and two 18mm bolts at the front. They are threaded into captive nuts that can shear and spin... but we were lucky on this occasion.

23 Finally, the engine bed could now be released and lowered down and out from underneath the XF. Even with all the brake, suspension and steering components removed, it was still heavy. Extra pairs of hands helped.