Well, once again I am changing forums.

I've hung out at the X300 and S-type forums, but yesterday I took delivery of a 2007 XJ8 VP.

Car is great, really looking forward to getting acquainted with it. I liked my S-type but always wanted to go back to an XJ.

Better change my sig.

I'm also looking for a complete pdf of the owner's manual if anyone has. Right now I've only found bits and pieces online.

thanks

 

Congrats! Just made the same kind of move myself, from the X-Type and XK8 forums. You will love the new kitty. Minee came with the manuals; if there is anything in particular I can copy for you, let me know,

 

Hi
These cars were probably the best-made Jaguars ever, but that doesn't mean they have no issues at all, just that the cars have proved to be exceptionally long-lived so far, provided owners maintain the cars in a timely manner and don't ignore fault symptoms and make the relevant repairs.

The car was late coming on sale and with Ford ownership at the time, the poor old X350 project manager got the sack because of this. I suspect the aluminium bodyshell technology took up a lot of time and cash, so less was available to sort out some other issues.

Issue number 1 is probably the suspension. This car is air spring suspended, and the actual suspension design is a Ford design used in the Lincoln LS at the time of introduction in 2003 (in the UK). It is also used in the S-type, the XF, ans the XK.These latter cars are steel coil suspended, the XJ is the sole Jaguar to use air suspension. Many owners wish Ford have never bothered with air at all !! The current XJ only has air on the rear wheels, the fronts are steel coil.

All owner experience, including mine, is that some of the suspension bushes have a very short life, far shorter than one would expect. Yes, bushes wear, but a service life of 50k is not really acceptable in this day and age, and the bushes at the bottom of the spring/shock units last even less mileage. On my previous X350 they were worn out at 35k miles ! Jaguar did try to improve the life of these things as many were failing within the warranty period. Just as a comparison, my daughter's Fiat 500 is approaching 100k miles and has yet to have any suspension bushes replaced. Only job in this region has been shock bushes. IMHO Jaguar is pretty disgraceful in this area, frankly.

As for the air suspension system, the main issue was the air compressor. Made by Wabco, early compressors wore out quite fast, the wear item being the piston seals, and again many failed within the warranty period. My own X350 needed a compressor at 35k miles and a service-exchange one was fitted. This was still on the car last year when I part-exed it for an X358 (a restyled X350) at 115k miles. The individual air spring units are a bit of a PITA because they are an integral air spring/shock absorber unit, a bit like a Macpherson strut but with an air spring instead of a coil spring. However it is a simple job to replace broken coil springs but quite involved if the air diaphragm fails. Many people have converted to steel coil units and junked the air system. However there are one or two shops that will fit new diaphragms to give the unit another lease of life. Buying a replacement Bilstein original will cost you about £750 (or CAN $ equivalent).

Issue No 2 is the peculiar aluminium corrosion syndrome called "crevice" or "filiform" corrosion. This is not a car-killer like rust, but is rather unsightly when it appears on what is normally an immaculate car at very high mileages. The paint shows bubbling, and if this is scraped away, a white powder is revealed which is actually aluminium hydroxide. The corrosion cell works it's way under the paint drawing water vapour through the paint film via the osmosis process. Correction involves removing all corrosion products, priming with a suitable aluminium primer, and repainting. As all bodywork and paint work is labour intensive this can be a costly repair unless one is a DIY enthusiast. Main problem is matching the paint colour not curing the corrosion.

Issue Number 3 affects early cars. The ZF gearbox can suffer from a few issues, most of them not too serious, but these can be annoying, like the "hunting" syndrome whilst the fluid warms up. My X350 had this and I never got it sorted out, but my current X350, four years down the line in production in 2007, is not affected. Clearly Jaguar and ZF sorted it out.

Issue Number 4 is bad earths at the front of the car. There are three earthing points at the front of the car, and when you look to see where they are, youj do wonder what the design engineer can have been thinking in putting these in such a stupid position. They are located such that all salt-laden damp air and salty water will pass over them every winter !! Many owners have had to repair these. I was lucky in that my car had only done 30k miles, so I was able to soak them in anti-corrosion fluid and never had any problems.

Apart from the above, you can get a few niggling, mostly electrical problems, but these are reasonably easy to fix.

So you're probably asking why I went for another X350. Well, the pluses of the car outweighed the minuses. With several holidays in Germany from 2010 and never any problems in 3000 miles of motoring there, you do get to like the car, and its feeling of being always ready to take you anywhere at a moments notice.

 

Welcome to the group! It's good having you here. My X350 is one of the nicest driving vehicles I've owned. I smile every time I drive it, and nothing on the planet drives like it.