The Moneypits Xj resurrection thread
#1
04-24-2018, 02:55 AM
The Moneypits Xj resurrection thread
As a first time owner of a XJ, I thought it might be a good idea to make a thread detailing my buying, ownership and servicing experience, perhaps to aid those looking to buy, (and if you are, I recommend that you do buy one), and maybe aid those who are thinking of servicing their own vehicles.
So firstly, the buying experiance.
I've been hankering after a XJ for quite some time now. I had considered a X300 / X308 XJR, but all the ones I saw advertised within my budget seemed to be dogs. There was a distinct lack of X350 4.2's in my budget, and even a lot of the V6 X350's looked well past their prime in the price range I was looking at, (£3000).
And then I found what appeared, from the advert, pictures and description at least, to be an absolute gem. I phoned the owner for a good 20 minute chat about the car, went to view it, spent a couple of hours crawling all over it, before agreeing to a deal and leaving a deposit before returning the following day to pay in full and collect the car.
The good news.
It's clean. Really clean. When you open up the bonnet you could eat your dinner off of that engine.
It's in my favourite colour for a Jaguar, although the interior is a bit too dark for my liking.
There is plenty of main dealer service history, which, having phoned the two dealers who've looked after it, all checks out.
It has 11 months MOT on it, Pirelli P-Zero's all round with 6mm up front and 4mm on the rears, with an even distribution of wear on each axle. Even the (full size) spare seemed new.
Nice even shut lines on all panels, although the front bumper and NSF wing have been repainted at some point, (to an ok standard).
The brake discs all round are in good nick, with a decent amount of meat left on the pads.
Nice clean oil and coolant, right up to the level, although in my excitement, I forgot to check the PAS fluid.
The interior is spotless. No wear on any of the seats. In fact I doubt the rear has even been sat in, judging by the seats and how stiff the rear doors were.
The engine was whisper quiet, pulled strongly, with no notchyness from the gearbox.
No leaks, or sign of old leaks from any of the brake calipers.
No sign of damage or leaks to any of the airbags, (suspension)
The exhaust looks in very good condition.
The propshaft rubber donuts look pretty new.
The bad news
It looks to me like there are a few small trim pieces missing from around the rear screen, which may explain why.......
When you remove the spare wheel, there is noticeable rust on the boot floor along the low 'channels', which indicates to me that water has been getting in there and staying in there. The tools in the tool kit are also a bit rusty. No smell of damp or signs of mould or staining on the boot carpet though.
The front headlights could all benefit from an internal clean and a good polish.
The chrome trim around the rear edge of the rear doors doesn't look great. Not bad, just not nice and shiny.
There are swirl marks, some faint, some not, all over the body. A dam good T-Cut & mop should sort those out.
Two of the plastic underbody trays are damaged. The near-side one more so than the offside one.
There is some oxidisation, but only in two main spots, and that is on one of the doors on each side, (right down at the bottom edge).
The front subframe is a little scabby. Strangely it looks worse looking down from above, (bonnet open), than it does when you are underneath the car. Ideally it would benefit from being removed, shotblasted and powdercoated. I'll look into how long it should take me to remove the subframe on my driveway, although the turn-around time from the shotblasters and the powdercoaters may mean that I'll have to buy a second subframe and have that pre-done before swapping them over.
Some of the suspension components are well past their best. Namely the rear anti-roll bar, (which looks a right pain to do), some of the drop links and the front bottom, (snigger), ball joints. All are showing signs of significant rust, some have quite a bit of play in them, although even when driving along rough roads and purposely over potholes, there was no thumping to be heard. Ok, maybe they don't need changing RIGHT NOW, but they will need changing very soon. And whilst I'm doing that job, I might as well have a full geometry check done.
Even though the oil and the coolant looked nice and clean, for my own piece of mind, I'd like to change all fluids and filters, including the diff oil and the gearbox oil and filter, change the water pump, give it a full coolant flush, flush out the old brake fluid, change the auxiliary belt, replace the spark plugs, change the fuel filter, air filter and pollen filter, clear the drain holes, and maybe remove and clean the throttle body and the inlet manifold. Is there anything else, service wise that I may have missed?
All four alloys, five actually, including the spare, could all do with being refurb'd as they show damage from being curb'd.
Perhaps the most serious issue that I can see, especially from a safety point of view is that both fuel tank 'check' straps are totally rotten and need changing ASAP. they are both, how can I put this? Fubar'd? I can see one of the bolts that needs removing, but I haven't a clue where the second one is hidden.
The next day....
So, what's it like to drive? Well, my three hour long drive back home through the outstandingly beautiful Peak District this fine and sunny afternoon will rate as one of the most enjoyable drives of my life.
Wow! Just wow.
I'm verging on gobsmacked. A 1700kg luxury waftmobile should not have such a wonderful balance of ride and handling. I honestly do not know how Jaguar have managed to do it. The vehicle wafts along in almost complete silence, as if it's riding on a magic carpet made of fluffy little clouds. Even the large 19" alloys do little to detract from the sublime, cossetting, magic carpet ride.
And then you put your foot down.....
It may only be a 3.0 V6. It may only have 240bhp, but the engine spins up freely, revs nicely, pulls cleanly to the red line and makes a not unpleasant, but slightly muted howl. Triple figures speeds come around with surprising ease.
As for the handling? Blimey. It honestly, really does handle very, very nicely. OK, so the steering is a little numb around the straight ahead, but tilt it into a corner with a-gusto and it is just remarkable. It corners so flatly, the steering comes alive, grip levels are communicated, ever so slight understeer creeps in, but a slight lift of the throttle, or if needed, a breath of brake with the left foot and the thing comes back to heel. After an afternoon spent hooning around the Peaks, I had a smile on my face a mile wide. Driving many modern vehicles is like driving under the effects of anaesthesia, but the X350, when pressed, is an absolute delight. I don't know how those chassis engineers at Jaguar did it, but my God, they created a masterpiece.
Any bad points? Yes, a couple more have reared their head. The air-con only blows warm, the rear blind doesn't work, (although I can hear the motor running), the brakes have got quite spongy after a prolonged bout of spirited driving, and earlier on this evening it developed a slight hesitation on partial throttle openings. Not a missfire as such, more a lumpyness or a hesitation. Hopefully plugs and a fuel filter will sort that out? I'll be going down to my local library in the morning to take out a copy of their Hilliers so I've got all the relevant technical specifications, so at least then I'll know what fluids and plugs to buy. Never-the-less, none of this detracts from my happiness with the car. Despite a few niggly faults, I'm very, very pleased with this purchase.
So, how much did this bundle of joy cost me? If I told you, you probably wouldn't believe me. In fact, I can barely believe it myself. Jaguar X350, used luxury saloon bargain of the decade? Quite probably so, especially when the car only cost me £1900!
Servicing
Whenever I buy a new, (used), car, I like to go through it with a fine toothcomb, not only replacing anything which needs doing, but also replacing anything that is going to need doing quite soon. I suppose you could call it future proofing the vehicle. Have it off the road for 2-3 weeks, sort out all the little jobs, then I should have trouble free motoring for the next 12 months. Well, that's the theory anyway.
With that in mind, I had a phone around the independent Jaguar parts suppliers and my local main dealer. Upon learning that 5% discount was available on all parts ordered if I was a member of one of the Jaguar Owners Clubs, I quickly joined the Jaguar Drivers Club for £36.
To my surprise, quite a lot of the parts were the same price, or little difference at both the independents and my local main dealer, (Hatfield Jaguar). I'll post up the price of parts as and when I buy them, as well as detailing any work carried out, problems I came across, and how I overcame those problems. I'm in the middle of a couple of jobs on the car right now, so I'll post up more tonight.
So firstly, the buying experiance.
I've been hankering after a XJ for quite some time now. I had considered a X300 / X308 XJR, but all the ones I saw advertised within my budget seemed to be dogs. There was a distinct lack of X350 4.2's in my budget, and even a lot of the V6 X350's looked well past their prime in the price range I was looking at, (£3000).
And then I found what appeared, from the advert, pictures and description at least, to be an absolute gem. I phoned the owner for a good 20 minute chat about the car, went to view it, spent a couple of hours crawling all over it, before agreeing to a deal and leaving a deposit before returning the following day to pay in full and collect the car.
The good news.
It's clean. Really clean. When you open up the bonnet you could eat your dinner off of that engine.
It's in my favourite colour for a Jaguar, although the interior is a bit too dark for my liking.
There is plenty of main dealer service history, which, having phoned the two dealers who've looked after it, all checks out.
It has 11 months MOT on it, Pirelli P-Zero's all round with 6mm up front and 4mm on the rears, with an even distribution of wear on each axle. Even the (full size) spare seemed new.
Nice even shut lines on all panels, although the front bumper and NSF wing have been repainted at some point, (to an ok standard).
The brake discs all round are in good nick, with a decent amount of meat left on the pads.
Nice clean oil and coolant, right up to the level, although in my excitement, I forgot to check the PAS fluid.
The interior is spotless. No wear on any of the seats. In fact I doubt the rear has even been sat in, judging by the seats and how stiff the rear doors were.
The engine was whisper quiet, pulled strongly, with no notchyness from the gearbox.
No leaks, or sign of old leaks from any of the brake calipers.
No sign of damage or leaks to any of the airbags, (suspension)
The exhaust looks in very good condition.
The propshaft rubber donuts look pretty new.
The bad news
It looks to me like there are a few small trim pieces missing from around the rear screen, which may explain why.......
When you remove the spare wheel, there is noticeable rust on the boot floor along the low 'channels', which indicates to me that water has been getting in there and staying in there. The tools in the tool kit are also a bit rusty. No smell of damp or signs of mould or staining on the boot carpet though.
The front headlights could all benefit from an internal clean and a good polish.
The chrome trim around the rear edge of the rear doors doesn't look great. Not bad, just not nice and shiny.
There are swirl marks, some faint, some not, all over the body. A dam good T-Cut & mop should sort those out.
Two of the plastic underbody trays are damaged. The near-side one more so than the offside one.
There is some oxidisation, but only in two main spots, and that is on one of the doors on each side, (right down at the bottom edge).
The front subframe is a little scabby. Strangely it looks worse looking down from above, (bonnet open), than it does when you are underneath the car. Ideally it would benefit from being removed, shotblasted and powdercoated. I'll look into how long it should take me to remove the subframe on my driveway, although the turn-around time from the shotblasters and the powdercoaters may mean that I'll have to buy a second subframe and have that pre-done before swapping them over.
Some of the suspension components are well past their best. Namely the rear anti-roll bar, (which looks a right pain to do), some of the drop links and the front bottom, (snigger), ball joints. All are showing signs of significant rust, some have quite a bit of play in them, although even when driving along rough roads and purposely over potholes, there was no thumping to be heard. Ok, maybe they don't need changing RIGHT NOW, but they will need changing very soon. And whilst I'm doing that job, I might as well have a full geometry check done.
Even though the oil and the coolant looked nice and clean, for my own piece of mind, I'd like to change all fluids and filters, including the diff oil and the gearbox oil and filter, change the water pump, give it a full coolant flush, flush out the old brake fluid, change the auxiliary belt, replace the spark plugs, change the fuel filter, air filter and pollen filter, clear the drain holes, and maybe remove and clean the throttle body and the inlet manifold. Is there anything else, service wise that I may have missed?
All four alloys, five actually, including the spare, could all do with being refurb'd as they show damage from being curb'd.
Perhaps the most serious issue that I can see, especially from a safety point of view is that both fuel tank 'check' straps are totally rotten and need changing ASAP. they are both, how can I put this? Fubar'd? I can see one of the bolts that needs removing, but I haven't a clue where the second one is hidden.
The next day....
So, what's it like to drive? Well, my three hour long drive back home through the outstandingly beautiful Peak District this fine and sunny afternoon will rate as one of the most enjoyable drives of my life.
Wow! Just wow.
I'm verging on gobsmacked. A 1700kg luxury waftmobile should not have such a wonderful balance of ride and handling. I honestly do not know how Jaguar have managed to do it. The vehicle wafts along in almost complete silence, as if it's riding on a magic carpet made of fluffy little clouds. Even the large 19" alloys do little to detract from the sublime, cossetting, magic carpet ride.And then you put your foot down.....
It may only be a 3.0 V6. It may only have 240bhp, but the engine spins up freely, revs nicely, pulls cleanly to the red line and makes a not unpleasant, but slightly muted howl. Triple figures speeds come around with surprising ease.
As for the handling? Blimey. It honestly, really does handle very, very nicely. OK, so the steering is a little numb around the straight ahead, but tilt it into a corner with a-gusto and it is just remarkable. It corners so flatly, the steering comes alive, grip levels are communicated, ever so slight understeer creeps in, but a slight lift of the throttle, or if needed, a breath of brake with the left foot and the thing comes back to heel. After an afternoon spent hooning around the Peaks, I had a smile on my face a mile wide. Driving many modern vehicles is like driving under the effects of anaesthesia, but the X350, when pressed, is an absolute delight. I don't know how those chassis engineers at Jaguar did it, but my God, they created a masterpiece.
Any bad points? Yes, a couple more have reared their head. The air-con only blows warm, the rear blind doesn't work, (although I can hear the motor running), the brakes have got quite spongy after a prolonged bout of spirited driving, and earlier on this evening it developed a slight hesitation on partial throttle openings. Not a missfire as such, more a lumpyness or a hesitation. Hopefully plugs and a fuel filter will sort that out? I'll be going down to my local library in the morning to take out a copy of their Hilliers so I've got all the relevant technical specifications, so at least then I'll know what fluids and plugs to buy. Never-the-less, none of this detracts from my happiness with the car. Despite a few niggly faults, I'm very, very pleased with this purchase.
So, how much did this bundle of joy cost me? If I told you, you probably wouldn't believe me. In fact, I can barely believe it myself. Jaguar X350, used luxury saloon bargain of the decade? Quite probably so, especially when the car only cost me £1900!
Servicing
Whenever I buy a new, (used), car, I like to go through it with a fine toothcomb, not only replacing anything which needs doing, but also replacing anything that is going to need doing quite soon. I suppose you could call it future proofing the vehicle. Have it off the road for 2-3 weeks, sort out all the little jobs, then I should have trouble free motoring for the next 12 months. Well, that's the theory anyway.
With that in mind, I had a phone around the independent Jaguar parts suppliers and my local main dealer. Upon learning that 5% discount was available on all parts ordered if I was a member of one of the Jaguar Owners Clubs, I quickly joined the Jaguar Drivers Club for £36.
To my surprise, quite a lot of the parts were the same price, or little difference at both the independents and my local main dealer, (Hatfield Jaguar). I'll post up the price of parts as and when I buy them, as well as detailing any work carried out, problems I came across, and how I overcame those problems. I'm in the middle of a couple of jobs on the car right now, so I'll post up more tonight.
Last edited by The Moneypit; 04-24-2018 at 03:00 AM.
#2
04-24-2018, 04:30 PM
Veteran Member
When you think the XK engine for the D-types that won Le Mans had about the same horsepower it shows how much of a horsepower arms race we have had over the years. The Mini started in 1959 with an 850 engine, and most family cars were 1500cc or less.
There was once an interesting car advert for Audi in the 80s that said that if you had entered a 50's Grand Prix with your Audi Quattro you'd probably have won it !!
There was once an interesting car advert for Audi in the 80s that said that if you had entered a 50's Grand Prix with your Audi Quattro you'd probably have won it !!
#4
04-25-2018, 04:24 PM
#5
05-16-2018, 02:46 PM
Well, it’s been three weeks since I started this thread, so I figured it was about time to actually detail some of the work that I’ve been, (slowly) doing on the XJ.
The two main purposes of this thread are firstly to keep an accurate record of all the work that I’ve carried out, (kinda like my own personal service history), and secondly, hopefully, some of the tips I give, problems I come across and work I carry out, photos and technical info I post will be a help to other owners. In my opinion, that’s what a good owner’s forum should be for.
The car itself seems pretty straight, but what I like to do with all my, (new to me), cars is go through them with a fine tooth comb, do anything and everything that needs doing all in one hit, then hopefully have problem free motoring for the next 12 months.
First things first, changing the air filter.
Whenever I change an air filter I like to give the airbox a good clean and vac out, get rid of any bits of dirt, grit and old leaves. Sure, it might take 10 minutes longer, but at least then I know that it really is clean. Otherwise what’s the point in putting a nice, new, clean air filter into a dirty airbox?
I thought I’d taken photos of this, but I hadn’t. All I did after removing the old air filter was give the airbox a vac out, scrape around the edges with a small old flat bladed screwdriver to dislodge the dirt, then vac out again before finishing off wiping the insides over with a wet wipe. A word of caution to anyone attempting this job for the first time, the airbox lid can be a right faff to get back on again. It’s certainly a poor design and takes patience to clip back on correctly without damaging anything.
Next job, replacing the spark plugs.
The two main purposes of this thread are firstly to keep an accurate record of all the work that I’ve carried out, (kinda like my own personal service history), and secondly, hopefully, some of the tips I give, problems I come across and work I carry out, photos and technical info I post will be a help to other owners. In my opinion, that’s what a good owner’s forum should be for.
The car itself seems pretty straight, but what I like to do with all my, (new to me), cars is go through them with a fine tooth comb, do anything and everything that needs doing all in one hit, then hopefully have problem free motoring for the next 12 months.
First things first, changing the air filter.
Whenever I change an air filter I like to give the airbox a good clean and vac out, get rid of any bits of dirt, grit and old leaves. Sure, it might take 10 minutes longer, but at least then I know that it really is clean. Otherwise what’s the point in putting a nice, new, clean air filter into a dirty airbox?
I thought I’d taken photos of this, but I hadn’t. All I did after removing the old air filter was give the airbox a vac out, scrape around the edges with a small old flat bladed screwdriver to dislodge the dirt, then vac out again before finishing off wiping the insides over with a wet wipe. A word of caution to anyone attempting this job for the first time, the airbox lid can be a right faff to get back on again. It’s certainly a poor design and takes patience to clip back on correctly without damaging anything.
Next job, replacing the spark plugs.
#6
06-23-2018, 03:34 PM
Regarding sparkplugs, when I changed mine in the 4.2L, I found it necessary to use short socket extensions when removing or installing to avoid removing cowl over rear plugs. Tight fit, but doable and time consuming. I am glad iridiums last so long and I will not have to do this again on this 2004 XJ8.
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