Ross
Looks like you did not have the dreaded ZF transmission forward disk failure and no fuel pump failure and no throttle body rebuild???

Also you have probably saved a lot of money ($4000 to $5000 or more) by being able to do the repairs yourself (most experienced mechanics charge $100/hr (dealership in CT charge $140/hr).

I have many years history with the ones I use and they charge me less since I keep my cars a long time and they are in exceptional mechanical condition.

Jim Lombardi

 

Just discovered my wife's excellent long-time mechanic (and family friend..He and his wife were invited to our wedding 4 years ago) has his own 1990 XJ6 with 200,000 miles on it. That does make me feel a bit more at ease.

 

Shea:
Notice, I have tried not to talk you into or out of the X-308, just to make sure you are going there with your eyes wide open! If you are confident in the mechanic, then have a talk with him and pay him to give your possibility a good look. If I paid to get the work done on my wife's car, it still would have been much less money than the budget I gave you. But we have been extremely lucky, AND I believe the MY 02 and MY 03 cars have some of the problems sorted.

Jim:
Although I have no proof, I have been watching the forum and I believe that the later model cars have less transmission woes than the early ones. I may prophetically change the servo regulator piston on the transmission one day, but, so far, no issues. The cars built after August 2001 have the Gen III tensioners, and just as importantly, I think, the Morse style primary chain.

 

Thanks, Ross. The car is about two hours away so I'm planning on taking a close friend of mine who is a mechanic with me (he's recovering from shoulder surgery so he has a lot of time on his hands!)

I appreciate your candor. Its good to hear a number of views.

 

After reading this thread, I feel rather good about my purchase of the "Duchess" as she is a 2003 Vanden Plas. She has already had the transmission upgrade, and after putting several thousand miles on her, she exhibits none of the problems listed.....yet.


It would appear that proper vigilance and routine maintenance are a must, to be sure. Fine luxury automobiles are just like women of noble birth...they are both high maintenance and require much attention.


RandyS
2003 XJ8 Vanden Plas
1982 BMW 320i
1977 Chevrolet Silverado Stepside
1983 Porsche 944
1987 Mitsubishi Van

 

Update: Looked at the car at the dealer on Monday; a three hour drive that turned out to not be worth it. The car was a mess cosmetically: cracked and worn leather, mediocre paint with some flaws that were not going to compound/buff out. Very disappointing on a 42,000 mile car. I went back to look at the photos and it would appear they were photo-shopped. The car certainly was not anywhere close to "absolutely stunning" or "perfect" as described. I took my friend the mechanic along and his electronic testing device revealed three "codes" including an issue with the catalytic converter. By then I'd lost interest anyway. Caveat emptor!

I'm now looking at a 2000 Vanden Plas in PA. with 20K more miles but twice as many photos (all of which can be enlarged for detail) and from a dealer with excellent on-line reviews.

So the quest continues...

 

That's a real shame Ancient....you had you hopes riding high only to be dashed by common sense ;o]
Never fear...when I was looking for my baby, it took over a year and I was getting rather despondant of the fact that i would never find a car that matched my albeit high demands.

I was sitting mulling over a black coffee and lo and behold, I had a call from a good friend on the other side of the country who proceeded to tell me to get my butt on a plane and get on over there!
4500klm later, I arrived and we headed to the dealer who was a very well recognised jaguar specialist who only sourced the best cars from all over the country.

I was not dissapointed...I immediately fell in love with my beautiful dark Sapphire 4.0 litre Sovereign.
This was built in May 1998...which would be a '99 MY for your country.
It was a one owner from new with meticulous service records even down to such things as wiper blades and fuses.
Lived in a garage at home and at work.

By 2006, it had covered 132,000 klm and had already had the transmission replaced, water pump, serpentine belt and three throttle bodies (two due to recalls).
As this was a company car, no expense was spared....if it needed doing, it was done and the condition of the car shows it.

As part of the deal when I purchased it in Dec. 2006, I had the chains and tensioners done, top and bottom, gearbox flushed, diff flushed, brakes flushed.
The car was placed in a container and railed across country to be loaded onto the cross straight ferry to arrive in my town.

As of May 2014, this car has now travelled 204,000klm and is as sweet as ever.
In that period I have replaced shocks front and rear, Akebono disc pads, alloy thermo tower, thermostat, serpentine belt, plugs and a few other sundry bits.
As for servicing and because of my useage pattern, I change oil and filter every 8,000klm (5,000 miles)
Coolant is flushed every three years.
Brake fluid is flushed every two years.
My battery (Varta 100 a/hr, 800CCA Silver calcium) is approaching 12 years old
and is as good as the day it was made as I constantly keep it on an automatic charger.
Once a year I go though the entire elctrical system system and clean all the exposed earthing connectors and wheel ABS sensors.
I have a box full of electronic cleaner/lubricant spray ;o)=)

I bought a set of replacement disc rotors five years ago but have had no need to replace them as yet.
The Akebono Euro Ceramics are very kind to the discs.

These cars are as reliable as anything else out there.
It's all down to regular maintanance and there is no earthly reason why they cannot succeed as a daily driver.
Even at 65 and with one eye, I still manage to do all my repairs and maintanance....it's a case of having to as my preferred specialist is 160 miles away!

You will find that most of the tales engendered about non reliability is based around examples that have been neglected and thrashed....you only have to look on You-Tube to see the results!!
The model you were looking at with a bare 43,000 miles and the stae it was in is a typical example.

It is because of their exemplary reliabilty that these cars are driven into the ground and then bemoaned because something had the sheer cheek to break down.
As is often said....these cars present a lot of bang for the buck.
Just take your time and research some good examples and above all....it's service records that are paramount!
Onwards and upwards as they say and may your quest be successful ;o))

 

Xjay8,

Thank you so much for such an encouraging reply...It comes at a very good time as I've got the second car to look at now and needed a reminder why I'm doing this!

Cheers,
Shea

 

This thread is rather long, and I'll admit I haven't read everything. So I don't know if you are DIY type or not.

If you are not,....stay away from X308s. Simply put, they NEED "tinkering", and that translates into $$$$, so one must do the math. As the ONLY exact science out there, math will give you the answer you need. $$$ initial purchase price + $$$ budgeted maintenance + $$$ unexpected repairs = $$$$$ divided by how many miles it will be driven in what period of time. And than you will know how much will this pleasure cost you per year/month or whatever.

IF you are DIY type, and love a good challenge,........X308s are GREAT!! Cheap to buy, cheap to fix, and they offer that "old world feel" that most new cars can not replicate. Stick around, read, and you will find out what years came with what issues, and how to fix those issues. Example: the "dreaded" tensioner issue on the early ones costs less than $300.- to fix! That's the cost of the parts. Labor is provided by YOU, and for the person that enjoys it (and I'm talking nicely appointed garage, good music, plenty of beverages at hand) it becomes "entertainment". All issues with these cars are well documented on this forum, and every problem that ever happened (anywhere in the world!) is discussed here.

As a commited DIY type, I visit several forums (LandRover, RangeRover, Mercedes, BMW) for information, but THIS forum has the frendliest, most knowledgeable people on the Internet!

Have no fear. Either YOU will fix it, or you will pay someone to do it. As long as the math jibes, go for it!

 

Thank you Daniel, and everyone else, for your counsel.

I took the plunge today and purchased a 61K 2000 XK8. It was light-years better than the last car I looked at in just about every detail. I am having the dealer correct the following before I take delivery:

1. Small crack in wind-shield
2. Partially burnt-out bulbs behind the tach and the speedo.
3. Finding a CD-magazine for the trunk-mounted unit (it was missing)
4. Replacing the right front chrome bumper trim (which was bubbling in a small section.)
5. Making sure the cruise-control works properly (on the test drive neither of us could figure it out.)
6. Refreshing the red pinstripe.

Engine/transmission operate flawlessly. Body/paint/interior all excellent. The underbody is good (I had them put it on a lift). No leaks on the car anywhere.

Total cost of car: $9300.

Question: Does anyone know where I can get a set of genuine VDP wool floor mats? The car has none.

God bless,
Shea

 

Oh boy: fun starts: hoped you paid attention to what DanielSand said'

Need to address asap: secondary tensioners; water pump, thermostat, hoses, drive belt, pads. I would get the fuel filter changed. How new is the battery. (Maybe the dealer has records). Then there is a list (long) of relatively simple maintenance items that allow bonding with a great car. But they are easy to work on and fun to drive. Comfortable comes free.

 

I guess you made a mistake. I was puzzled at first, but "front chrome bumper blades" set me straight. You said you bought XK8? And then you asked for VDP froormats. Excitement I guess.

Congrats on the purchase of 2000VDP! However,......$9300.- is WAY too high for that vintage (either car we're talking about, XK8 or XJ8 VDP). I sold my VDP (98) with 90K (and ALL issues updated, fixed, with new brakes/rotors, everything FLAWLESS for $5300.- here in SoCal). XK8s of that vintage can be had in 7-8K range. Anyway,......start digging in it, and visually VERIFY EVERYTHING (especially tensioners).

Chrome bumper blades can be found in many salvage yards (or Ebay). Search Craigslist too. I bought mine from salvage in Hesperia, CA but there are other places. They all ship. "Elite Autoparts" in CA has tons of them (salvage)!

Floormats pop up on the web from time to time. They are hard to find in salvage yards. Brand new ones are available on the web too (search and you will find). Cruise? It could be many factors. Check vacuum, check electrical connections. Especially check ALL ground cables (unbolt, sand, clean, and reattach). That alone will solve you MANY puzzleing electrical issues in the future. CHECK BATTERY (under load!)! Car is VERY sensitive to even a little drop in battery voltage/amps.

That's about it. Read EVERYTHING ever written on these (this forum is a great source), and you will be OK.

Congrats again.

 

Thanks, gents...Indeed, Daniel, I meant XJ8. Somewhat puzzled as to the price issue as I had earlier discussed a $9500 car on this thread which was two years older than the one I just purchased and no one said that was too high. Also, this $9300 included my requiring dealer fixes on the half a dozen items I mentioned which, together, would have cost me at least an additional 1K.

 

The price does not matter- you bought the car! You did not get the deal of a lifetime, but if it is cosmetically in good shape, then you are OK.
Now, to remind you-
If you do not have proof that the seondary timing chains have been replaced, then get that done NOW. The archives have plenty of sad posts about low mileage AJ 27 engines that are wrecked due to timing jumps. How often the oil was changed, how often it went to the dealer, how often it was washed, and so on and so on does not matter. If it has plastic secondary tensioners it is susceptible to this problem.

I personally know of two guys here in Atlanta, neither of whom could afford to eat the value of their car, that waited and had timing chain failure. It will mean about half of what you paid for the car (minimum) if that happens.

 

Number 1 on the list, Ross, thanks...Everyone has made the absolute necessity of that replacement CRYSTAL CLEAR on this post!

 

I purchased a 98 Vanden Plas for 3K from a action yard with a blown head gasket. These are nickel plated blocks. BMW uses them. If the engine has not be sleeved, and you blow a head gasket you will need to rebuild the engine and sleeve the cylinders with steel. These cars are know to over heat. Not saying yours will but the history behind these cars are simple. If anti-freeze especially hot anti-freeze hit the cylinder walls the warp. If that happens you are looking at a complete rebuild. I do my own work so part for this engine on a complete rebuild parts alone my cost was at 4K I replaced everything and sleeved the cylinders so if I do blow a head gasket again it will not warp the block. Also there was a recall order out soon after the car hit the market for the throttle body. So you want to make sure the upgrade was done.

I have about 12K into mine after rebuilding the engine and transmission and the front end which needed lower ball joint. But I love Jaguars so to me it was worth it. This car will be the last one I buy. I purchased it with 147K miles on it, lot of miles for a 2 owner car. This engine and transmission has about 70K on it and I love it.

Also one other problem, at time the computer main one, could get confused when you go to start it. It will dump fuel in all the cylinders at once. And will not start. You will have little to no compression and the car will not start. Now a mechanic will tell you he will have to remove all the plugs and blow the gas that is in the cylinders and dry all the plugs to get the compression back. NOT TRUE. Just hold your foot on the gas pedal to prevent any more fuel from interning the cylinders and crack it four maybe five times. The take you foot off the gas and DO NOT PUMP IT. Do nothing other than crack it over. It will start and run rough for a few minutes tell you burn all the extra gas off the cylinder. Mine has done this 3 times in 46 years. It may never happen but just in case you now know what to do.

Good luck

Bear

 

Thanks for the additional tips,Bear...

Shea

 

Anyone have any advice on rattles from my sunroof that occur when I go over bumps in the road? It stops if the roof is tilted or open.

 

Look at this other thread (post# 3) on sunroof issues (it has links to Tech Support Bulletins on its issues):

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...sunroof-55344/

Jim Lombardi

 

Thank you, Jim.