Alright guys, so, again, thanks for all the helpful responses.

@Red October and danielsand: I am loving it so far. Thanks for the detailed and articulate advice. Old world craftmanship, indeed!

@Sean B: The previous owner had the front bushings replaced and, while he said they did improve the clunkiness and handling, his mechanic still recommended changing the shocks. The struts are dark green. I went ahead and ordered them from Jaguar of Greenville today, utilizing the 15% off and free shipping (awesome). They'll be shipped to me on Tuesday.

Without further ado, here is the 'new' Jag...

















She is a real beauty! The pictures really do little justice to just how sleek, comfortable, and luxurious this beast really is...

Though she is beautiful, there are, however, a number of minor issues that you all might know about:

- Coolant sensor sinks to the bottom of the tank instead of floating at the top, yielding a 'LOW COOLANT' warning on the odometer.
- Passenger side window up/down button doesn't work. I can roll it up or down from the driver's side, though. Fuse?
- Subwoofer's rubber that connects the cone to the sub's housing box is torn. Sub doesn't sound as good as it should.
- Didn't come with a manual.

Thx again everybody!

 

Looks great! Welcome to the club!

 

- Subwoofer's rubber that connects the cone to the sub's housing box is torn. Sub doesn't sound as good as it should. All the subs are bad at this point- there is a repair kit that is not much $$

- Didn't come with a manual. I have a set with the green cover. It's not perfect, but everything is there, remind me if you are coming right before next months meeting and I will bring it, its your to have.

 

Sounds like you need a new header tank, the float cannot be replaced, I'd advise ringing breakers yards, the new one might be costly?

Test the switch, you'll need to remove the door card, plenty of how to's in the forum on this job. If the switch is faulty then a breakdown and cleanup of the contacts, if still causing issues, again a second hand part is the route, there are cars being broken atm by members on here so contact for the bits you need.

Sub speaker can be fixed. There's again, a how to on this very subject using a rubber repair kit with several members having great success for about $15....the oem speaker is rare as hen's teeth with unknown and magical properties....some say it adds 20bhp to the car, some say it makes the car lighter....

My kind of XJ, enjoy it!

 

The black cat has indeed crossed your path-welcome to the XJR club & we all know how you're feeling to have aquired such a magnificent beast

As stated above, the subwoofer can be repaired with kits that contain a new rubber & glue. New subs are not cheap & used ones are hard to find. Speaker foams are known to break up after around 15 years-the material does have a lifespan & there are loads of articles on the web about speaker repair in general using this method-not just for Jag subs...

The only hard part is that the rear shelf has to come out, which means removing the rear seat base & seat back. The seat base is easy to get off-prise off the central plastic retainers on the LH & RH rear heelboards under the rear seat base & remove the heelboards to expose the 2 seat base Torx screws-undo them & lift the seat base up & then forwards.

Then to remove the seat back, unscrew the 4 crosshead screws at the bottom of the seat back (2 at each side & the 2 central screws partly hidden behind the centre armrest), then unscrew the big Torx bolts to remove the seatbelt lower mountings, so the LH, RH & centre belt ends are now loose.

Then carefully prise out the 3 plastic seatbelt trim pieces at the top of the seat back. The bottom of the seat back can then be slightly pulled forwards at each end & then the whole piece pulled firmly upwards-the headrests do not need to be removed & they come out with the seat back.

Once the seat back has been pulled up enough to disengage from it's mountings, it can be pulled forwards & the seatbelts threaded through the seat back holes. This bit can be fiddly, but persist & make sure the seat back is pulled up high enough for the rear lip to pass over the seatbelt reels, before pulling it forwards & then threading the seatbelts through the seat back holes

This is the part that can be fiddly-but it will come out if raised high enough before pulling it forwards

Once the seat back is out the way, the 3 seatbelt reels can be unscrewed (2 big Torx bolts for each reel-one at the top & the other at the front) & then pulled forwards to remove them. The bolts may be quite tight, so make sure that you loosen the top bolts very carefully, in case your wrench suddenly slips off and smashes the rear screen!

Once these are out the way, carefully prise out the 2 front fasteners that hold the rear shelf in place-then the shelf can be raised up from the centre & carefully wiggled/pulled forwards. It's not necesary to remove the plastic 'C' pillar trim pieces to get the rear shelf out.

Then the subwoofer can be removed & repaired

The door trim cards are quite easy to get off as well once you've done it-I can get mine off in 5 minutes now

The cheapest repair method is to source the parts used from breakers-things like door window switches, motors, interior control modules are common to both the XJ8's and the XJR's & ebay is a good source of used parts.

Have fun