Timeline, I'm in no legitimate rush, just scratching an itch I'd forgotten I had many moons ago if I'm being honest. If I weren't to buy an XJR at all it wouldn't be a particularly big deal. I like interesting cars basically and I have zero brand loyalty...I rarely rebuy a brand even if I have a great experience because I want to try them all. I could just as easily go for a V6 Accord coupe with a manual and be content with the purchase as I've never had one and I like a decently powerful daily driver with a manual. I'm easy to please and selective at the same time.

So it seems like this is falling into place. DMV phone helpdesk was wrong, he went to the DMV this morning and was issued a clean title in his name...no salvage, no rebuilt, no flood, no training wheels or eyeglass restrictions...clean title that he will send me a photo of. Puts me back at my original offer as the title restriction was my only issue, so I'll be going to get it either today or Sunday.

Definitely an uncommon vehicle. Did some more reading, Jag manufactured a grand total of 15,000 x308 XJRs...I think about 9000 total were imported into the US, 1500/model year. Figure a significant percentage have been wrecked, totaled due to crazy repair costs for minor crashes or whatever else. If there's an average of 1000 left per model year in the US I'd be impressed.

 

Wow, I didn't think they were that rare but I guess it makes sense. A clean title is everything so if that's the case no reason not to follow through. Hope it works out for you. Definitely keep us updated.

 

It sounds as though you are a "happy go lucky" driver rather than a serious enthusiast. Perhaps, once you
actually, acquire one of these finely crafted Jaguars, you will see why there are so many long-time enthusiasts.
Should you acquire a good example, you will no doubt become smitten with the quiet, ride and timeless elegance
the X308 versions exude.

 

I'd call myself a longtime auto enthusiast, I just like a lot of different things and find a lot of different cars appealing in different ways.

I'm looking forward to being a Jag owner, hoping my car turns out to be a good one for me. I tend to keep my cars longer than most, so we'll see how this goes.

Thanks!

 

In a very real sense I suspect that most forum members are longtime auto enthusiast. I know that I have had love affairs with
a large variety of cars. Like you, I found them to appeal to different aspects of my driving styles. I have fond remembrance of
many that have lived in my stable. The difference between those and The Duchess, is like the difference between quarter horses
and thoroughbreds. You can, of course, draw your own conclusions once you are in the saddle.

 

Took the plunge yesterday, made the 2 hr trip with a trailer, guy was nice enough and let me pore all over the car. Couple things that I found that were not disclosed, but they're minor enough that I wasn't going to beat him up on the price any further. Runs strong, shifts firmly, no noise or anything from the valvetrain...fell in love when I sat in the driver's seat. Wood inside has some cracking in the varnish, but its all there...headliner is nice and taut. No sagging and no pins in it.


Driver's outside door handle sems to be missing the gasket and shows a gap between the handle and the door...I'll get that sorted when I open up the door panel to fix the door stay thing, which likely needs a couple big washers at the mount inside the door. Got a bit of rust on the rocker right behind the brightwork on the sill of the passenger rear door. Hopefully its not going from the inside out, but I'll do my best to clean it up.

Everything seems to work, all the windows, seats, sunroof, radio, HVAC, wiper...full size spare on an asteroid wheel, jack and tools are in there. Undercarriage is very clean, looks like it might have been undercoated.

All in all, I'm happy with my purchase and can't wait to drive it. Going to pull the passenger valve cover off tongiht or tomorrow and check the secondary tensioner and maybe use a boroscope to look at the primary...is it safe to say that as long as I don't see an orange tensioner, that I'm good to go, or no matter whats there, replace them?

Gas filler was full of water from the car wash, so the drain must be plugged up...is that a blow it out thing or do I have a drain hose to replace maybe?

Thanks guys! Really excited to dig in and do some wrenching on it, and really excitied to drive it.

 

Congrats! Glad you're happy with it and finally a Jag owner. Paint looks good in your picture.

As far as the tensioners, if they are orange bodied replace them. They could be first or second gen but either way they'll need to be replaced. However, if they are metal bodied then no need as they have already been updated. Go ahead and post a picture when the cam cover is off, we can let you know what's going on under there.

 

Looking back at that 98 BRG XJR for $2500 that the guy ghosted me on, I just saw whats billed as a factory customer ordered interior "possibly 1 of 1" 98 XJR on facebook marketplace. Not sure if the link will come through or not, but search for Jaguar XJR in Auburn, AL and you'll see it...32k miles and the owner is looking fro $21k. Very interesting interior, but it is factory.

Just something I found interesting.

 

Couldn't find the car on FB, but if you can get the link to work I'd love to see it.

 

Here are the interior photos. Not crazy about it, but it sure is unique.

 

Oh my god - yes that is unique. I'll keep the rest of my thoughts to myself

 

Oh, got the car on the road thisa fternoon, went for my mainden voyage and filled the tank, took a lot less than I figured at 16 gallons and the DTE said 27 miles...I thought they had 21.x gallon tanks?

Sadly got my first bit of the full on Jag experience, cruising about 50mph, I tried to move the shifter from D to 4 and it wouldn't go easily, so I didn't force it...felt like it was locked out or something and I expected it to move pretty easily. Then the display flashed "RESTRICTED PERFORMANCE" and " GEARBOX FAULT". Car was stuck in first so I headed home, scanned the codes and I got P0705, which indicates some sort of fault with the J-Gate. I found a couple posts from other members and I guess its relatively common for this to happen with this trans...might be as simple as a sloppily assembled J-Gate or a bunch of loose screws, or maybe the trans switch in the J-Gate...anyone have direct experience with this?

First repair...so excited! Remind me of this when I get to the thousandth repair.

 

Oh man, that's a real bummer. Never had that sort of issue (I'm sure I will now that I've said it), but I'd do a search and if nothing comes up make a new thread to get more eyeballs on it.

 

Mayhem, I’ve seen that interior color on German (or European) X308’s. Unless that was a special order option here in the states, that could be an imported car.

When you disassemble the J gate, you might find broken plastic towards the bottom of the shifter. You’ll have to explore first. Whatever it turns out to be, get it sorted and don’t use that left side of the J gate anymore. Just press the S (sport) mode button and hammer on it that way.

 

The J-Gate systems are problematic and overdesigned in my book. Fortunately, there are many forum members
who have tamed that savage beast. This comes from a X308 forum member:

The cable is often the main offender and getting to it is not terribly difficult and could depend on your ability to raise
the vehicle to access the transmission connection from underneath.

The cable route is from Transmission Selector to LH side of the Transmission:

Only starts in Neutral-selector-1.jpg

Connection at the Transmission is:

Only starts in Neutral-selector-2.jpg

Connection to the Selector is:

Only starts in Neutral-selector-3.jpg

If you intend to DIY, you'll need the procedure for removing the Centre Console Veneer Panel.

 

Thanks Addicted2boost & Randy!

I found an old post in the archives here that seems to go into quite a bit of detail. I'll be pulling the center console later today and checking for obvious loose screws, etc first...good opportunity to clean up and area that probably has a bunch of crap in it and hasn't seen daylight in more than a decade. Not identical symptoms, but same code and likely a similar fix. Hopefully its just a loostened cable assy and I need to tighten and do the neutral adjustment procedure...haven't found the dual linear switch for sale yet, haven't really buckled down to search either until I check for obvious physical issues.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...00-xjr-192913/

 

Im 22 with a white xj8 that I bought for 2300. After buying the car I realized I got screwed and decided to say to hell with it and bought a junkyard lm7 LS motor out of an 03' Yukon that I'll be swapping in that way I have an transmission I can check and work on and have American muscle under the hood. So even if you get a non working project check out jaguar specialties in Cali he does some crazy stuff.

 

So @mayhem how are you getting on with the Jag now that she's all fixed up? Still envious of that BRG paint, such a beautiful car. Curious if she's running well and you're enjoying her. Been driving mine more and more recently and seems like it gets better every day (a new tank of premium seemed to help, I think the last time the previous owner filled it up was 2019...).

Also - Did you ever figure out what was going on with your engine? Was it a replacement? Nice that it has the updated timing components, wonder if it was replaced at some point.

 

So far, so good. The slight extra tightening on that one valve cover blot stopped that weep of oil and it appears to be 100% clear all the wqay around the valve cover now. Driver's side from strut mount popped on me right after I got back into town after about a 180 mile round trip on the thruway. It was very nice riding but I noticed a vibration that feels like its coming from the front end at 70 and up. I suspect both wheels are either slightly off balance or one of the tires might be flatspotted as the vibration seems to go in and out of resonanace as I go around corners, so sometimes the imbalance is in the same roll position as the other side and sometimes its opposite and seems to effectivly cancel it out. Figured I'll move one front tire to the back and take it for a drive and see if the behavior changes...might have something to do with the tires being the wrong size too...I noticed all 4 are 225/40/18, not 255/40/18, so I'm also giving up about 1/3-1/2" ride height I think. Tires are Vogue brand which I never heard of...sounds like a pretentious cheap tire brand, but I guess they're pretty expensive? Sound kind of boutiquey, but they're nearly new so I'll see what a couple thousand miles does to them as I do not want to byu tires for it now.

Haven't sorted the engine question out, but I'll take it as accurate that some forum members here say this is definitely a replacement engine. I'll get the serial number eventually and see if I can squeeze a service history out of a Jag dealer at some point.

Right now, loving the car, enjoying the power and getting a feel for the excess power and really enjoying the sound of the exhaust when the windows are open...getting very strong nastalgia for my brother's 65 GTO...the note on the XJR is surprisingly carbeurated and very analog sounding to my ear and I'm enjoying how quiet it is when I want it to be and how it sounds when I step on it, but its never obnoxiously loud...classy.

 

Glad to hear you're enjoying it. I went through hell and back with my old 03 XJR with highway vribrations. Had the tires balanced, re-balanced, road force balanced and finally discovered that a couple of them were slightly out of orund. They were the 3-piece BBS wheels since it had the R1 package and apparently they are known for that. Not sure about the Asteroids, but something to look into if simple things don't fix the issue. It was still not 100% smooth, but much better and it only did it at weird speeds and would come and go so I lived with it. Shame someone put the wrong size tires on, I guess they were cheaper

Does the car have stock exhaust? I could never hear a thing besides a bit of blower whine with the stock exhaust on these cars, but that does sound good. I recently removed the rear mufflers on mine and hated it at first, but its growing on me a bit.

I just did the front shock mounts on mine last week, they weren't totally bad yet but the original orange started crumbling so it was just a matter of time.