Hey everyone! Brand new member here, and I’m looking at a 99 xjr I found for sale. I took a preliminary look at it this morning and the battery was too dead to get it started and the people selling it went off for vacation today, I’m going to take a deeper look at it next week. It doesn’t run because there’s a “crack in the radiator” (I was unable to see one). There are a couple things I’m wondering about:

1. if the leak ends up being the water pump or something, how hard/easy is the pump to replace?

2. Is the radiator itself easy to replace? From what I could see it didn’t look to be terrible but I could be missing something

and 3. What other common problems or anything should I look out for? I plan on doing an head gasket test just because the car had run hot once or twice but I don’t know what else to look out for. All in all it’s a really clean car, 2 owners, just over 100k miles, and a pretty decent price. Any help would be appreciated!

 

Things to look for:
This engine (4.0 V8) had an issue with the timing chain tensioners. If they have been replaced with the 3rd version (metal), all is well. If not, the tensioners, guides and chains need to be examined and probably replaced. The water pump should be replaced along with the thermostat...the matter of a crack in the rad...well, that needs investigation but it sounds a bit odd.
So at a minimum you are looking at doing the work listed above...and there likely will be other things.
once done, these are really excellent cars!

 

thank you for your input, I’ll definitely check for the tensioners. Do you think you could point me in the direction of a water pump replacement guide? Much appreciated!

 

Look in the stickies: tons of info. Water pump is easy to change, but might want to also change thermostat, drive belt, hoses, tensioners, Thermostat tower, crossover -- same labor involved. Radiator is easy; harder to find, may need to repair.

Forum has lots of info on all issues.

 

Glad someone asked about what to look for in the 99 XJR. I just recently got one and will need to look into this stuff myself.

 

I've had a 98 NA (normally aspirated) VDP from new - I bought it off lease and in recent years it has had little use, but also been v reliable once all the Jag gremlins were worked out. The 98/99 cars were similar, but some of the early production issues with the 98's were worked out, often mid production cycle, so VIN is the only way to tell where your car fits in the change cycle. The SC engines are somewhat different and the tranny is Mercedes vs the ZF in the NA engines, so I'm not as familiar with them, but believe the Mercedes box has proven to be good, without the issues in the ZF box that many (myself included) have experienced. I can't comment on the SC itself and leave that to others with more experience.

A quick running list of the items that seemed to show up commonly in those vintages (some of which have been mentioned) include:

• Tensioners and guide rails. Likely changed already in your car as this became a major "fear" issue for owners by the early 2000's.
• Water Pump. Also likely changed at least once just because of age. Gen 1 pumps used bleeding edge impeller design that failed at bad moments at no notice due to the dash temp gauge being controlled by the ECU to only peg at a set point when the coolant temp is in the normal range - so you couldn't see that the engine was running hotter as the impellers failed and things went from OK to pegged hot in seconds.
• Early NA models had front wheel bearings that were undersized and fail regularly. My car is on the 3rd set with 190k miles. This was fixed in the 99 production year from a specific VIN, I'm not sure but the SC models may have used different bearings from the get-go??
• Several parts in the coolant assembly are acetyl (plastic) and are prone to failure. Most common is the thermostat housing. The small diameter hoses that run on top of the engine are now brittle and break easily if they need to be removed.
• Headliners often fail as the glue breaks down. Seemed to be an issue with several European cars of the day. I think most common in hot / humid climates.
• The rear view mirror seals fail losing the day/night function and, depending on the nature of the leak, leaving a double image in the mirror or worse case leaking fluid.
• The drivers door mirror control fails and requires replacement or the contacts to operate the mirrors break down making switching L/R and operating the mirrors difficult.
• Seat memory potentiometers are plastic and break losing memory function. I've given up fixing mine and live with no seat memory.
• Trunk lid micro-switch fails losing the opening function. Handy people can fix them with <1$ switches from digi-key or the like. Otherwise $$$ for the assembly
• Brake Switch micro-switch fails causing loss of cruise control and for a mystifying reason known only to Jag an error message that has nothing to do with cruise failing (and setting no codes). Again, handy people can fix them with <1$ switches from digi-key or the like. Otherwise $$$ for the assembly. Replacement requires being a contortionist.
• Nikasil cylinder linings. Used until Aug 2000 production so a 99 will have Nikasil linings. If the car is OK and not an oil user or low on power, not an issue. This is good news as Nikasil engines, providing they weren't destroyed by high sulphur gas soon after they were purchased, will last almost forever in car terms.
• Valve cover gaskets. Not sure when this was changed but the inside gasket around the spark plugs had a design that seems to have been prone to leak, leaving puddles in the spark plug wells. The design was changed, not sure when, and I think was more reliable. More of an inconvenience than an issue as it means replacement every few years as a matter of course.
• Motor for coolant bypass. There is a DC motor that operates a bypass in the cooling system that is part of the system to help bring the engine to temp faster from a cold start. It is a brushed motor and the brushes wear out. Another easy fix if you are handy and can make/replace brushes or $$$$ for the part.
• the coffee cup holder is a useless design and breaks.
• the gear shift surround clips snap off so the surround becomes loose. A fix was implemented in the 99 model year, but I'm not sure when or if it proved much better

There are some others, but not so major or common. Over the years I've found I am batting 1000 on the common issues seen in the forum, so it is likely the car has been fixed already, or the issue is there to be found.......

Bottom line, the car is still a joy to drive and for the past 10 years has been almost fault free as the issues have been addressed, or I live with the little ones

 

Here's my experience over the last 6 months with a 2000 XJR, low miles but with a lot of deferred maintenance. Nothing unusual or expensive so far and good advice here.

- bonnet/hood release catch - won't be able to open hood - easy fix on this site
- timing chain tensioners
- supercharger coupler - rattling noise from supercharger - not hard but takes a while
- valley hoses - the 2 heater hoses that run under the supercharger - check you are not loosing coolant from them instead of radiator, mine were ok but changed out as preventative when pulling supercharger
- ABS/Traction control warnings - easy fix on this site
- dashboard illumination bulbs burned out - gauges will be hard to read but easy fix with LEDs
- rattling windshield defrost vents that disintegrate when touched - all 20 year old plastic parts can be brittle - replacements on eBay or in the Marketplace
- 3 out of 4 door speakers blown - easy replacement
- foam bushes on top of shocks turn to dust - clunking suspension - front easy, rear not so much - still have to do
- headliner - still to do but quoted about $400 if i pull the sunroof panels

 

If this vehicle overheated due to failed radiator, may want to walk (sadly) away. An overheated AJ26 is no fun. An overheated SC AJ26 would be even less fun. If you're new to this, might be kinda ambitious to start here.

 

Tensioner
valve cover gasket especially the left side

 

I also got a 99 XJR 3 years ago, no regrets although a bit of work. Nothing to add really, previous posters covered about everything repair wise. All I can add is due to the thinner tires, bigger wheels and stiffer suspension it seems more susceptible to wheel imbalances and other sources of vibration. Also if you are feeling vibration in your seat check the motor mounts, transmission mount and center driveshaft bearing. I found out the motor mounts were jello and in turn this wore out the trans mount and center bearing prematurely and shook the whole car. Night and day with new mounts all around.

 

Good luck on those rear shock bushings, seriously those springs are scary. I did it 4 times on different XJs and used some heavy duty spring compressors but I still handled them like they were nitro. Looking back it was pretty risky. Some guys who have more tools just drop the whole rear suspension, which is safer and allows service/inspection of the rear diff. That's what I need to do next but it would be so much easier if I had a lift.

 

why would you ever use a spring compressor on the rears lol…. you’re on this forum you should know the rear shocks are a 15 minute job

 

I was talking about replacing the entire rear shock including the mount bushing and spring donut at the top. If you are talking about just replacing the bottom bushings yeah that's quick but bet those top bushings are dust. Especially if the front shock mounts in the engine bay are leaving dust behind.

You did say top bushings so curious how you are going to get to the top bolt on the rear shock without compressing the spring. Cut a hole in the wheel well? I've always gone by the procedure outlined in the Jaguar shop manual.

 

i’m talking about taking everything out….

the trick is plastered all over this forum

 

I watched the video, that's interesting but not what the manual recommends, also for whatever reason the rear arms never dropped low enough for me to pull the spring out even with the lower shock bolt removed. Oh well to each his own. I appreciate the tip but maybe next time share your info without dismissive LOLs and a know it all attitude. We're trying to help each other out here.

 

i will, just figured you’d have known it. recommending to do it the way shown in the manual or dropping the whole thing is bad advice and makes it look like a hard job

you probably needed to turn the axle to max travel and pull the sway bar links if it’s an xjr

 

That's a good point, probably was the sway bar links. I wouldn't call following the shop manual bad advice, more time consuming in some cases clearly.