Hi,
Quick check on new XJS purchase - is the Marelli distributor ok?
Going to look at my first XJS - possible purchase, its a 3.5hr drive away and i am only going to look. If ok will go back to purchase after a inspection.
I will take lots of pictures, 19991 convert... how do i tell its not a fire waiting on the drive home?

Dealer will do compression test, so new plugs at the same time. Will check fuel lines, any cracks will be a big heads up that he car is not a good buy.. Jap import.
Check my other thread... paying top dollar .. but these things are dam expensive in NZ and AUS.
Thanks in advance.

 

There is not much you can do to check... Apart from when the engine is running to see if when Ypu remove one coil plug if the engine changes the way it is running. The Marelli ignition though is rarely a problem. People make it sound bad but that is only when it is neglected... I'd take the cap off, look at the contacts inside, look at the rotor and if it all looks good, then drive it away. Just make sure the spark plugs are gapped correctly!

 

Thanks Daim really appropriate your words.
feeling quite worried about this, do not want a lemon. Dealer is happy for me to check what ever i want.
I will post pictures after I view... cant buy this because it looks nice, and it will after the polishing a dealer will do.
Hence I will pay for an independent inspection, dealer will want to sell it!

Rust - in all the places on the buyers guide.
Air con... must be perfect.. not that I know, clicking noise when turned on? - will read more and take notes.
Engine bay clean
Radiator free from crap looking though it from under car I read.
and the list goes on until I need a beer and forget the whole lot... and get a st###y when i see the car, pay the cash, fire on the way home and get divorced!
End up living in a caravan with a burned out XJS parked outside which I put empty beer bottles in!

 

I tend to agree with Doug -- Marelli fires are often caused by neglect, but it can't hurt to check. Not a number one priority, I'd say. Also, the Japan-market cars came with exhaust temperature warning lights, so if your cats get hot, that should come on to warn you. It certainly came on when one of my coils failed and I nearly had a serious problem (and if you do lose power to one bank, you'll definitely notice it).

When I was looking, my main thing was rust--if you've done the reading, which you seem to have, you'll know where to look. I wasn't too fussed about mechanical issues, relatively-speaking, as they can be fixed more easily/cheaply. And when you take it for a test run, get the engine properly warmed up and then leave it idling to make sure the temps don't do anything funny. Oh, and don't forget to test all the gears--that's how I caught the torque converter problem in mine before purchase.

Have you read the KWE stuff about the aircon? That would provide a good way to test it quickly, I think. Being winter down there, I'm not sure how easy it will be to tell how well it cools, mind. It shouldn't click when turned on, I don't think. Mine doesn't. Though mine's dodgy anyway. I turn it on, and there's a brief immediate whoosh, then it settles down. In summer, it blows out hot air until the cooling system eventually kicks in and either blows out cold air (if it's feeling cooperative) or merely coolish air (most of the time these days). Aircon's something you'll want to make sure works, due to the fiddliness of tracking down issues and the risk of having to remove the dash.

You can't see much of the rad from underneath (make sure the car's still got the bottom panel behind the spoiler). You can peek in between the outer rads to see a sliver of the main rad, however. Chances are it'll be a bit dodgy. Mine was pretty cruddy, and that was originally a Tokyo car.

Japan doesn't generally salt its roads, and chances are this was a Tokyo car anyway, and didn't see much snow to begin with. However, it's likely to have had a lot of slow, stop-start driving, so there'll be more wear than the mileage might otherwise indicate. Being Japanese, too, chances are it's been kept very clean and polished ("beaters" simply don't exist over here. You almost never see cars driving along with sizeable dents, let alone rust), but mechanically it's a different matter. Especially if the car's had little use before exporting. Has the radio been replaced with a NZ one? The car might also come with an ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) reader, either attached to the central hump or secreted away in the glove box. Not a lot of use in NZ. Apart from that, I can't think of any notable quirks about how being a Japan-market car might affect it.

Still, if you can get your hands on some photos of the Japanese documentation, I'd love to have a look at it. And maybe even tell you what it says....

 

The compressor will always click. CLICK and the clutch engages. CLICK and it disengages. That is how they work. The CLICK is the sound of the magnetic clutch being activated/deactivated. If it doesn't click at all, then it is dead. If it clicks on and then doesn't click again after even 10 mins or so, then there isn't enough freon in the system to cool. If it clicks on and off very frequent, it is a good sign.

 

Can you hear those clicks from the cabin? With the windows shut, I can barely hear the aux. fan after I turn the engine off. Sounds like (ha) I'll have to open the bonnet and listen outside with the car idling.

 

To be honest, I can't remember. On my XJ you could only tell if the window was open. And even then it was hard to properly tell. My Cinquecento will make sure you hear it at all times