I am in the midst of looking for an updated DD. The E36 is having more parts fall off in the interior than I can keep up with.
Turn of the Century Jags have been on my radar. I follow them loosely and conventional wisdom is to run, but there is nothing conventional here. Does anyone have insight on the XJR V6 vs V8 or on the XKS convertibles. Would the XKS be the Miata with a back seat I need?
The 98-00 have both timing tensioner problems and Niksal cylinder liner problems but the later cars have a better tensioner that can be fitted to those cars and if the Niksal problem hasn't shown up yet it won't now. The XJR was never available has a V6. The XJ40 had an R model and the X300 had a supercharged I6 both of which seem to be earlier then what you are looking for.
Here is a pretty good thread on common problems. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=195961
Very pleased with my 2000 XJR, bought for the princely sum of $6500 3+ years ago. 370hp for $6500 is tough to beat. It has 145k miles on it now. A fuel pump went up early but that's the only time the car has been stranded. My ABS doesn't work, a common problem usually fixed by reflowing some solder joints (no joy for me, unfortunately). I replaced the coupler in my supercharger, which was a pain. The radio no longer works but the CD changer does. Fuel economy sucks. <20mpg on long highway trips @ 80ish mph. I'd definitely buy another.
One thing missed by that pistonheads post is transmissions: the supercharged V8 models have a Mercedes transmission that is considerably longer lived than the ZF found in non-R cars. I am not sure if that's the case with the earlier straight 6 supercharged cars.
http://www.jaguarforums.com has some good info though nothing like you'll find for BMWs.
I thought the non supercharged models have a 5R55 Variation? on the side I work on cars, and the car I had last week was a 01 XJ8 non super charged. Turned out it was a TPS which is another tale in of itself. But its got good power
I'm pretty sure that the I6 XJR doesn't have the Mercedes transmission. I'm supposed to work right now so I can't dig out the buyers guide I have for them somewhere.
Blitzed306 wrote: I thought the non supercharged models have a 5R55 Variation?
Maybe the later ones. It looks like it's a ZF5hp24 in an early 2000s XJ8/XK8. Typical failure mode seems to be the A drum self destructs when the pressure regulator starts to fail, as described here: http://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xj-x308-xj8-xjr-27/zf-5hp24-clutch-drum-failure-info-88369/
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