Challenge friendly '98 XJR, or just light my money on fire?

so much yes

Serious, not joking at all, GRM should do an XJ-R buyer's guide.

I'd also like to see a comparison of the XJ-R ownership experience vs M5 and E-class AMG.

I suspect the Jag may really be the grassrootsiest eurotrash performance sedan.

Do it now. Don't ask permission ask for forgiveness. Yes it is that good a deal!!!!

HappyAndy wrote: Serious, not joking at all, GRM should do an XJ-R buyer's guide. I'd also like to see a comparison of the XJ-R ownership experience vs M5 and E-class AMG. I suspect the Jag may really be the grassrootsiest eurotrash performance sedan.

Yes, please.

Whats the dealer holding? If it's 3 through 6, do it!

If it's a facecard, DO IT ANYWAY!

I used to be a big fan of used Mercedes. But people on this site smartened me up. Now I'm starting to like these jags. I'm still smart right?

Do it. Some people spend $2,000 in coke and hookers in a weekend and in the end they have nothing to show for it.

Except for a STD and a drug habit.

golfduke wrote:

NOHOME wrote: Depends...Some people can walk away from 2k and call it a fun date. If 2k is actually rent or food money to you, stay away from it. If you buy it, do you still have a car to drive to work everyday that you will keep?

Yes. Much with this horde of forum members, I've got nearly a fleet at this point. This would be the 4th road-worthy and inspected vehicle in a family of... 2. Regarding the $$. $2000 for a fun date and I'd be expecting some seriously impressive... dessert. Haha. In reality, I'm somewhere in between- It's not rent or food money, but it's also not a valet'ed evening at the steeakhouse with 1 too many old fashioned's...

Well, in that case, since wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from a lack of wisdom, I say to go for it.

plance1 wrote: I used to be a big fan of used Mercedes. But people on this site smartened me up. Now I'm starting to like these jags. I'm still smart right?

The only way I can explain a jag to people is it is between comparable BMWs an Mercedes. With respect to the driving experience. Less sport than a BMW and less luxo barge than the Mercedes.

I should add that I think it is the perfect balance of sport and luxury. I am a huge fan.

I've owned a 2001 XJR since 2006, and it's been great. It's ridiculously comfortable, very quick, surprisingly reliable and actually very grassroots. Jaguarforums.com has a number of Jaguar techs who post regularly and I've had no problem finding solutions to any problems that have popped up with mine (there's also a link over there to the factory service manual). There's also some info there about modifications, though a lot of it tends to be style over substance. Some members there have claimed 75-100hp gains from a smaller pulley on the supercharger and a less restrictive exhaust (the car has 6 mufflers from the factory) and they claim there's no need to get an aftermarket tune. I've left mine stock, though they sound incredible without exhaust so a modified exhaust is something that's always in the back of my head.

Something you'll want to look into with a 1998 is the timing chain tensioners. They're made of plastic and are guaranteed to break over time allowing valves to meet pistons. Jaguar updated the design in 2000 or 2001 with a new plastic that is much more durable, then when they bumped the engine to 4.2L in 2003 they introduced a metal design that lasts forever. If this car hasn't had the tensioners updated, you should budget about $500 in parts plus another $300 for the specialty tools that are needed (or you can find a used set of tools on a Jaguar forum).

If the transmission is leaking from the front passenger side (something very common with this Merc trans) it's probably just an o-ring where an electrical harness enters the transmission. It's about a 3 hour job to fix it and less than $50 in parts, mostly because it's a tight squeeze getting to it, though I could have gotten more space by taking off a heat shield. The $50 includes the filter and pan gasket that you'll probably want to replace at the same time and the dipstick that you'll have to buy.

A common problem people used to scream about was the Nikasil cylinder coating in the engine. Nikasil was a coating sprayed onto the bores of aluminum engines so that a cast iron sleeve was not necessary (if I remember right). The problem was that North American fuel had a much higher sulfur content than Europe, and somehow Jaguar and BMW forgot to take this into account so many of their Nikasil engines had premature failures in NA when the sulfur caused the coating to flake off and expose the aluminum to the piston rings. With that being said, the sulfur content is ridiculously low now, so if this failure hasn't occured by now, it probably never will.

Parts have been fairly cheap, mostly ordered through RockAuto or a few online Jaguar parts places that sell at a pretty good discount compared to the dealer.

For $2000, I'd say buy it, and if something spectacularly bad happens you can easily part it out for more than you bought it for. As for holding the transmission in 2nd, the car only uses 1st gear if you have "sport mode" on, otherwise it starts in 2nd gear so you could put the shifter in 2 and not use sport mode, or start off in sport mode and then turn it off once you've hit 2nd (it's just a button on the center console).

If you have any specific questions, let me know and I can try to answer them.

FWIW, I sold my own '00 XJR for $2200 around this time last year. It had about 150k miles. It was still a solid runner but it had a bunch of problems that I had been neglecting. AC didn't hold a charge. Radio no longer worked. It also had a terrible rattle at idle that was probably the supercharger. There's a coupling that fails but I had already replaced that so who knows what it was.

The final straw (and reason for the short money sale) for me was a CEL related to an EVAP leak. The drive cycle was impossible to duplicate. I checked the various vacuum connections, cleared the code and it took - not kidding - more than 2000 miles of driving before I lucked into the right combination to finally retest and trip the light again.

It was a fantastic highway cruiser.

EDIT: timing chain problems existed at least until MY00. The local dealer had records of replacement for my car.

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm trying to pull this off, but there are a few issues-

• There's a pretty hefty oil leak somewhere. It's passenger side toward the rear it appears. It might be just a pan gasket, but it's sizeable enough that Its cause for concern. The oil looked good, but I noticed the leak after it showing to be about 2qts low.
• Maintenance history is OK, but in the last few years has fallen off a cliff. It went from perfectly scheduled intervalled maintenance to nothing.
• The lovely old lady can't seem to find the title. I know that there's no funny business with it, but having a 92 year old have to go to the state, reapply for it, and then sign it over is proving to be more of a hassle than it normally would be.

I really wish I could find the root of the oil leak before buying it...

In reply to golfduke:

Schmidlap mentions a common trans leak from the front passenger side of the trans. Is it leaking transmission fluid instead of oil?

It's entirely possible, since it's in that general vicinity. Not sure if that makes the low oil condition more or less worrisome now though, haha.

would she let us jack it up and poke around a bit if we went by on Saturday?

Datsun310Guy wrote: Do it. Some people spend $2,000 in coke and hookers in a weekend and in the end they have nothing to show for it. Except for a STD and a drug habit.

Still less expensive than a bad Jag

Basil Exposition wrote:

Datsun310Guy wrote: Do it. Some people spend $2,000 in coke and hookers in a weekend and in the end they have nothing to show for it. Except for a STD and a drug habit.

Still less expensive than a bad Jag

I got both for far less money, would like to try a cheap Jag next.

There's a black on black 98 xjr I'm currently trying to pick up for under $1500. I figured if I can get him between 1000 and 1200 then I couldn't lose. It has paint fade and a crack from a rock hit to the windshield.

Car I'm referring to:

So did we purchase or not???

My Searchtempest function is currently on mid 2000 XJR's. Found a sweet one that lists neeing the air rid sorted. Gadzooks the prices are absurd. Even the aftermarket Arnott are 500 a corner...

Yes I know - Jaguar. In my head it didn't seem like that bad of an idea after how awful my 335 was to maintain...

I ultimately passed due to titling issues unfortunately. It was a sweet car though, and the sounds.... ohgodthesounds...

Lost titles I MA are no big deal. On line form that takes a couple minute to fill out and a modest fee and I got a duplicate title in less than a week.

He stopped replying to me so I'm guessing it's sold. Will try again another time.

That $2K kitty would look great parked next to the $1K Range Rover I picked up last Winter. FWIW, The Rover has been stellar. It was tapped in the rear about a month ago and the other drivers insurance company gave me $1200 for a scuffed rear bumper and a loose exhaust system. Buy the kitty!