Looking at an XJ8 3.2 Sport, S plate
Discussion
A colleague of mine is thinking of shifting his XJ 3.2 Sport, on an S plate. That's 98 or 99 I think, although I'm losing track of plates and years... It's got about 70,000 on the clock, a full dealer service history and he's looking to get around 5k for it.
Looking at the classifieds, £5k doesn't seem bad, so what are the likely pitfalls?
Reading around here I see that nikasil and timing chain issues are the primary wallet-busters. I'll be querying said colleague to see if his car's a nikasil one and whether it's had the tensioners done. Have Jaguar been replacing tensioners as a matter of course, or only when they show signs of being on the way out?
Aside from those two, are there any favourite issues on cars of this mileage/vintage? Water pumps I noticed (that's a BMW thing too, dammit), how are they on suspension components, bushes and so on?
Lastly; there's talk of warranties here and there, and I'm 100% convinced that a warranty is a good thing. Given the car's full JSH, can I spark up the Jaguar warranty assuming I'm prepared to spend the cash? Or does that depend on the current owner having kept up the Jaguar warranty on a continuous basis? Are any other warranty companies (aside from any with claims capped at a low level - no good in a tensioners gone style incident) reckoned to be any good?
Thanks for reading this far if you did...
--Chris
Looking at the classifieds, £5k doesn't seem bad, so what are the likely pitfalls?
Reading around here I see that nikasil and timing chain issues are the primary wallet-busters. I'll be querying said colleague to see if his car's a nikasil one and whether it's had the tensioners done. Have Jaguar been replacing tensioners as a matter of course, or only when they show signs of being on the way out?
Aside from those two, are there any favourite issues on cars of this mileage/vintage? Water pumps I noticed (that's a BMW thing too, dammit), how are they on suspension components, bushes and so on?
Lastly; there's talk of warranties here and there, and I'm 100% convinced that a warranty is a good thing. Given the car's full JSH, can I spark up the Jaguar warranty assuming I'm prepared to spend the cash? Or does that depend on the current owner having kept up the Jaguar warranty on a continuous basis? Are any other warranty companies (aside from any with claims capped at a low level - no good in a tensioners gone style incident) reckoned to be any good?
Thanks for reading this far if you did...
--Chris
Edited by Marshy on Wednesday 20th September 22:34
Update: the car had an engine swap at 21000 miles in about 2001. From what I've read that means it should be a steel linered engine, not nikasil. Anyone care to confirm?
Owner also thinks it's had recall work done on the tensioners, but isn't 100% sure (but has gone away to check). I haven't read of there being a recall - again can anyone confirm or deny?
If it's had both these things done, then the price looks like a very good one to me: 71,000 mile car with a 50,000 mile engine for 5k.
Thanks,
--Chris
Owner also thinks it's had recall work done on the tensioners, but isn't 100% sure (but has gone away to check). I haven't read of there being a recall - again can anyone confirm or deny?
If it's had both these things done, then the price looks like a very good one to me: 71,000 mile car with a 50,000 mile engine for 5k.
Thanks,
--Chris
Gassing Station | Jaguar | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff