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Dec 20, 2016 20:49:02 GMT
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Hi guys, #disclaimer# I'm aware this isn't the usual fodder for Retro-Rides, so please let me know if you'd like me to stop posting about it!
Basically, I had to get shut of my Lincoln Towncar due to a gorgeous mini-person joining my wife and I recently. I tried everything I could to make the Lincoln an acceptable family car... and to be fair, it was in every way. Except the baby seat wouldn't safely fit in it.... Kind of a deal breaker.
So, the search was on for a suitable family car. Thing is, I've tried the 'fills-a-purpose-but-is-essentially-a-piece-of-curse word' car a couple of times. Let's just say that it doesn't work, and leave it at that! A Focus estate was out of the question then...
So I was looking for something that would:
a) allow a babyseat to fit safely (isofix a plus point). b) space for a pram and associated gubbins in the boot. c) rear wheel drive (obv). e) Be relatively economical. d) not cost a blinking fortune. ..and after driving the Lincoln for a year; e) have a V8.
Long story short (anyone still left reading out there?) I started looking at Jags. I've owned an X300 in the past, and it was ace. A bit rusty, but ace. It was. however, converted to run on LPG. I started looking at the XJR V8 version but the fuel consumption looked to be crippling, and I couldn't guarantee that the seat would fit.
I stumbled upon the X350 model. Made from 2003-2009 - these were the last of the 'old stlyed' XJs. They have all the hallmarks of the classic XJ: quad lamps, fluted bonnet, slanted rear lights, and a long boot and bonnet. I've always thought they looked a little stubbier than the X300, and it turns out they have a shorter bonnet and boot. They're also taller so that actual humans can fit in the back. All of this makes the side profile not quite as shexy as the X300, but they chucked a couple of styling tricks in there to attempt to fool us. The door lines are exceptionally high, and the windscreen extremely raked, for example.
They're also entirely made from aluminum! This means that they weigh a little over 1600kgs, which means they are half decent on the fuel, not to mention rapid!
The engine choices are as follows:
2.7 diesel 3.0 V6 4.2 V8 Supercharged 4.2 V8
The 4.2 V8 was the one that attracted me... the supercharged ones still attract a reet premium, so it seemed the 4.2 was the obvious choice. A 300bhp V8 that does 0-60 in 6.3 seconds, and returns a combined average of 26mpg? It sounded all too good to be true!
The hunt was on! I was after a 4.2 XJ8 with:
Cream leather SatNav (you get a cool touch screen to play about with the car's settings.....) Not red
There were plenty of abused examples about, with big stretched dings in the ally panels, worn leather, air suspension problems.... the list went on, and to be honest it kind of put me off a little! I was a bit worried about potentially big repair bills, but the promise of the performance and practicality had me ignoring that part of my brain...
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Dec 20, 2016 21:08:03 GMT
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I finally found one that had all the bits I wanted. It also had around 100k on it, had full service history, and seemed to be pretty well looked after. I hopped on a train ready for the 2 hour journey. Hoping I could resist the temptation to buy it just to avoid another train journey, i attempted to engage head instead of heart. On first impressions, I was happy. Although, as per these things, he'd missed a few issues off during our phone conversation: 'Immaculate' meant some paint 'spiders' (ally/steel mix) on the boot, and a dent on the rear quarter. 'Everything works' didn't include the rear blind, electric folding mirrors, heated seats, or bonnet release. "4 good tyres" meant 3 good tyres, and one completely curse word tyre that was about 2 minutes away from a blowout. and he hadn't mentioned anything close to, "no mate, there are definitely NO maggots in the boot....", that was just a nice surprise. It also seemed to have a noisy front bearing, and the front discs were down to the metal on one side... Plenty of bartering points then! I managed to knock him down on the price after we took a trip to the local tyre place (on him) and ended up signing on the dotted line. Here're the first pics I took of the new beast before heading home:
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eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,578
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Dec 20, 2016 21:27:01 GMT
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Like that a lot
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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Dec 20, 2016 21:27:38 GMT
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What a nice Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag
Any plans here on out?
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I have a Jaguar XJS - RARRGHH! She is called Lily, and she is my best friend! goo.gl/bT3ASP <-- video of her
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Dec 20, 2016 22:42:39 GMT
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Cheers fellas! I do have some plans; namely some exhaust and intake fettlage, perhaps new wheels at some point down the line.. but for now, I want to get it back to square one. Get everything working and minty, and get it feeling properly looked after again. It does have full service history, Jag stamps up to about 80k, then an independent Jag garage. The most recent service was about 2000 miles ago and the oil is still syrupy. The previous owner had it 10 years, I get the feeling he loved it, but didn't really care too much about its appearance. It had one of those big sticky gel things on the dashboard (the ones that keep phones still) that had been there for so long that it was dis-colouring the dashtop. It had a Parrot hands free kit fitted to the dash, and another separate hands free kit on the sunvisor! The hands free mic was hanging in front of the rear view mirror, and the interior was generally absolutely minging. The key fob icons had worn off from 13 year's worth of pressage... so that was the first job. It actually didn't work either, so I took it to bits. It was filthy inside, and the buttons were completely gunged up. I replaced the battery, and lashed some WD electrical cleaner all over the circuit board and the buttons. I ordered a new rubber insert and rebuilt the curse word. Loads betterer. And it worked! Although only for 2 weeks. I need to investigate again... at least it looks nice! I had to get on to the mechanical issues fairy quickly; when braking on the motorway the steering wheel would bash from left to right, it felt horrendous! I could also hear the front bearing getting noiser by the day. The old MoTs indicated that it wasn't used very much.. I pressed it into daily use immediately, and bits of it were starting to tell me that they weren't happy! I looked for some new hub bearings, I don't like to do just the one side when it comes to bearings. Sadly, you have to buy the entire hub! So, two brand new front hubs (complete with ABS sensors) were ordered, along with a set of brake pads, and a pair of the most ridiculously big and heavy front discs I've ever had the pleasure of picking up.. I mean, look at the size of this bad boy: It drives so much better with the new brakes and bearings! It's quiet and super smooth. Thankfully though, when you press the loud pedal you can hear the throatiness of the V8. It has air suspension all round, and I think that, coupled with the fact it weighs as much as an ant's handbag, gives it a 'crashier' ride than the old X300 I had. But then again, I have just stepped from a 2.5 tonne bench-seated up Yank tank.. For the size of the Jaaaag (and it's a big motor) it handles really well. Its chuckability belies its size. Clever engineering, I guess!
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Dec 20, 2016 22:56:48 GMT
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Maggots in the boot... what did he do leave a half eaten spam sandwich in there
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Dec 20, 2016 23:01:30 GMT
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Maggots in the boot... what did he do leave a half eaten spam sandwich in there Apparently he was in the middle of a tip run and filled the boot up with bin bags... then forgot about it for a week! I made him hoover it all out before I even looked in there properly, they made me retch.. Thing is, he had scruffy Rav 4s and runabouts, why would you choose this to fill with your bags of ming?!
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Dec 20, 2016 23:10:40 GMT
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Probably had more fuel in the tank. That is just trampy though, you would use a scruffier car or at least put some tarpaulin down to put the bags on and you certainly wouldn't leave it for a week to fester.
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Onto my first unexpected problem!
I was driving in the rain a few weeks ago, and out of the blue the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree! Alongside the ABS light, the DSC light (Dynamic Stability Control), and the Engine Management light, the message centre displayed 'DSC not available' and 'ABS fault'.
Not good....
The lights went out over night (apart from the the Engine Management light) but they'd come back on wihin 5 miles.
Now on to a majorly rubbish evening's drive... On a particularly cold drive home from work, I found myself wondering if 'DSC not available' really did mean that, or if it was all mouth and no balls. I put my foot down a little to accelerate on to the bypass, and at a moment that the DSC would've prohibited power to the rear wheels, instead I got a nasty CLUNK, a shudder, some more fun noises, a 'gearbox fault' message on the dash, and a box that only knew of the existence of 3rd gear.
Not an enjoyable drive.....
The next morning I tentatively went to start it up, thoroughly expecting to have to wake the Capri up and expose it to the freshly salted roads, only to find it was as good as gold! Well, aside from the 3 lights and original error messages.. I used it to commute with no problems at all..
Much Googling, forum searching, and Jaguar specialist calling later.. all signs pointed to....a wheel speed sensor! Kind of makes sense, too. The ABS system gets its info from the wheel speed sensors, if one isn't working, it isn't able to tell if it needs to be put into use. The same for the DSC. It needs to know the speed of both rear wheels, if it doesn't receive a reliable signal from one, it can't safely work. As I understand it; When I made the wheel slip, the box didn't have a clue what was going on, and basically tried to select two ratios at the same time.
The very helpful Jaguar specialist (I'm not being sarcastic, he's genuinely brilliant) said he could read the codes to find out which sensor is goosed, for £60. I managed to find both rear sensors for £58....
With both rear sensors replaced, all the lights and messages dissappeared!
As Phillip Glennister might say, "Marvellous!".
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It's been quite fantastic to use in the icy weather of late. I went out to the car one morning and realised it was totally frozen over... I jumped in and started it up. I expected to have to leave it running for 10 minutes, and to have to dig out my scraper; only I was pleasantly surprised to see the ice clear itself in a matter of seconds! And I didn't even ask it to! Heated screen for the win. Nice. Coupled with the heated steering wheel, it's bloomin' great of a cold morning. If only I knew what was up with the heated seats....... Poor quality frosty Jag pics coming up.....
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Very nice. I think my next car will be a Jaaaagggg
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Dec 21, 2016 10:00:35 GMT
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Liking it. If both seats are not working, isn't it likely to be a fuse or relay? Something simple anyway I hope?
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-( 10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily 03 Import Forester STi - Sold 98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-( 99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold 02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX 88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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pOG
Posted a lot
SHATNER'S BASSOON
Posts: 1,340
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Dec 21, 2016 10:16:20 GMT
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Oooh, now that's a 'modern classic' I could get me freak on for. X350 is pretty high on my want list - though it would HAVE to be a SuperCharged version for me, preferably in black. Oh yes. DSC, EML, Gearbox, wheel sensors and all that... Yes, it's quite entertaining* when that happens, isn't it. Had a similar experience with my BMW a few years back, did pretty much the same thing whilst hoofing it round the Hangar Lane gyratory. Erk!! Cheap & easy fix, but did cause distress to both underwear (due to sudden loss of DSC) and mental health (thinking I'd b0rked it in an expensive way). The joys of technology.
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Smiler
Posted a lot
I no longer own anything FWD! Or with less than 6 cylinders, or 2.5ltrs! :)
Posts: 2,492
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Dec 21, 2016 10:38:14 GMT
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I might have added a few Jags to my ebay watch list last night..
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www.Auto-tat.co.uk'96 Range Rover P38 DSE (daily driver) '71 Reliant Scimitar SE5 GTE 3.0ltr Jag V6 Conversion '79 Reliant Scimitar SE6A 3.0ltr 24valve Omega Conversion '85 Escort Cabrio 2.0 Zetec - Sold '91 BMW 525i - Sold '82 Cortina 2.9i Ghia Cosworth - Sold '72 VW Campervan - Sold '65 LandRover 88" - Sold
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Dec 21, 2016 10:41:39 GMT
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Maggots in the boot... what did he do leave a half eaten spam sandwich in there Apparently he was in the middle of a tip run and filled the boot up with bin bags... then forgot about it for a week! I made him hoover it all out before I even looked in there properly, they made me retch.. Thing is, he had scruffy Rav 4s and runabouts, why would you choose this to fill with your bags of ming?! My neighbour does exactly that. He has an E-Class Merc that's garaged, his wife has a Fusion and he has a Mondeo estate. Does everything in the Merc, as he's terrified myself or the neighbour on my other side will steal "His Space" Only uses the Mondeo when he thinks we're all out.
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Dec 21, 2016 10:47:36 GMT
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I remember these new as a kid - it was on the way to school. I saw it and really liked it.
Kinda cool now seeing a good one because it reminds me of those days ...
But I'm pretty sure the guy who had that Jag left rubbish in his bin ... (where bin =/= Jag!!)
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I have a Jaguar XJS - RARRGHH! She is called Lily, and she is my best friend! goo.gl/bT3ASP <-- video of her
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eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,578
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Dec 21, 2016 10:57:45 GMT
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I might have added a few Jags to my ebay watch list last night.. Not just me then.
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,195
Club RR Member Number: 170
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2003 Jaguar XJ8 ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Dec 21, 2016 12:22:42 GMT
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I think this may have swayed me to go with putting the M3 on this RR...
It's certainly at the newer end of stuff on here, but then this forum was made well over a decade ago for the Escorts and so on?
Anyway, I wonder if I should have bought one of these. I almost bought an XK8/R but the rust issues put me off alot!
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Dec 21, 2016 12:30:37 GMT
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These have been on my radar for a while, especially after hearing how rude they can sound with the V8...alas they still seem to be in 5 figures for a decent one. What's the build quality of the interior like?
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Dec 21, 2016 12:33:55 GMT
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These have been on my radar for a while, especially after hearing how rude they can sound with the V8...alas they still seem to be in 5 figures for a decent one. What's the build quality of the interior like? If it is anything like the XJS, which I don't see why over a space of 10 years that'd change, then it's good
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I have a Jaguar XJS - RARRGHH! She is called Lily, and she is my best friend! goo.gl/bT3ASP <-- video of her
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