New X300 Owner

[noodleman]

Hi all,

Just purchased a '97 X300 Exec as I don't think the Elise is gonna cut it with a pregnant wife.

I've always loved XJs but really bought this as a cheap runabout with the intention of mechanically maintaining it but little else.

However, I've started to fall for it already and can see me getting pretty attached to this £1K machine. It's just a perfect foil to my modified Elise, leaving me happy to waft around below speed limits and keep the chaos for the track.

So, I may be bothering you a bit for hints and tips on repairing the minor faults the car has. The first on my hit list are:

Broken foglight: I've found a replacement on ebay but have read that they can be tricky to remove. I can damage the old one as it's a complete unit that I've ordered. Any tips?

Temperature: It does get up to temp but it takes in excess of 10 miles. Is this normal? Thermostat? If so, where to order from?

Passenger door rattle: I've got a pretty bad rattle from the passenger door area. It dampens it if I push my elbow hard into the centre of the door card. Any common problems? Any tips on removing the door card?

Thanks in advance. If owning this car is a good experience, I think I may have found my luxury transport choice for many years to come.

[Jaguar steve]

noodleman said:

Hi all,

Just purchased a '97 X300 Exec as I don't think the Elise is gonna cut it with a pregnant wife.

I've always loved XJs but really bought this as a cheap runabout with the intention of mechanically maintaining it but little else.

However, I've started to fall for it already and can see me getting pretty attached to this £1K machine. It's just a perfect foil to my modified Elise, leaving me happy to waft around below speed limits and keep the chaos for the track.

So, I may be bothering you a bit for hints and tips on repairing the minor faults the car has. The first on my hit list are:

Broken foglight: I've found a replacement on ebay but have read that they can be tricky to remove. I can damage the old one as it's a complete unit that I've ordered. Any tips?

Temperature: It does get up to temp but it takes in excess of 10 miles. Is this normal? Thermostat? If so, where to order from?

Passenger door rattle: I've got a pretty bad rattle from the passenger door area. It dampens it if I push my elbow hard into the centre of the door card. Any common problems? Any tips on removing the door card?

Thanks in advance. If owning this car is a good experience, I think I may have found my luxury transport choice for many years to come.

Foglight is accessed from behind the front bumper.

Engine should warm up quicker than that - as you guessed first place to look is the thermostat. Temp should read in the middle of the gauge on the N withing 5 miles at most. Whilst you've got the thermostat out thouroghly flush the cooling system and radiator with a hose and then fill with a 50:50 mix of coolant and water.

Is the inside door handle loose? There's a substantial screw underneath hidden from view that secures the handle to the frame of the door. Check this is tight first and if that's OK then you'll have to take the door card off. Easy enough, just take your time and don't force anything undone. IIRC the wood trim needs to be slid towards the rear of the car to get it off the card.

I thing you will find owning an X300 a good experience. I had one for years. Once you've run the car for a while sugest you consider doing a full fluid change and Waxoil or similar rustproofing treatment. Mechanicaly the X300 is almost bombproof but fluid change and rustproof will help preserve it.

Try British Car Parts for spares. Most good motor factors will stock common Jaguar parts too.

[a8hex]

noodleman said:

If owning this car is a good experience, I think I may have found my luxury transport choice for many years to come.

Congratulations,
You have just bought the all time greatest saloon car.

The car should come up to temperature within about 2 miles I would say. So there is something wrong there. I think the thermostat hasn't failed completely though otherwise it just wouldn't come up to temp at all. I've had a pre-heater installed in mine and when my thermostart failed a couple of years ago I'd get into the car in the morning at normal operating temperature and within a minute it would be off the bottom on the scale. The new thermostat is only about a fiver and is a very quick job to change so it would make sense to try, it's almost certainly going to be the problem. The coolant will probably cost most, but its probably a good idea to change that anyway unless you know the history of the car.

Not sure about the spot lights, the other lights are quite expensive, I bought some new ones from Berkshire Jag Spares who break Jags. I also got a recon ABS unit from there.

Slightly low voltages can cause all sorts of odd electrical gremlins. The central locking can cycle and the ABS unit can disable. If you get any electrical oddities then trying a full battery charge first can save a lot of time and expense.

Other than that they are great. I've had mine now for 14 and a half years because I still don't think there is anything better out there.

[noodleman]

Thanks for the info both of you.

So, any idea how much coolant I'll need?

They are great aren't they? So relaxing.

[Jaguar steve]

IIRC cooling system capacity is about 9 ltrs - so may as well buy 5ltr concentrated and dilute it 50:50. Important to keep the mixture proportion roughly right, too much water and you loose the corrosion protection over time, too much coolant and you impair the systems capacity to transfer heat.

And yes, they are lovely cars. Welcome to XJworld

[pete5570]

Great cars, i've just sold my 3.2 exec. As said before, temp comes up in about 2-3 mins and sits at normal all day long. Some thing i had to sort was: Front suspension bushes, very easy and cheap to sort, front discs, also very cheap to replace. It had a slight rattle on start up(timing chain), ut it never got worse,or bothered me. I also had a rattle in a similar place,drove me nuts and really spoilt the drive for me, i never found the cause. The electric ariel packed up and i found the audio pretty poor for the type of car (my ford escort has far superior sound). But i loved it and when i waxed it and stood back, it looked fantastic,but a series of small niggles and little time to sort it meant it had to go, replaced by a Range Rover for practical reasons. Another Jag will follow as soon as possible hopefully.