Discussion
One of my dream cars when I was younger, I never thought I'd own an XJR. It was always on my list, but I just kept getting Alfas! (Have a 156 V6 at the moment and a Ford Galaxy - both have threads on here). It's my friends fault; he asked me to look for a used car for him and as soon as I did, I felt like I needed another car. I saw the XJR advertised on ebay with a Buy it Now and the next day when driving home from work, I knew I immediately had to contact the seller and buy the car straight away. I never do much research into cars I buy and just get excited.
Phoned the seller, offered full price of £2400 under the condition the car was freshly MOT'd (has 5 months left on it). He agreed, I wired him 10% deposit and today went on a 3 hour train ride to pick it up.
For £2400, the car isn't going to be mint is it? I knew there were some rust issues on the rear arches so I will have to get that sorted at some point. Other than that there isn't really much wrong with it. The engine management light is on which I think is because of a Mass Air Flow Meter issue. The seller had previously got rid of the light but it's come up again so will have to look into that.
It doesn't affect performance seemingly. This thing goes like absolute stink. I haven't driven a car with this much power before and don't have anything to compare it to but it is just so effortless and I haven't had the chance to open the taps for more than about 3 seconds so far because it's so quick. I think the Autocar figures for the time were 0 - 60 in just over 5 seconds and 0 - 100 in 12.8. OK, it's not modern AMG / M Car fast but for a 17 year old car, it is still quick. This is the X308 version, so a 4 litre supercharged v8 with 370bhp.
Having briefly look through the history which came with the car, the previous owner seems to have kept on top of things, and in the last few years it's had spark plug replacements twice, egr valve, front suspension refreshed, oxygen sensor, fuel pump, new springs, timing chain upgrade, rear arb link bushes, gearbox oil change, power steering pump as well as regular servicing and quite a number of tyres!! Driving it back it feels very tight and not baggy at all. The interior looks new apart from the front seats which are worn slightly, but not too bad for a 130k mile car. The steering is much more feelsome that you might expect a big cruiser to be, it's really quite good. The car has a great ride, though I'm sure the standard XJ8s on smaller wheels ride much better.
Here are a few pics I took today. Would love to hear from other XJR owners. Any advice on how to sort rear arches? I am not experienced with sorting out bodywork. It probably needs welding but any short term measures I should take to make it look a little better?
I love the wheels on this car. Need to get some new centre caps for the fronts though.
Will report more on the car once I've had in a few days.
Phoned the seller, offered full price of £2400 under the condition the car was freshly MOT'd (has 5 months left on it). He agreed, I wired him 10% deposit and today went on a 3 hour train ride to pick it up.
For £2400, the car isn't going to be mint is it? I knew there were some rust issues on the rear arches so I will have to get that sorted at some point. Other than that there isn't really much wrong with it. The engine management light is on which I think is because of a Mass Air Flow Meter issue. The seller had previously got rid of the light but it's come up again so will have to look into that.
It doesn't affect performance seemingly. This thing goes like absolute stink. I haven't driven a car with this much power before and don't have anything to compare it to but it is just so effortless and I haven't had the chance to open the taps for more than about 3 seconds so far because it's so quick. I think the Autocar figures for the time were 0 - 60 in just over 5 seconds and 0 - 100 in 12.8. OK, it's not modern AMG / M Car fast but for a 17 year old car, it is still quick. This is the X308 version, so a 4 litre supercharged v8 with 370bhp.
Having briefly look through the history which came with the car, the previous owner seems to have kept on top of things, and in the last few years it's had spark plug replacements twice, egr valve, front suspension refreshed, oxygen sensor, fuel pump, new springs, timing chain upgrade, rear arb link bushes, gearbox oil change, power steering pump as well as regular servicing and quite a number of tyres!! Driving it back it feels very tight and not baggy at all. The interior looks new apart from the front seats which are worn slightly, but not too bad for a 130k mile car. The steering is much more feelsome that you might expect a big cruiser to be, it's really quite good. The car has a great ride, though I'm sure the standard XJ8s on smaller wheels ride much better.
Here are a few pics I took today. Would love to hear from other XJR owners. Any advice on how to sort rear arches? I am not experienced with sorting out bodywork. It probably needs welding but any short term measures I should take to make it look a little better?
I love the wheels on this car. Need to get some new centre caps for the fronts though.
Will report more on the car once I've had in a few days.
Very best of luck with it, I enjoyed my XJR very much. So much car for so little money, the grin when that supercharger whine comes in never goes away! I changed the upper pulley on mine to overdrive the charger by 10%, was a bit of a bugger of a job but completely took away any flat spot at low revs and generally pulled slightly stronger. You end up taking it for granted but having jumped back in a little hatchback on a daily basis it's easy to forget what a lovely comfortable place to be they are!
That is magnificent, a mate has one, he is a former 156 V6 owner, he bought it a couple of years ago, I am sure it cost him under a grand.
It had a bit of rust at the back archs, he booked it into a bodyshop recently and they sorted it, I have messaged him to find out the extent, cost and what they did.
I know there was a front wing rust issue which he sorted with a replacement wing.
It had a bit of rust at the back archs, he booked it into a bodyshop recently and they sorted it, I have messaged him to find out the extent, cost and what they did.
I know there was a front wing rust issue which he sorted with a replacement wing.
waynedear said:
That is magnificent, a mate has one, he is a former 156 V6 owner, he bought it a couple of years ago, I am sure it cost him under a grand.
It had a bit of rust at the back archs, he booked it into a bodyshop recently and they sorted it, I have messaged him to find out the extent, cost and what they did.
I know there was a front wing rust issue which he sorted with a replacement wing.
Thanks for doing that waynedear. Will be interesting to see how much it costs to sort the rear arches coz they will need doing. It had a bit of rust at the back archs, he booked it into a bodyshop recently and they sorted it, I have messaged him to find out the extent, cost and what they did.
I know there was a front wing rust issue which he sorted with a replacement wing.
strangehighways said:
Thanks for doing that waynedear. Will be interesting to see how much it costs to sort the rear arches coz they will need doing.
My friend bought rear arch replacement panels from SNG Barrat, he thinks around £30 each then got his local body shop to chop out the old, weld in the new and paint, that cost him £400, all depends how much you can do yourself, he just told me one replacement front wing is from a Daimler Now I'm searching the classifieds for someone that wants my Alfa Spider for an x300/308, alas not an xjr
Edited by waynedear on Sunday 14th January 14:24
Third day driving to work, Coolant Low warning, followed by loss of heater in cabin, followed by temperature shooting up to max!! Pulled over straight away, and got a tow to garage.
It's the water pump (I hope that's all it is!). He said it is a 3 hour job and a £100 part so hoping the final bill will be less than £300.
My last 3 cars have broken down shortly after buying!
Looks a nice car!
That era of V8 still had some of the Ford plastic parts under the bonnet, I had to change the water pump and thermostat housing on my 2001 XK8 to metal ones soon after getting it as it was glowing red hot. Garage quoted me £650 for both, but I did it myself for £150 using the excellent www.jagrepair.com website with step by step photos and took me 3.5 hours (they said 3-4 hours), details are in my old Reader's cars thread (unfortunately hit by the photobucket demons
):
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
That era of V8 still had some of the Ford plastic parts under the bonnet, I had to change the water pump and thermostat housing on my 2001 XK8 to metal ones soon after getting it as it was glowing red hot. Garage quoted me £650 for both, but I did it myself for £150 using the excellent www.jagrepair.com website with step by step photos and took me 3.5 hours (they said 3-4 hours), details are in my old Reader's cars thread (unfortunately hit by the photobucket demons
):https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
My XJR that I sold is back up for sale. Very tempted to buy it back. I got in contact and the work he has had done is amazing. All the bushes done. All the oils as well as gearbox and diff. All the welding done for the arches and along the sill. Seats all re-dyed and treated The supercharger was off to repair the dreaded valley of death coolant leak, and renewed all the pipes including fans etc. The list goes on. Took him nearly a year and a half and a fair few bob.
I think I need to phone him back
I think I need to phone him back
I am feeling great right now. The car is back from the mechanic, who I chose just because he is based right next to my office.... Water Pump plus 3 hours labour for £263. Not bad considering the Water Pump and coolant were £115. He said he had to take the bonnet off to get good access to the engine bay.
He even ran the diagnostics tool and cleared the engine management light for free. It turned out to be the MAF causing it and hasn't returned (yet).
As if the day couldn't get any better, I did a brim to brim calculation on the last 350 miles of driving, which was a combination of city driving, A roads, and motorways; 26mpg! I was expecting closer to 20, so very pleased with that. As good as my 156 v6 which has half the power.
Let's just hope the Jag doesn't give me any hassle for a few months.
God, I love this car. It just feels so special.
He even ran the diagnostics tool and cleared the engine management light for free. It turned out to be the MAF causing it and hasn't returned (yet).
As if the day couldn't get any better, I did a brim to brim calculation on the last 350 miles of driving, which was a combination of city driving, A roads, and motorways; 26mpg! I was expecting closer to 20, so very pleased with that. As good as my 156 v6 which has half the power.
Let's just hope the Jag doesn't give me any hassle for a few months.
God, I love this car. It just feels so special.
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