1994 XJS Buying Tips

[stubuggs]

Hi All,

I have seen a 1994 4.0 litre XJS for sale fairly localist to me. I have done some searching on the web and found various bits of advice but would like to know what are the pitfalls to avoid from someone who has first hand experience.

As far as I know, the car has been stood for approx 5 years, the car runs, drives and stops.

I believe that I need to look at the front of the roof line for rust, and also the jacking pints and generally underneath the car.

I am guessing that the brakes may need to be looked at due to the amount of time being stood but what do I check for when looking at the car?

Any tips gratefully received.

Cheers,

Stuart

[toastyhamster]

Rust, rust and rust, many years ago I welded these up for a living (mainly 70/80s and early HE models)

Jacking points, also lift the front carpets and check the floors if you can, lower front wings behind the wheel, inner sills, rear of boot lid. The older ones used to rust the front inner wing, not sure about the 4.0 but on the v12 you couldn't see it without taking the air filters off.

Check everything electric works

Brakes wouldn't be a problem, neither are shocks etc, I think the 94 has outboard rear brakes so you don't need to drop the axle.

Open your wallet to the petrol stations and enjoy.

[anonymous-user]

As the man says, rust! Further to what he said: pull up the boot carpet at the sides and get your arm in for a feel of the floor above the exhausts, and make sure you check under plastic sill covers on the later cars too. It can all be fixed, but at a cost.

The later the better with these, they galvanised more and more of it right up to the final model year. All the annual feature updates are available online.

As a 1994 car you might have the AJ16 engine with the silver cam cover. It's smoother than the AJ6 with a bit more torque and power. You'd be a very unlucky man to have any mechanical issues with an AJ6 or AJ16 engined XJS.

Gear shifts should be smooth but noticeable, and it should lock up the torque converter at about 55mph in top. Check for diff whines on overrun.

Check door handles, electric windows, mirrors. Cruise control system is reliable so that might work too if it's fitted. Check the climate control system responds to controls; on a later car you will have control of where the air is directed so check these work. The climate control flaps are all vacuum driven and so it can develop vacuum leaks and stop working properly.

They don't like lack of use one little bit, and remember to check for the usual issues with a car that's been standing (binding brakes etc). I'd be amazed if it's not thoroughly rotten if it's been outside and unused for 5 years.

[stubuggs]

Thanks both of you for the replies, much appreciated.

[alabbasi]

I live in Texas so I can't give too much advice on rust. The 6 cylinder engines are pretty robust but check for smoke. Suspension has multiple links that can wear and brakes are a little quirky because they use some sort of hydroboost setup. You have outboard discs which is better than the earlier cars.

Jump on juguarforums or jag-lovers forum. There should be plenty of people that can give advice.

[Peter3442]

Especially check for serious, but not easily visible rust around the windscreen. Apart from that and what everyone else has said, buy one before the prices rise too much (assuming that we aren't about to see an economic collapse).