XJ8 MY2004 Buyers guide/things to look out for ?

[Dodsy]

I am considering moving into a nice XJ8 3.5 circa 2004 but having looked around one today have realised I am a bit out of my depth on these cars. So many buttons !

Are there any gotchas I should be looking out for ? Having spent 30 mins with a torch poking around the mechanicals all looked ok (apart from needing new front disks and pads), but maybe I wasnt looking at the right things as I am not familiar with the XJ8.

I've tried googling for a buyers guide but all the links I followed were for the earlier model year (up to 2003).

Any help or links would be much appreciated.

Oh and any hints as to good places to look would be useful too - so far autotrader, ebay, PH and local (ish) dealers havent turned up much .

[rswift]

Unbelievably....corrosion ! Check boot lips, bonnet edges, door edges. Look for leaking/broken header tank pipes. Air Suspension faults, any other random warning lights/messages. None of this is particularly serious...the air suspension pump may have been replaced, £250 for a recon. Check history, gearbox benefits from an oil/filter change....if it's not been done it will need doing as a precaution. Check all of the doors lock and handles work, prone to snapping sometimes. Have a look on the Jaguarforum.co.uk. A lot of useful X350 info. I've had a 4.2 for 2 years & done 45k miles. It's very quick, good on fuel for the size, but always has at least one niggling problem !

[Dodsy]

Cheers for that, at least it gives me a few things to target when I look at the next one !

[Domf]

MY2004 is early build and as mentioned rust problems on early alloy cars.
Check perforation warranty on any car you look at, see if the car has been regularily inspected by Jaguar dealer. Early cars may have had remedial paintwork, check if this has occurred and who carried it out to what standard.
The Jaguar Enthusiast Club ran an article last year in their magazine on the XJ and the paint remedial work needed on an early model, ccntact them see if they've got a copy of the article very informative.

[rswift]

As an aside, the corrosion is a reaction of metal/paint .... actually many theories abound, but it is not old fashioned rust as we know it ... so none of the cars are about to fall to pieces, just cosmetically a bad one isn't pretty.

I have had the "Air Suspension Fault" light coming on every so often for 2 years/40k miles. I know if I changed the compressor it will fix it,and one day I will ... but it doesn't bother me too much. (the fault light is triggered if the pressure isn't reached in the time the car expects it to, it still achieves the correct pressure but takes a little longer).

In comparison to my old 4 litre X300, a car which I loved !

The X350 is not quite as comfortable, and a little bit noisier...but if you get over those facts, it's a hell of a lot quicker, more agile, economical and generally cheaper to run, and a nice place to be. I was surprised when I was given an X308 loan car at a service, just how much a leap forward the X350 is, but I think it has taken me the best part of a year to appreciate it ! I had mine for just over 2 years, and done 45k miles in that time.

One other thing that may be of interest. I spent ages looking for a car with the built in Sat Nav/touch screen. In hindsight I wouldn't have bothered. The Sat Nav, like many car based system is soon out of date and difficult to update, plus every time I am just relying on it I can guarantee another screen will pop up and cover it, traffic announcements, phone calls etc etc. I also have the factory car kit, which isn't good, and I would prefer to fit a Parrot or similar for my iPhone. This isn't easily done on the touch screen radio version.

[Dodsy]

Both the ones I am looking at this week have sat nav - dont want it but I'm not going to worry if its there, I just wont use it.

Good info on the corrosion , I will be sure to look very closely at all the panels.

Does the X350 have an OBDII port ? if it does I can take my scanner along and check for any faults/stored codes

ETA: Never mind, a quick google tells me it has an ODB port in the drivers footwell left side

Edited by Dodsy on Wednesday 18th April 15:35

[Piersman2]

Dodsy said:

Both the ones I am looking at this week have sat nav - dont want it but I'm not going to worry if its there, I just wont use it.

Good info on the corrosion , I will be sure to look very closely at all the panels.

Does the X350 have an OBDII port ? if it does I can take my scanner along and check for any faults/stored codes

ETA: Never mind, a quick google tells me it has an ODB port in the drivers footwell left side

Edited by Dodsy on Wednesday 18th April 15:35

The corrosion issue seems mainly to have been caused by the rolling process at the factory where iron from the panel rollers has been embedded into the surface of the alluminium, so it only appears at the edges of panels where they've been folded, like door and boot panels.
My first 2003 XJR had some corrosion around the top edge of the boot. In 3 years it never got noticeably worse. One good reason for this may be that aluminium corrosion actually seals the surface and can prevent further corrosion.
My current XJR, 2007, had some corrosion along the bottom edges of the doors and the little gap between the boot chrome strip and the boot. All this was sorted under warranty about a year ago and not a mark to be seen anymore.

So it's a bit of a pot luck where and whether a car will be effected, but I would guess that if a car has got a few years under it's belt not many new patches of corrosion are likely to appear.