£700 Jaguar XJ X350 3.0 V6
Discussion
I am constantly on facebook marketplace, ebay, gumtree, auto trader, car gurus etc. etc. Looking for a bargain. I find a lot of the time now you have to be very quick when you do cross paths with such bargains as there are a million other people just like me that are going to beat you to the punch. However i also find you can find a gem hiding in the form of poor pictures and poor or overly harsh descriptions. The Jag i found was part of the latter and while its no spring chicken on 182,500 miles it is far from its death bed. 
(Pictures i have taken)
The advert listed the car had bad rear parking sensors, bonnett release is broken, boot only opens with the key, no service history, air suspension knackered, mot expiring, corrosion of the exterior causing the paint to bubble and the alarm thinks one of the doors is open so the alarm goes on randomly. I took a bit of a punt and thought ill make the hours journey for this car that was advertised for £900 or best offer as even with the faults i thought it was cheap compared to the minimum 2k for a non written off car with MOT. When i saw the car in the flesh i was very pleasantly surprised at how well the car looked. A few scabs yes but really not bad considering age and mileage. I offered him £700 and he accepted it and offered to drop it off free with 3 quarters of a tank of fuel! At this point i feel there surely has to be something drastically wrong with the car as its like he is giving the car away. But after a few days of owning it there is nothing immediately obvious. I will be carrying out a engine oil service with air filter and pollen filter, i will be either doing a gearbox service myself or if anyway knows of a good gearbox service place near south manchester/stockport area i would consider going so long as it gets done properly. I have already looked under the car and found the typical rusty tank straps so new stainless steel ones have been ordered. I have also ordered a air suspension pump rebuild kit on the off chance that will fix that and i will also be taking off all the plastic underbody panels off to inspect hard brake lines and the fuel filter. If there is anyone with any experience with these that can pitch in with other things to check or do or if they know of any fixes for the problems let me know! What i will say is the alarm has not gone off in the few days i have had it and the previous owner said it only did it once when he had it after it had been sat for a while and the rear parking sensors have performed just fine. Bonnett and boot i think can wait a little bit while fix the more pressing matters as it has to be MOT ready by the 19th June as i suspect the 6 month extension will be stopping soon.
(Pictures i have taken)
The advert listed the car had bad rear parking sensors, bonnett release is broken, boot only opens with the key, no service history, air suspension knackered, mot expiring, corrosion of the exterior causing the paint to bubble and the alarm thinks one of the doors is open so the alarm goes on randomly. I took a bit of a punt and thought ill make the hours journey for this car that was advertised for £900 or best offer as even with the faults i thought it was cheap compared to the minimum 2k for a non written off car with MOT. When i saw the car in the flesh i was very pleasantly surprised at how well the car looked. A few scabs yes but really not bad considering age and mileage. I offered him £700 and he accepted it and offered to drop it off free with 3 quarters of a tank of fuel! At this point i feel there surely has to be something drastically wrong with the car as its like he is giving the car away. But after a few days of owning it there is nothing immediately obvious. I will be carrying out a engine oil service with air filter and pollen filter, i will be either doing a gearbox service myself or if anyway knows of a good gearbox service place near south manchester/stockport area i would consider going so long as it gets done properly. I have already looked under the car and found the typical rusty tank straps so new stainless steel ones have been ordered. I have also ordered a air suspension pump rebuild kit on the off chance that will fix that and i will also be taking off all the plastic underbody panels off to inspect hard brake lines and the fuel filter. If there is anyone with any experience with these that can pitch in with other things to check or do or if they know of any fixes for the problems let me know! What i will say is the alarm has not gone off in the few days i have had it and the previous owner said it only did it once when he had it after it had been sat for a while and the rear parking sensors have performed just fine. Bonnett and boot i think can wait a little bit while fix the more pressing matters as it has to be MOT ready by the 19th June as i suspect the 6 month extension will be stopping soon.
First thing i did was give the car a good wash and in this baking heat when i spray the hose on the windscreen i got a massive crack for my troubles. Grumble. Got on to autoglass through insurance for a replacement next week. £125 excess.
Got 10L of Shell 5w30, oil filter, air filter and pollen filter (all mann filters) for £95. Not too shabby.
Replacing the pollen filter was much needed. See pic.
The smell when turning on the aircon now is not rancid! There was also lots of crud at the bottom of the scuttle so i cleared that out the best i could to avoid any puddling. Which brings me on to the aircon actually. Aircon man came round as it wasnt blowing cold in the slightest, and found 0g in the system. He sucked all the moisture out and leak tested it and found no leaks! Put 650g of gas in and turn the aircon to a beautifully cold breeze. Result. He said its either never been topped up or it will have a very slow leak which the machine will have missed. He put the dye in so should it lose its coolness he will come back round with his uv light and find it.
On todays agenda i think is the oil and filter, polish up the front headlight (i will do the obligatory before and after pictures) and i think a gentle cruise around with my aircon. Lovely.
ETA the aircon regas £40 with him coming to your doorstep!
Got 10L of Shell 5w30, oil filter, air filter and pollen filter (all mann filters) for £95. Not too shabby.
Replacing the pollen filter was much needed. See pic.
The smell when turning on the aircon now is not rancid! There was also lots of crud at the bottom of the scuttle so i cleared that out the best i could to avoid any puddling. Which brings me on to the aircon actually. Aircon man came round as it wasnt blowing cold in the slightest, and found 0g in the system. He sucked all the moisture out and leak tested it and found no leaks! Put 650g of gas in and turn the aircon to a beautifully cold breeze. Result. He said its either never been topped up or it will have a very slow leak which the machine will have missed. He put the dye in so should it lose its coolness he will come back round with his uv light and find it.
On todays agenda i think is the oil and filter, polish up the front headlight (i will do the obligatory before and after pictures) and i think a gentle cruise around with my aircon. Lovely.
ETA the aircon regas £40 with him coming to your doorstep!
Edited by Michaelbailey on Friday 29th May 10:07
RazerSauber said:
That's cheap and looks lovely! Hope it's a proper bargain! Good luck on the air suspension, hope it's a simple fix and not a new pair of shockers!
More updates please
Yes i do hope so and i am optomistic as when the pump runs it is very loud and runs forever but when it stops the car hold its pressure just fine and overnight doesnt lose any ride height. I appreciate it may have a leak and i will address it should it need it but at the moment its fine to drive in. Lovely and smooth as any real jaaaag should be, though im not going to get in to what constitutes a real jag especially considering mines a ford!More updates please
Oh and i forgot to mention i did a scan for codes when the EML came on last night. Got the code P0430 for bank 2 (passenger side bank if i am not mistaken) cleared the code and it hasnt returned. I had a look at the price for a new lambda sensor which i think will cost me around £50/60. I might try and find a good second hander for like £10 to see if that helps should the light come back or possibly swap bank 1 for bank 2 and see if it follows. Not looked at a price for a new cat yet. Gulp.
Jonmx said:
Excellent purchase, that looks great! £700 is a steal. Non car people would never believe a car like a big Jag is less than £1k.
I agree to the general populous most think youre driving an expensive motor. If i was to put a private reg on i imagine people would think its a properly expensive carThat looks excellent for the money!
When you're replacing the piston ring on the air suspension pump, make sure you get any rubbish out of the pump before you put it back together. I didn't manage it fully and some debris scored the bore so I had to buy a new one...
It's also worth checking the earthing studs behind the headlights (two on drivers-side, one on passenger) - a poor earth at these points can be the cause of many erroneous fault codes. I've recently done mine (another straightforward job):
Another common (but easily fixable) problem is wing mirrors that don't auto fold due to corrosion. You can unclip the underside of the mirror, remove all the crud & regrease.
There's loads of info on these cars to be found. I hope you enjoy it!
When you're replacing the piston ring on the air suspension pump, make sure you get any rubbish out of the pump before you put it back together. I didn't manage it fully and some debris scored the bore so I had to buy a new one...
It's also worth checking the earthing studs behind the headlights (two on drivers-side, one on passenger) - a poor earth at these points can be the cause of many erroneous fault codes. I've recently done mine (another straightforward job):
Another common (but easily fixable) problem is wing mirrors that don't auto fold due to corrosion. You can unclip the underside of the mirror, remove all the crud & regrease.
There's loads of info on these cars to be found. I hope you enjoy it!
Todays work done!
Oil filter and oil. I only got just over 5 litres out and 7 litres in so glad i did it! She is leaking oil but not excessively at all (for me anyway).
Oil that came out was fairly clean though i have no idea how many miles were on it.
Polishing up the light were very satisfactory as always. Thd drill i was using ran out of juice so the passenger ones didnt get quite the same love but all done and looking much better. Obviously pictures were taken.
The eagle eyed ones amoung you will have noticed the L plate. Thats for my girlfriend who is learning to drive in it. She loves it.
List to do (in no particular order):
Air suspension pump,
Fuel tank straps
Bonnet release cable
T-cut paint
Fix boot release
MOT
With all that id be surprised if it couldnt fetch 2k.
I think id be around 1k in to it.
ETA But it aint for sale...
Oil filter and oil. I only got just over 5 litres out and 7 litres in so glad i did it! She is leaking oil but not excessively at all (for me anyway).
Oil that came out was fairly clean though i have no idea how many miles were on it.
Polishing up the light were very satisfactory as always. Thd drill i was using ran out of juice so the passenger ones didnt get quite the same love but all done and looking much better. Obviously pictures were taken.
The eagle eyed ones amoung you will have noticed the L plate. Thats for my girlfriend who is learning to drive in it. She loves it.
List to do (in no particular order):
Air suspension pump,
Fuel tank straps
Bonnet release cable
T-cut paint
Fix boot release
MOT
With all that id be surprised if it couldnt fetch 2k.
I think id be around 1k in to it.
ETA But it aint for sale...
Edited by Michaelbailey on Saturday 30th May 00:11
Looks great you get a lot of car for the money, I bought my 03 XJ6 SE last year for £1700 also from FB marketplace 110k miles nearly new Pirellis all round MOT failed on a couple of suspension bits and a brake pipe, £400 including a service.
Detailed it last summer came up like new, love the car last of the proper Jags in my opinion.
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/KodsDQk4[/url]Number plate screws will get addressed. I suspect ill just get some new number plates for what its worth.
In terms of value for money theyre fantastic and when looking at everything on the car it seems like it will be quite pleasant to work on. I look forward to taking it to 200k and beyond!
She will be taking the test in the jag. Hopefully she will be able to do it before november as her theory will time out otherwise!
In terms of value for money theyre fantastic and when looking at everything on the car it seems like it will be quite pleasant to work on. I look forward to taking it to 200k and beyond!
She will be taking the test in the jag. Hopefully she will be able to do it before november as her theory will time out otherwise!
Love this car and what you've done. With respect to the test, is your girlfriend going to be OK with just an auto licence?
Take plenty of spare L plates, I'm a former instructor and the number of people who did tests in their own cars and failed because the L plates blew away and they had no spares was silly!
If I had the space for one of these I'd be all over this.
Take plenty of spare L plates, I'm a former instructor and the number of people who did tests in their own cars and failed because the L plates blew away and they had no spares was silly!
If I had the space for one of these I'd be all over this.
Stuart Fordyce said:
Love this car and what you've done. With respect to the test, is your girlfriend going to be OK with just an auto licence?
Take plenty of spare L plates, I'm a former instructor and the number of people who did tests in their own cars and failed because the L plates blew away and they had no spares was silly!
If I had the space for one of these I'd be all over this.
Yes she will just be sticking with autos. She has driven my s4 a few times and while its not a fair example of all autos she found it a little too much for her and is much more confident with the auto and thanks for the heads up on the L plates. Ill make sure to bring a spare set and tape! One of the troubles of the XJ being aluminimum (its pretty much the only down side of the aluminium body!) Is that the magnetic l plates down stay. Im happy to make the sacrifice of the l plates than catastrophic rust. If this example was an x300 or x308 i suspect it would have been a whole different storyTake plenty of spare L plates, I'm a former instructor and the number of people who did tests in their own cars and failed because the L plates blew away and they had no spares was silly!
If I had the space for one of these I'd be all over this.
Another days work done. Started a bit late... sorry no pictures as i was in a bit of a hurry.
Took off the old pump and i could see the rubbers and springs and washers were all wrong and obviously why it was making such a racket. I took it apart and found the cylinder was 95% good however there is a bit of a score on it. Shame. The piston ring that came out didnt look in too bad a shape so i was getting a little worried that this was all for nothing. I cracked on regardless putting the new one in and got it back on the car. Started the car and i couldnt hear a peep so thought it musnt be on. I went for a quick drive as it used to kick in quite a lot when doing 30mph. Still nothing.
I thought i would prompt it into action by jacking up both sides (as when i jacked it up i could hear it releasing pressure).
When the car was back down it was on the floor so started the car and i could just about hear the pump going and within 30 seconds it was back up to height. Result!
I will have to do some driving around to see if it comes back on but im fairly happy with it. We will see what the future holds...
Took off the old pump and i could see the rubbers and springs and washers were all wrong and obviously why it was making such a racket. I took it apart and found the cylinder was 95% good however there is a bit of a score on it. Shame. The piston ring that came out didnt look in too bad a shape so i was getting a little worried that this was all for nothing. I cracked on regardless putting the new one in and got it back on the car. Started the car and i couldnt hear a peep so thought it musnt be on. I went for a quick drive as it used to kick in quite a lot when doing 30mph. Still nothing.
I thought i would prompt it into action by jacking up both sides (as when i jacked it up i could hear it releasing pressure).
When the car was back down it was on the floor so started the car and i could just about hear the pump going and within 30 seconds it was back up to height. Result!
I will have to do some driving around to see if it comes back on but im fairly happy with it. We will see what the future holds...
stickleback123 said:
Good result if it's just the pump.
Does it have the comedy built in car phone? If it does you can update it with a bluetooth module from an X-Type!
It does have the phone yes. Ill have to look into that could be useful. Also im pretty confident it is all fixed. I went for a drive lasting probably about an hour and the car didnt throw up the air suspension light which would normally always do and also the car is at the proper ride height say 24 hours later. If the car has a small leak it is exactly that. A very small leak. Does it have the comedy built in car phone? If it does you can update it with a bluetooth module from an X-Type!
List of things to do now is:
T cut (wait till the weather isnt so hot)
Fuel tank straps
MOT
Close to being a very well sorted motor
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