looks like a nice car. today I will go to see it.
the owner told me the only problem it has is a oil leak form the pan gasket and it has this problem since 13 years. I think it is not a so complicate thing to fix eventually.
And I plan to drive it as a week end car only that is maybe 100mi/week.
do I have to be concerned about chain and or tensioners ?
thank you very much!

 

should I be concerned about chain or tensioners ?
the owner told me he never had a reason to replace the tensioners... but I guess when you have a serious reason to do so it's too late...

the red oone is a SCAM. Looks like there is an automatic reply message when you call
or text the number, asking you for your email and to reply back. Always the same sentences.
You write back and no one answers you.
I did it several time from different addresses.
They are just trying to collect email addresses for a spam attach or something like that.

 

sorry I did not realize my reply went in the second page so I write the same things two times... two posts

 

Not a common failure on the older cars. The issue arrived with the V8 around the late 90s

Yes, sadly I saw that coming. I am glad I was not being too cynical.

Go see the 188k Series 3....... oil pan leak is minor

 

One would think if email harvesting was the objective they would have used "bigger" bait, like a Lambo for $100 or something ...not an old man's car like a 22 year old XJ40!

Plus all that manual transcribing of email addy's?? I don't think so!!

Probably the car just sold fast and they couldn't deal with a wall of 24 hr phone calls!


Larry

 

ok the AC is not working. The guy says it needs a recharge but he cannot guarantee that it is not a comrpessor issue. He told AC is not working since serveral years. Well perhaps it is normal for a 30 years old car and I should not be too much concerned about it... but a Jag without AC... is like a Lambo without the lambo style doors!
Anyway I will use this issue to take the price down.

 

the green one is still available:

**Very Clean 1990 Jaguar XJ6 Sovereign**

but hte guy does not want to go down 3800$. He has it since 3 months he is a car dealer. He drove it two times and did 100 miles.
A/C works but does not blow very much cold.
So basically it is like a jump on the dark to take this car.
but I love the color. the wire wheels are stock... he told.

 

I bought my Series 3 with no A/C and the statement "It probably just needs charged" This turned out to be true...... $25 for a can of R134A at pepboys, and 3 years later its still running on the same charge, and still cool.

My XJS A/C cost $2k to fix, mainly because I used a mechanic to do it all, and we replaced everything except the matrix in the heater box.

What happened to the 188k miles one ? Give him a call and ask if the A/C works on that car.

And no, wire wheels were never standard by Jaguar on XJ40s, although plenty of dealers offered them fitted to your new jaguar (as well as a hood leaper, which is also wrong for the market) The green car looks like it got the same option as my 1990 Bay Area car (wire wheels and small leaper)....... they were probably supplied by the same dealer.

 

I agree its interesting to use an XJ40, but typically they pull a set of pictures of a car from a dealers website somewhere, so anything that looks nice and shiny will do. No manual transcribing......... all email addresses are harvested by a program that goes through your inbox every few minutes. Also it's pretty easy to delete your Craigslist advert to avoid calls once you've sold. (The ad is still up today) It's also interesting to note the area code on the phone number (786). Google "786 area code scams" for some enlightenment.

 

I will go to seee the 180k xj6 III today.
A/C is not working there "just need a charge".
Well I do not care of A/C too much. And I like the xj6 III because it was designed by pininfarina and I Am italian the design is great. And the interior of this car is perfect.
But still I like the xj40... so I do not know what I will do. I perhaps will go to see the green zj40 in San Carlos even if it is nto a vanden plas. The seller is rated 5 stars on yelp as a car dealer... You have ti take little risks with these cars.
I think whatever will be they will never be as expensive to maintain as my 2002 BMW 745Li that I had to sell because I Was desperate... normal 100000mi maintenance over $4500 cost !!

 

ok I saw the xj6 III

1986 Jaguar Vanden Plas

goods:

- brand new interior, seats, all leather, new headliner.
They spent $3300 in upholstery.
- brand new tires
- sunroof working
- electric windows working
- battery/alternator gauge working
- water temp gauge working
- brand new tires

cons:
- little rust in the bottom left of the windshield and also right under the master cylinder tank
- color is fading from polished gold to matte gold on the roof, hood and so on...
- door gaskets looking old and no more elastic
- gas tank gauge not working
- oil temp gas not working
- wood panels are worn out on the dash. there are cracks on the wood panels even if not to bad to see, but the panel where is the radio is missing a piece of wood.
- missing bulbs on the rear passengers lamps
- A/C not working

car looks overall not bad for the age. I drove it only a few hundred yards because it is non op and so I Could not try much about the transmission.
There is this strange engine ticking you can hear in the video:


if not for that I would probably buy it but I Am worried this ticking jingling noise could
mean something more serious.
He is asking 3500. if I could be sure the engine does not have issues I would give him 2500 for the car as is.

What really disapointed me is that I drove the car up a hill that I could easily do with my GMC vandura, while the xj6 was admn slow and struggling uphill.
I had all the throttle down bout it could really not go as a normal car would.
I know that it is a heavy car but it was like 20mph uphill an could not go more than this.
I do not know if this is normal or not because I never drove a xj6 before.

Well I Wait for your considerations.

thank you very much

 

A little rust around the windshield is not uncommon on these cars.

Pity about the paint....... Here you need to think if you can live with it or not. I bought my XJS with bad paint, and kidded myself I'd be able to live with it, but if of course I couldn't and I had the car fully resprayed. If you like the look of a Series 3 (and who on this forum doesn't) every time you look at it you'll see the faded paint.....

The noise is difficult to diagnose from the short video. It sounded like something rattling to me. What did it sound like with the hood open?

Performance, or rather lack of with a Series 3 is mainly due to the 3 speed auto, which has long gears to say the least. It can get caught out on slow hills, where it will be in too high a gear. You can use the shifter to hold it in first for small, slow hills like that. But, as I said previously, they are not fast in any sense of the word.

As you've started going and seeing the cars, you may as well go see the Green XJ40, just to get a sense of comparison. It will drive much more like a modern car and will feel faster, although most of that feeling is due to the more advanced transmission, as oppose to a huge difference in horsepower between the cars. If the paint and interior on that car are good (meaning you don't need to replace any of it any time soon) I would say it's worth the money he is asking for it. I paid considerably more for my XJ40, but with 16k miles on the clock after 25 years, I thought it was worth it. (And it was/is)

There should be 100% no rust on the XJ40 if its been in the bay area its whole life. I looked carefully at the pictures again, and it does look very good. The headliner is visible in one of the pics and it looks like its it's either been replaced, or its somehow not fell down yet, which is good as that is a bear of a job.

 

I can live without repainting it... but what I amworried most of all is the rattling sound... go figure what it can be... maybe the chain needs to be replaced ? they just drove the car 1 mile a week the last 15 years...
I am not expert enough to understand the rattling sound. it looks like chain related in my opinion anyway...
the green xj40 looks very good in the pictures. Mileage is 120k if I Remember well. it will just need a air conditioning recharge according to the reseller. So I will see it next week.

there is also this one which looks really good and with low mileage

1984 Jaguar XJ6, very low miles, super clean.

the problem is that it is in Rino and it is too far for me. It would be almost 5 hours to go and the same to come back...
Then would you trust to drive it back for 5 hours ?

 

I really doubt its chains. But it does need to be better evaluated before making a decision.

The Reno car is very nice. Best you've found yet, judging from the pictures, and if the mileage is correct and can be proved. The speedos on the Series 3s were pretty unreliable and prone to failing and being replaced, so I'd want some pretty serious paperwork to back up the mileage. Although its would be a feat to get away with very high miles and still have that quality of interior

Would I drive it home? If the owner has been using it frequently, then yes. If he's just pulled it out of the garage where its been sitting for 5 years, then no.

No such thing as too far for the right car. I drove my DB9 1700 miles home from Texas, because it was the right car at the right price.

 

Well I would flight to Reno and be back in Berkeley with the car.
The problem is that it is a Nevada car and how do I deal with get it smogged in California ?
what if it won't pass smog ??
And I will have to smog it because I am basically getting it from Nevada to California. Am I wrong ?
Sorry I am from Italy so I am not very expert about these rules but I just do not want to find myself in the situation to have a nice Jag that I cannot even drive because ti can't pass smog...
the car indeed is really nice. and the price is great for a xj6 III car in that status.

 

Yes, it needs to pass CA SMOG. You need that before you get CA plates for it. Technically you have to do this within 10 days, but I think if the car isn't being driven around a lot, no one will know and you can take more time. I drove our XJ12C here in CA for a while before we got it SMOGed and registered (All the driving was road testing to make sure it will pass SMOG) and my story (assuming I got stopped) was I was on my way to get a SMOG check.

In certain places in Nevada you have to have the car SMOGed (to Nevada standards). You could ask the owner if the car has a Nevada SMOG certificate, if so, get him to take a picture of it, or transpose all the numbers off it. You can then post here and we can see if it will pass CA SMOG. (The requirements are different state to state)

If its not been SMOGed, what you could do is take it to a Nevada SMOG test center (or have the owner do that for you) and have it done, and get the numbers that way.

I ran a Series 3 for a few years, and that car has now passed on to another board member. The car has over 100k miles on it and easily passes CA SMOG every time. I searched the forums specifically for Series 3 and SMOG, and found very little, suggesting it's not a huge issue (far more SMOG fun is had with a V12, but you're not going there, so....)

Just FYI we brought a 1976 XJ12C (V12) back from Ohio in January. It had never been in CA before. We took it for a SMOG check, and despite the fact it was completely over fuelling at the time, it still passed. My conclusion from that is that the specs for the older cars are a little bit more forgiving. The usual practice is drive the hell out of the thing beforehand to make sure the cats are as hot as you can get them, then drive it straight into the SMOG shop and have them test it right away.

So.... SMOG is a factor, but it's up to you if you want to let it stop you from getting that car.

 

so far I am getting no luck to find a good jag.
All of them has problems.
at the end I found this

1994 Jaguar XJ6

a lady answered the phone. the family has the car since 5 years
she told me everything is working and no problems so far... but go figure.
the price is very good but the car is far from me...

I would even go for the "goldish" xj6 III but the oil pressure gauge is not working and I do not know if this means a very bad thing or just a broken gauge...

 

That looks like it's les than 100 miles from you, doesn't seem too far. If you like the car and it checks out that would be a relatively short Drive to get it.

 

I think you need to seriously adjust your expectations. You are looking at cars that are AT LEAST 20 years old, some up to 30 years old, you are spending small money, you expect them to be absolutely perfect, and you expect them to be "right round the corner" from you. Its not going to happen.

Oil pressure gauge on a Series 3 is almost certainly the sender.

Good luck.

 

Hello,
I found this one and I will go to see it

1985 Jaguar XJ6

they guy told me the car is in pretty very good working conditions.
only thing to fix is the headliner.
Anyway he told me he had an overheating problem and after that he replaced the
water pump.
I will test this car this weekend. Any hint on how can I do to test if the engine tends to overheat ?
thank you