I imagine some are familiar with these and some have no clue. I buy a lot of Jaguars from insurance auctions for a variety of reasons and often those reasons are restoration/repair and keep/sell (both), etc. One has to have some serious risk acceptance when doing this; however, you can get them SO cheap oftentimes that I have found there is hardly any risk for me as if they cannot be fixed (which is actually quite unusual), I can dismantle and sell the parts.

Anyway, since there is no way to get any history on these cars beyond what is scant available from CarFax (which I do not even bother with at these prices), you need to use other tools that could at least give some clues. One thing to remember also is crashed Jaguars were running Jaguars just before the crash. However, sometimes there is no evidence of a crash so one must question how big or small of a mechanical issue exists, if there even is one.

An oil analysis is something I often use when I get a vehicle that I may want to repair and/or restore. I just got my most recent one back and thought I'd share what you get in case anyone else is ever interested in using them. Anyone who watches enough car oriented YT channels will have probably come across Blackstone Labs oil testing (and other fluid..though oil is most popular by a mile). Process is easy - just go to the website and ask for a sample kit and they send you everything you need for free. Then you sample according to their directions. You can either pay a more analog way with an order form they send you or you can pay online at their website before you send the sample back to them. It take 2-3 weeks to get the results back, but you can get a general sense of the state of the motor as well as how well it may have been taken care of in its past life. Granted, this doesn't work as well if the oil was changed very soon before it was sent to the auction, but that is not usually the case most of the time.

The attached result is a non-salvaged 2011 Jaguar XJL 5.0 SC that I got for a stupid low price. A good example of why people who state auto auction cars are junk. Not even close to true. These are some decent results. I have seen some "better looking" and newer/lower mileage vehicles with much worse results than this. This is also a good way to determine what a good interval of oil change is for your particular habits and vehicle condition. Basically, you need to get a couple of tests after what they say is average interval (in my case ~ 5900 miles) and compare. While true, the test is about $40, if you could save even a single oil change a year due to eliminating changing it blindly simply because of mileage or time duration numbers, you'd come out ahead. Disclaimer is that I do not actually do this myself, but always mean to as I do think there is value in it!

Mike

 

I can second oil analysis and Blackstone. I've used them for years and years. The information provided is more than just numbers. Blackstone gives an opinion on the state of the engine and its future. I've used them for a pre-purchase test. This was very helpful when I bought a boat with a Perkins 4.236 diesel engine. The engine oil showed no issues with the Perkins. If you have never had an oil analysis then getting one will let you know about the current state. Wear and tear, coolant/fuel leaks and such. Then there is the info you get by having yearly oil analysis. Changes to the oil flag pending issues. That might be more useful for an engine used daily or subject to more use than I think we will be doing on our XK8. Think boat or tractor.

Anyway money well spent in my mind. Which reminds me that I need to get an oil sample from the XK8 before changing the oil. As of this posting we have had the car for 36 hours and 150 miles.