Hi everyone, my name is Ryan, I'm 33 and I live in a town called Lancaster in Southeastern Pennsylvania. In July 2025 I was peeking around Facebook Marketplace when I came across a listing for an X-Type with 91k miles for $1500 . The description said the car hadn't been inspected or driven on public roads since 2021. None of the pictures showed any rust, just a ton of clear coat failure, and it was only about 30 minutes away from my home. At the time, I had absolutely no knowledge of Jaguar whatsoever, but I started working on cars when I got home from rehab in 2020 (hence the username) and I wanted a challenging project.

The gentleman I met was selling the Jag for his grandmother who lost the ability to drive. She had told him that she "let a bunch of young people borrow it" and they would "drive it around a farm." In 2021 the car was stuck in a barn, which was when the grandmother's health started to decline. Test drive felt good, monitors weren't set so I couldn't really check for codes. The unbelievable smell of mouse was completely all-consuming which worried me a bit, but the price was too good to pass up. I drove it home with a respirator on, vacuumed the hell out of it, performed basic maintenance, fixed as many chewed wires as I could find, and it's now my daily!

My current goal is to swap the 2004 transfer case with one that has the viscous coupling. Last week I started working on a 2003 X-Type in the local junkyard but I wasn't able to remove the catalytic converter retention bracket. Tomorrow my plan is to bring a 13mm distributor wrench which was the closest thing I could find to Jaguar's special tool 303-1069 and post a write-up on transfer case removal strategies.

I'm super grateful to this forum (and a few others) for the guidance so far, and I look forward to joining the community.

Thanks everyone!

-Ryan

 

Welcome to the forum. There are subforums here according to year and model you have that can offer help and guidance. I believe your engine is based on a Ford Duratec platform which should ease some parts situations. Sounds like a good buy on your part.

 

Greetings Ryan, and welcome to the forums here.
Best wishes with your X-Type.
There is a vibrant sub-forum dedicated to these models.

 

Hi Ryan!

Congratulations on your sobriety and welcome to the Jaguar Forums! It's great to have you with us.

We'll see you in the forum for the X400, which you may already know is the Jaguar factory project code for your X-Type.

Cheers,

Don

 

Welcome to the Forums.

 

Welcome aboard Ryan.

 

welcome to the forum - enjoy!!

 

Welcome to Jaguar Forums Ryan,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help

 

Hello, Ryan,
Congratulations on your new Barn Find X-type jaguar!
You are gonna have SO much fun bring that car back up to snuff!
I wish you success.

Welcome to the forums from ElinorB.
(';')