I've actually been a forum member before, but I strayed to BMW for a few years and now I'm back. I just got an '04 XJR with 73k miles. I considered an AMG CL55 Mercedes, but the poor build quality and repair costs scared me. I looked at an M5, but when I passed a dozen other M5's during the test drive I decided they were too common and boring. I hate the "Bangle Butt" of most cars from the last decade, so that kind of leaves the Jag. I remember Richard Hammond on Top Gear years ago commenting on how easy it must have been for the Jaguar designers to come up with the X350: "Well, we quite like the old one, let's do that." I also remember Jeremy Clarkson saying: "There's nothing quite so sinister as a black XJR. Hannibal Lector drove one."

This is my third Jag. The first one was a 1966 E-Type 4.2 that I got back in high school in 1975. The next one is a 1982 Series III XJ. I still have this one, mainly because I've sunk so much money into it over the years that I hate to part with it. It's on it's third engine, this one a 1992 Chevy 350 TPI with a 700R4 trans. This engine finally made the car a joy to drive with 285hp and 26mpg highway. It's been sitting for the last few years with a bad steering rack. There is one full turn - 360 degrees - of free play in the steering wheel. It's like driving a bumper car.

I then had a BMW 750Li, and it's just about finished extracting all the money from my wallet that the Jag didn't. I was hoping to get it through inspection for one more year, but it's going to take more time than I have at the moment. I looked at half a dozen XJRs before I found this one. I did plenty of research so I knew what I was getting into and so far I'm extremely pleased with this car.

Problems when I got it: It caught my eye at the dealer because the front end was so low. Turned out to be a compressor failure which the dealer repaired before I bought the car. He also replaced the battery and the trunk latch, which had failed. The rear sunshade was stuck. The dealer thought it was broken, but I pulled on it while I hit the switch, as I had read here, and it came right up.

The left headlamp assembly is brand new. The right looked like a typical 7-year old light. The CarFax report was clean, although having owned two cars with a clean carfax history that I later found to have been totalled, I don't put a lot of stock in that. I went over the car pretty thoroughly and can find no evidence of any body damage or repair. Perhaps the left headlight failed and the previous owner replaced the whole light. I reconditioned the right lenses and while they don't look quite as good as the left it is no longer so noticeable. The right bulb, or technically the arc capsule, is flickering, so I have another one ordered.

I'm not quite certain if the rain-sensing wipers work or not. I'ved only had the car a week, and I'm not quite certain how they are supposed to work. It's only rained once, and they kind of did and kind of didn't. I need to get a better understanding of them first. It appears they are like my BMW, where the wiper speed changes or stops when the car stops, so a garden hose won't help.

Other than that, the only thing wrong I can find is that the paint on the wheel center caps is faded and the left front has some curb rash.

My future plans are to add an ACM and XM/Sirius radio. If I can find a PSE on eBay I'll add that, but it isn't a priority. I want to replace the subwoofers with something that actually has some bass, although I don't want to go overboard and loose most of my trunk like I did with my BMW. I'm thinking along the lines of two 8- or 10-inch subs, a line driver and one amp.

I also want a radar detector because I like having a driver's license, but I don't want something hung from the windshield. I have an old K40 remote in the BMW, but I'm going to leave it there. I like the new Escort remote mount, but I could have the Jag dealer install the PSE and Bluetooth module for what that thing costs. Whistler has a remote mount on the cheap end of the scale, but it looks like it belongs in a Corvette (i.e., plastic bling.) Cobra has one that interfaces with an Android app via Bluetooth that might be good. I'll have to do some more research on that.

I'll try to document some of these projects and post them. It would be nice if the Jag had a web site like E38.org with all this info in one place, but I've been able to find a lot with the search button.

 

Welcome back.

Great intro' lots of information.

Congratulations on the XJR.

Can you not get some neighbourhood kids to hose the car as you drive past?

 

welcome aboard, good to have you here again...lol

Just as an aside - If you let me have your initial member details I can merge the accounts and give you back your original handle with all post counts etc etc achieved, if you wish.......let me know


There really are some amazing and friendly guys here....you're in really good company to discuss anything Jag related or even just to have a few laughs!

So we can help you better, please put your Car model, Year of manufacture etc into your signature.....this will help members to answer your query, quickly and clearly.

A really great mix of information, camraderrie and fun

I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can better view the site and all its features
so jump on in and enjoy AGAIN!!

 

Welcome back to the forum,

Nice re-intro and good to have you back.

 

The rain sensing wipers don't seem very good at actually sensing ! I have them on my XJ6 (X350 series like yours), and as you say, sometimes they work and sometimes not, but I just switch them to intermittent or full wipe, its too unimportant a thing to get worked up about.

I am surprised you find Merc/AMg CL55 badly built. although they went through a very bad patch when they owned Chrysler, but I thought that had ended now. Yes, the BMW 'Bangle' style was really awful. In fact it seems to me BMW are now in the rut Jaguar were once in and don't seem to be able to find a way out.

BTW your car did well to get to 74k without a compressor, as I had to replace mine at 35k. They don't last very long unfortunately. I suppose we should consider them to be a consumable item like tyres and brakes !!