I'm new here so thought I'd follow protocal and do a quick intro post. Earlier this year I purchased an '04 XJ8 with around 70k miles and have fallen totally in love with the car. Sadly I had quite a few problems starting a week after it drove off the lot. The first week the tranny went south, skipping shifts and throwing it hard on take-offs. Fortunatelly the extended warranty covered the repair which ended up being to the tune of around 9-10grand (ended up replacing the entire transmission). After that I ended up having to get the front control arms replaced to the tune of a few more grand (this time out of pocket). A few miscellanious little items added in (break pads, flasher/light housings, etc) and now I've got another big one coming in with the Air Suspension failure - looking like I need to replace an air shock now (though dealership says they need to replace multiple to the tune of 4-5k)....

Despite all of this, I really love this car and am definitely not jaded by the experience. It's now got about 105k miles on it, so as you can see I've put quite a few highway miles on it since earlier this year when I bought it - I just can't stay out of the drivers seat.

All that said, I will be much more wary WHERE I buy my next Jag next time and definitely be much better educated on them...

Great to be a part of the community!

 

Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear about your woes.

Check out this thread, Green Slime, like the man says what's to lose?

 

Interesting, I didn't catch that thread in me earlier searches. Thanks for pointing it out. That's something I'd definitely try. at the very least it might buy me some time to build up a few extra $$ for the real replacement. Unfortunately, while I've got a bit of DIY past experience as low/mid-level shade-tree mechanic on other vehicles - I no longer have many of the tools I used to or a location in which I can tear into things.

Maybe I can find a shop out here that is willing to let me pay a small premium to have them try it on my behalf, only problem is they'd have to be an honest shop not to want to stick it too me and just tell me it didn't work and that I'd need to do a full replacement with them right away. This is the only thing I hate about settling into a new area - were I still in Columbus Ohio I'd have several buddies I could choose from to go visit and tear into it with. Gotta build my contacts and home tools back up now lol

 

I too bought an '04 XJ, with bad control arm bushings. The seller ultimately made good on it more or less, but it was a bit of a bummer considering the expectations I had of such a fine automobile. I'm now leary of the airsprings after reading some posts, and although armed with the intel (thanks to this forum) for doing a brake job, I dread it a bit only because of the electric parking brake calibration requirement, which I guess can be done by humans as ignorant as I am. I hope your vehicle gives you trouble-free pleasure from now on.

 

Welcome to the forum,

Good luck with the repairs.