1998 Jaguar XJ8 Vanden Plas (X308) – 190,000 miles - $2900 or best offer

I’m selling my cat, and I’d like to sell it to someone who not only would appreciate these cars, but also knows the unique maintenance issues that these cars have. This car has (and still is) been my daily driver for over two years, and has been an amazing car. I’ve only been stranded once by it, when the fuel pump went out. The body is in great shape, with only some minor dings and scratches. I’ve done my best to outline all of the current issues, as well as all of the repairs I’ve made to this car. I love this car, but I no longer have the time to give it the attention she deserves. Hopefully somebody out there will.

Issues
- Axle universal joints will need replaced, I can hear the tell-tale clunking when shifting out of park, and sometimes at slow speeds.
- Transmission issues – it likes to ‘hunt’ between 4th and 5th gears, I mainly leave it in 4th when driving on surface streets. When I’m cruising at highway speeds I put it in 5th and it works fine.
- Front brake rotors need replaced, brakes need bled
- Valve cover gaskets leak, leaking oil on the exhaust manifold.
- ABS light is on – most likely the power pins on the ABS module needs re-soldered (see the forum posts on it). In the 2+ years I’ve had the car, I’ve only had one day where the ABS light wasn’t on and the ABS and traction control worked fine.
- The starter will sometimes not turn when turning the key (resulting in a clicking sound). This problem seemed to manifest itself when it was bitter cold out. In the past few weeks I haven’t had the issue come up hardly at all. I’d imagine that perhaps the brushes need replaced, or at worst, the whole starter.


Work Done:
- Timing chain and tensioners were replaced. This was one of the first things I’ve done to the car, both main chains, smaller cam chains, upper and lower tensioners have been replaced, and put back together with new timing cover gaskets.
- Water pump was replaced the same time as the timing chain
- Headliner was professionally rewrapped, with nice thick padded fabric, the color matches the original fabric perfectly.
- Front wheel bearings were replaced this past summer
- Outer tie rod ends replaced
- Lower ball joints replaced
- Fuel pump replaced
- Newer tires – the rear tires are the newest
- 4-wheel alignment done last summer
- Newer battery (replaced about a year ago)
- Replaced the brushes in the electric heater pump
- Sunroof motor was replaced (with a used motor). The black control box that the cable passes through came dismounted, so the sunroof doesn’t automatically stop or close when it’s supposed to.