Hello all,

Well, a few weeks ago, I was driving my crappy Toyota Matrix, leaving my lab when what should happen, but a 16 year old girl decided that she didn't need to actually check for cars before pulling into the road. Needless to say, a crash occurred, writing off my car. Fortunately everyone was ok, she was a little shaken up since she had only had her license for 4 months prior and hadn't been driving long. So, what to do now. I had begun the search for a 06 or 09 XJ SV8 portfolio, but didn't have any money saved yet so that was out of the question. I was looking at other econo boxes but then found what I was looking for, another Jag.
The car: 2005 Jaguar XJ Super V8, Black/Tan with 243,000km. Now, I bet some of you are just about to punch the screen yelling "Why would you buy that! Way too many miles", but don't despair, I'm not new to these cars and know when to run and when to buy. I think.

Lets start with the BAD:
1) No heat on drivers side, probably the heater core, possibly the aux pump. Either way, easy fix and I knew this going in.
2) Needs new parking break pads. No biggie, already have them on the way.
3) The adaptive cruise doesn't work. This might be a bigger issue. Is it the battery, sensor, alignment, the radar unit itself? I'm waiting on my mongoose and SDD to see what's what.

And that's all the bad. Everything else is absolutely amazing. Other than the usually scuffs and the odd loose trim clip you would expect on a 10 year old car with 150,000 miles on it its almost perfect. The interior is stunningly perfect, not even any wear on the drivers bolter or seat. Apparently, the owner was a little old man who just drove a lot and religiously maintained it at the Jag dealer. I don't have the full service history, but based on what I see it looks to have all new air shocks, expansion tanks, hoses, belts, etc.. The engine bay looks better than most 50,000 mile cars I saw (and no, it hadn't been cleaned. I got the car as it was traded in on a new XJ). Now, to top it all off, this car cost me the grand total of $6000 CDN. That's right, only 6K. So, even putting a grand or so into it I'm still ahead if you ask me. Now, the car was in Toronto, so I drove it back to Winnipeg (2100km), a good shakedown of the car. The thing drove and rode as smooth as silk, great power delivery without any unexpected noises. And to top it all off, 30mpg!

All in all, this was only $2000 more than what I got for my Matrix, and boy was it worth it. I'm just waiting for all the muck and dirt to clear up here before I give it a good detail and clean and fix any little niggles to make it good as new. Now, I'm going to post over on the X350 forum about this as well but thought I would let my fellow S-type owners know we now have two Cats to call our own. What a good life!

 

I suspect the cruise will disable itself for various guessable reasons but also may be a fuse/relay issue. JTIS/etc will have the info about diagnosing (pinpoint tests etc) and of course electrical guide. Have fun!

I'm guessing the 2005 will be 4.2 engine so not really anything to panic about there. (I don't know which trans but probably 6HP26 and you already know enough about it if so.)

 

The Heat.....if you have heat on one side and not the other, your core is fine. That is usually caused from a flow door under the dash not working or is stuck. Check that before you buy a new core. I think they are vacuum operated so it should be easy to figure out.

 

D*mn! You did very well!

Pictures please.

 

JagV8: Ya, its the same engine and tranny as our STR so I already know my way around that! And our STR has 150,000 miles on it as well and still runs like a champ.

David: I've already searched around the X350 forum and found that if you get heat everywhere except the drivers side its either the core (which is known to clog up on these cars) or the aux pump (which can be rebuilt for about $20). And the core is a DIY and not that expensive so no worries there.

Mikey: Ya, for the price I don't really care if a few glitches come up. Since I turn my own wrenches it's pretty cheap to keep these things going for the most part. As for pics, I'm waiting til it isn't a giant mud puddle here. Every car looks brown and white.

 

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David: I've already searched around the X350 forum and found that if you get heat everywhere except the drivers side its either the core (which is known to clog up on these cars) or the aux pump (which can be rebuilt for about $20). And the core is a DIY and not that expensive so no worries there
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Thank you for the update. I couldn't find that in the repair manual, but my manual is general and not per model. I hope it is an easy fix.