Hello everyone! I am a new owner of a 2003 Jaguar X-Type with 45,000 miles (got the car for $5500). What do you think? I just picked it up about a week ago and I have been doing some research and I am just now wondering what kinds of maintenance I should be doing at this stage of its life. It only needs a few cosmetic things. Namely the center caps are missing on a couple wheels. I have ordered them (got all four since the two remaining are a bit crusty), along with a front trim piece which looks like it fell off the lower part of the front bumper. Now for any PM stuff I have been reading about these cars seem like their drive lines are a bit temperamental. Manly it seems the transmission and transfer case. So question is should I be looking into doing any fluid changes at this point of its life? I have read pretty extensively about the service procedure. Since it seems these transmissions are considered "sealed" which is honestly stupid considering they literally have a drain and fill plug.

Seems most of you have recommended a drain and fill style way of changing out the fluid. However I was wondering can a vacuum pump be used to just suck out the old fluid, and then refill with the correct amount of new fluid? Same for the transfer case? I do also have a cylinder bore sight so I can stick it in there to somewhat inspect internals if need be or to see if all the fluid is out. Car does also have some pretty extensive service intervals going back twenty years. It was barely driven later in its life before I got it. Previous owners put only about 2-3k miles per year on it till about 40k miles when it started sitting for long periods. At that point I believe between 2015 and 2026 (When I purchased it from a dealer), only about 3500 miles where put on the car. Water pump has been replaced along with the fuel pump (service work done at a dealer service center by one of the previous owners). Only real issue I can see in the engine is the valve covers seem to be leaking a bit of oil. Which seems understandable due to its age.

In any case chime in and let me know what you think!

 

That looks a beauty. I am on my 3rd X type and think they are a lovely car to drive and to be in. Very underrated cars and proper old school Jag styling.

 

Looks like a well taken care of X.That is extremely clean...Wow!

 

Your a lucky one finding it low miles, there are no issues if you follow this, 5000miles oil change no synthetic, transfer case top of if low, transmission every 3 years, now heres the big one
Do not launch the car like your drag racing, ( ever), cooling system use Redline Water water, replace coolant electrolysis has taken over from the last 20 years so the metal is loaded with rust over the years, flush and replace water pump add Redline Water water, and your good, Mines has 275,335 miles and I drive it every day

 

Water pump was replaced at 41000 miles, and I hear yeah on the transfer case. I am gonna be checking it this week along with draining and filling it with fresh fluid. Sadly now the car is down for a bit as somehow something (possibly road debris), hit the outer CV boot on the passenger side and nicked it. So its leaking all over the inside of the wheel. Got a replacement coming and gonna be swapping it out. Otherwise the car drives so nice. Oh and I just plan on making this my daily back and forth. No launching or being hard on the driveline. I am older now and just want something comfortable to drive.

 

Don’t see too many in white where I’m at, love the color on it.

I’ll double down on the TC service, check the forums here for how to do it there’s a million posts about it.
You unfortunately can’t suck out the TC as one of the gears sits almost flush with the service port and won’t let a line through. I can’t say for the transmission as I’ve only worked on stick cars.

I’d also recommend taking apart and re greasing your J shifter if it’s hard to notch through the gears. Didn’t know that was a problem and something that needed done until I snapped one of the plastic teeth off on my S type.

Treat The car well and it will last a long time, I’ve got 150,000 HARD miles on mine and the engine still runs like new.

 

Yeah I found out that you cannot suck out the fluid in the TC. I had to to the sketchy method of tilting the car 24 inches on one side than the other. Pretty sketchy. I was able to drain about 300ml of fluid out of the TC. Magnetic plug was virtually clean with almost zero metal on it. Fluid too wasn't to bad. Just old. Smelled like old gear oil is all I could say about it. I used a syringe and put back in a little over 400ml of Amsoil 75W-140 gear oil (This is what was called for both the TC and rear differential), before it started pouring out of the fill hole. Been running it and everything seems fine. Next I plan on doing the drain and fill method for the transmission, but I am moving into a new place next week so that is going to have to be put on hold for now.

About the J shifter. Is it a tough job to get it apart enough to re-grease it? Also what kind of grease? White lithium maybe?

 

This was the exact model, color and all, that was a my first. I will give you the warning they this might not be your last one! (Simply because once you get one, somehow you want as many Jaguars as you can get...I have 4, including my X-Type, though mine has like 130k on it.

I bought mine a few years back from an auction and it had like 124k miles on it. Other than regular maintenance items, I haven't had any other issues mechanically. I don't find what you are referencing in the driveline to be true for me. I haven't changed any transmission fluid and it drives great. I did have to do a full four corner suspension treatment. I replaced everything on all four corners except for the springs and holy heck. It made a huge difference!

One other thing I will mention is that the automatic headlight adjusters that are inside the headlights will break. The plastic is the most brittle crap I've ever seen in my life. There are really excellent 3D printed aftermarket ones that I just used to replace on both of mine. The job really wasn't that hard, although it's not designed to be replaced and you have to heat up the lens and separate it from the housing. Several decent tutorials on YouTube about it. If I were you, I would go ahead and buy me a set even if they don't need to be replaced right now because you never know when they're going to just stop being available. And buying even junkyard headlamps to fix the problem is literally a non-fix because it will have the same plastic in there.

 

Did all the cars come with auto headlight adjusters? How do I know if mine has them? Also what I said about driveline is just what I have heard and researched. Mine has 45k miles on it so I would imagine all that stuff is in great shape. Shame you cannot just check the tranny fluid, but there is a way. It just involves jacking up the car and pulling a check plug underneath.

 

Just wanted to welcome you and thank you for your enthusiasm in "joining the club". You need to want one and own one before you really get it. I hope you get great enjoyment from it! Congratulations!