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This is a fantastic write-up on your work. Thanks for this and the great photos. After 17 years with our manual shift 2.5 I can say that it remains a joy to drive and has presented no mechanical problems at all.
Thank you! I should be fairly well equipped to help people who own these now, I figured out a lot of the vehicles specific traits after going though it.
I also drove it a lot today and man it's a nice car, huge upgrade over driving my Jeep and extremely well equipped/capable for a car I'm less than $1500 in
Great write up! good to see all the pictures. Love that Green paint! Yours is mint compared to my basket case I am restoring! I am also a Jeep driver a YJ and a JK. I have only got to drive mine in limp mode but will hopefully have that figured out soon. Enjoy!!!
At least that means I should be able to trust the car not to have water intrusion issues since it was designed over there.
Oh, wow, this IS your first Britmobile, isn't it?
While the X-type is better than most, it seems that British cars are designed specifically to have the world's worst heaters, defrosters, windshield wipers, door and trunk seals, etc . . .I think it's just in line with that whole "keep a stiff upper lip" thing. Ask anyone who has ever owned a classic "Series" Land Rover -- the people who made them managed to find the ONLY way to trap water in the single most important structural part of the vehicle, which was the only exposed steel part on an otherwise rustproof aluminum body. A heavy fog is enough to fill up the firewall with water, and it took about 20 minutes after it came off the assembly line for the firewall start rusting.
Let your pal know that the X-type is what any Ford wishes it could grow up to be. You will get many very happy miles.
While the X-type is better than most, it seems that British cars are designed specifically to have the world's worst heaters, defrosters, windshield wipers, door and trunk seals, etc . . .I think it's just in line with that whole "keep a stiff upper lip" thing. Ask anyone who has ever owned a classic "Series" Land Rover -- the people who made them managed to find the ONLY way to trap water in the single most important structural part of the vehicle, which was the only exposed steel part on an otherwise rustproof aluminum body. A heavy fog is enough to fill up the firewall with water, and it took about 20 minutes after it came off the assembly line for the firewall start rusting.
Let your pal know that the X-type is what any Ford wishes it could grow up to be. You will get many very happy miles.
If you need keys, let me know.
Yes this is very much my first British car, he is mostly joking but we never pass up opportunities to jab at each other lol!
Funny you mention the defroster, I actually have a problem with mine that came up likely due to the AC loop being opened. I have a new orifice tube and accumulator inbound to refresh the system and I'm going to fill it under vacuum this time, it's crazy annoying since 95% of the time it works fine then without warning all the glass fogs over so badly I can't see.
I have two key but I do need fobs, both of mine are dead and contact cleaning didn't work. Thanks a lot for the offer!
Took the car to Jag for its alignment, everyone was extremely surprised and entertained to see it. Apparently the older ones are getting very uncommon and they liked the fact I bothered to save this one.
They haven't seen an X-type for about 15 years according to the SA and techs, called it a classic lol!
People always seem to respond to something with a bit of shape and poise.......they are the last nod to the classic Jaguar shape.
My X-type and XJ8 both seem to capture eyes as I commute around the city.
Neither are expensive cars these days - except when the mechanic gets his hands on it ;-)
I guess they start to stand out among the morphed clay blobs that form the current vehicles on offer from most manufacturers who struggle to extract from their CADS programming any kind of standout body styling . Lets wrap the rear corners of the cars in expensive brittle tail light clusters, or put the tiny indicator light somewhere other than the main cluster just so it is a game to try to find it.
In the not too distant future our Jags will be even more noticeable as we continue to keep them on the road....they will become the ones that still have a rumble, not a whir when they go by.
Finished up the new engine run in, did the 3rd trans fluid exchange and oil change at 750 miles. Fluid is finally looking better so with some luck I won't need a trans in my ownership period.
Also finally installed an exhaust gasket lol! I somehow lost the original and was driving it with an accord V6 part slammed in to try and quiet the leak down. It's much more pleasant to drive now that it doesn't buzz.
Did a V-max run and it functions great out to 105-110 but it's not that fast getting there lol! Still a very nice and capable car though
No leaks so I guess I did something right? Nice and quiet now, please ignore the leaking transfer case. If I don't see it/make eye contact it's not broken lol! Last fluid change for the trans. I'll be changing it every 20k moving foward
I thought I would drop an bittersweet update, I unfortunately had to sell the car since a dream car of mine came up for sale.
It is one of 2 in the world with the options I wanted so I had to buy it, the X-type ended up being one of 4 cars I sold but I made sure it went to a good garage and owner and it will continue to return to me for all service on time. I may buy it back sometime down the road but for now we will only meet in passing. On the plus side I will likely be buying an S-type tomorrow with serious cooling issues so I'll have another Jag in the fleet for at least a little while, it was nice reading all the threads and talking with fellow owners on the X400 section!
Last edited by Striker223; Jan 27, 2023 at 03:15 PM.
And which car made you give up on a green Jag?
A bat-mobile?
A D4 A8L W12 in my exact options lol!
They only made 327 globally and 184 of those made it to the US. Mine is one of 5% of cars that is Ice metallic silver paint and of those 5% one of the 30% with a non-black interior.
Of the 30% it's one of 40% with Nugat brown leather but the three options that make it so rare is that it has the full sport dynamic package (S8 air suspension, rear TVD, auto adjust belts and seats) while also having the upgraded B&O audio (a 8k option new) and thermal night vision while NOT having the top level rear seat.
To my knowledge there are less than 5 cars in the world with this combo and only two stateside. I've been watching this vin for two years and it finally came up for sale and not only that I was able to talk the dealer down 33% off their asking price. I'm having a few extras imported from Germany to finish it up, I don't like the US market leather only wheel and the grab handles. I have a set of matching wood/leather ones coming as well as a wood shift handle and auto parking brake module.
The wheel alone is what I paid for the whole jag lol!
Well, I am not saying anything against Audi - my father had 3 (one after another).
And air suspension is nice.
The history about air suspension, as In know it (Wikipedia says differently):
Somehow, the idea for air suspension, or air-suspension applied to a passenger vehicle was born in the head of Mr. Carl F. W. Borgward, who build "Borgwards" not surprisingly. A link about that: https://www.postwarclassic.it/borgwa...elde-motorshow
It was a fabulous thing to have that air suspension, but this and other great inventions of his actually made him bankrupt, because he had great ideas and put them thru into reality, but he could not be bothered about the business side of Borgward... - Sadly, this is why bad products win most of the time over good products, because their marketing is better and people are gullible. - Borgward was sold to Mercedes.
Bummer to see this car go up for sale. I enjoyed this thread. Best of luck with the new Audi.
Sorry lol! The car will still be around and I told the current owner when/if he sells it to consider just selling it back to me. I do like the car a lot and I'll have another one at some point but parts for the W12 are not cheap (parts for front brakes alone are $1300) plus the purchase cost meant I had to sell some cars.
I was also getting yelled at for keeping 7 cars at home when the garage only holds 4! My wife hates having to maneuver around stuff.
I'll be back for sure, I'm in all likelihood picking up an S-type tomorrow so I'll have a Jag back in fleet soon!
> I was also getting yelled at for keeping 7 cars at home when the garage only holds 4!
Well, it's worse here: My garage holds only 2, but I need 1 half as workspace. But In front of the double garage I created 2 more car-port-spaces with a 6 x 7.20m silver tarps topping. This was a long process until I "designed" something, which the wind does not tear up in a couple of month. That's 3 cars taken care of. 1 is out in the open, the van just has a clear tarps over it, and the other 5 are wrapped up nicely:
1. one layer of old plackets.
2. a layer using a designed for that purpose thick foam/hail cover (from Aldi)
3. and a final layer of 3.6x6m tarps with holes all around and thru those holes I put clothesline to tie the tarps up, incl. under the car.
That's a fleet of 10 happy campers. Plus, the chooks (chicken) love sitting under those wrapped cars...
Freshly washed, I also tried to clean up the dust staining on the rims. I was somewhat successful, at least they aren't curbed or corroded. Since I intend to make this my winter/back and forth from the shop car so I'm debating if it's worth my time to clay/polish/ceramic it like my other cars.
I'm unsure since I would likely start caring too much if I do but the wife and friends all think I should since it's a nice cars. In any case these should allow to me to finally replace my old WJ Jeep as my work car.
Would you consider selling that car to me? Im on my 2nd Xtype but mine has 150k Miles now! Black! 3.0AWD! 07! Need something with WAY less miles n wear!
157,000 on mine now!
150K isn't bad. For what you would pay to get a fresher one, you can probably go through yours and get it cleaned up and renewed, provided you don't have a rust issue (in which case, buy something from a desert state).
Buddy just bought this XJR, spent the first 4 days of his ownership in my hands for a full paint correction Nice and shiny now So nice to see her again!
So I'm back with a small update on the X-type....however the story starts with an XJR.
My friend is the extremely proud owner of the $5000 XJR that some of you may have seen in the Ohio/Delaware area, it was in shockingly good shape other than some small issues. The main issue was very poor paint, the car had sat for 9 months near a quarry and you could see haze and swirls from 20ft away on an overcast day. So much stuff was embedded it felt like literal sandpaper, still we drove it and it somehow worked amazingly! Amazingly as in EVERYTHING worked as it should and it did 130 no problem, my friend fell in love and bought it on the spot.....then immediately gave me the car with a request for 3 stage paint correction and all maintenance.
Having it at my house that long really really REALLY made me miss my X-type, I really didn't realize how badly the car got into my head. I realized I just enjoy Jags way more than I thought, for whatever reason they are very fun.
That may seem strange but there is a charm and easy enjoyment to them I have not felt from other brands, emotional engagement and sheer joy from just screaming "JAAAAAAG" at every opportunity is just amazing. These cars don't demand you take them seriously and they look so damn good.
All this was driven home 1000% when my X-type showed back up to my shop for its complimentary oil change and I got to see and drive her again. Painfully slow but my god I had a huge smile and a great time the entire drive! The new owner is taking very very good care of her and parks the car inside at his job. It was also his dream car so it's unlikely I'll get her back but I'm first on the list if he ever for some reason wants to sell.
I'm now looking for a manual X-type with a black interior, I sold the LS430 and thus have a free driveway slot. I think I should put a Jag there!
Last edited by Striker223; Jun 16, 2023 at 03:23 AM.
