Hi everyone, I was just wanting to ask a few questions about a 2014 Jaguar XJL 3.0 that I found on marketplace.

Price: $4200 (not firm)
Paint: Good (black, no chips or fading)
Interior: Good (peanut butter)
Seller states on post “car runs but overheats, cold AC and new tires.”
(will update with more info as I get it)

Is overheating a common problem with this MY?

What are some common problems I should I look for if I were to check the car out?

Are there any major problems these cars commonly have?

Is this care costly to keep on the road?

Anthony

 

It's a gamble. Several parts of the cooling system get brittle and leak, it's possible that's the only problem. It's also possible that the engine was allowed to completely overheat and warped the heads, requiring an engine rebuild or replacement.
If you're unfamiliar with this platform and not mechanically inclined, it's probably best to steer clear. If you can get a lot more details about the situation, feel confident the engine isn't damaged, and are willing to put in some work it might be a decent deal.

 

Buying a junk car will be expensive. How good of a mechanic are you? I see thousands of dollars of deferred maintenance.
So decide if you want a money pit or not.

If you get it you came to right place as all the problems are well documented along with the fixes.
I have a 2014 XJR as my only car and have for the last 8 years. BUT I got it with around 20K miles and a factory CPO warranty and stayed up on all the maintenance and repairs as they popped up. It has zero problems now and I have had the standard cooling leaks along with injectors in the past.
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Do not buy this money pit. There are too many good running examples for sub-$10K to settle for an abused, deferred-maintenance POS with blown head gaskets.

 

It's a very pretty car, I'm sure, and you can be sucked into it. But don't take the gamble. An overheat problem sounds like it was abused and/or not properly maintained. Jag repairs can very quickly go into many thousands. Heed the warnings of these very experienced forum members.

 

ANT305, I will give a glimmer of hope. I would say that you only buy the car if it can pass a coolant exhaust test. In short, this is a tube that you are going to buy that you are going to install in place of the coolant overflow cap. Yes, this test is going to run you like $50 or so to do. But, if this passes, then you know the motor is good and you are simply left with a $2000 coolant system rebuild bill (recommend going with all the new aluminum cast pieces). Otherwise, you are looking at a $15K rebuild if you do it yourself and potentially upwards of $40K to get a new engine through Jaguar. But, based on what you have described, the engine is suffering from some mildly warped heads (potentially block) and to get it back to where it needs to be is not cost beneficial.

 

Small world, I grew up in SoMD and went to Great Mills High School.

 

Here is what's involved with repairing an X351 with an overheated AJ126, cost 11,700$US. The AJ133 involves the same procedure:

 

First I want to say thank you to everyone who replied.
After speaking to the seller, and reading the info everyone here gave me, I decided to NOT buy the car.
Seller stated, overheated multiple times, once being full gauge. And coolant boils over, I think everyone here knows what that means.

But what really sealed the deal was NBCat’s reply. That looks like a nightmare that I’m not ready or qualified for.

Thank you again and hope to be back in this forum in the future.

Anthony

 

@Ant305, I believe you made a wise decision.

In the pictures above, note the area on the head gasket for cylinder 6 where the head distorted allowing the gasket to fail. The reason this engine was able to be repaired is the cylinder walls didn't break apart at the top, and the block wasn't warped. The heads were machined, valves cleaned and lapped, new timing chain assemblies, and the aluminium water outlet was installed.

Here is the engine back in the car with the aftermarket aluminium water outlet fitted.

 

Yea I like the red neck RTV slathered all over the "Y" cooling pipe! Really shows the level of repairs that poor car had. Putting RTV on an O-ring connection.

Hope we did not scare you too bad but as posted above we have seen this story over and over. So I jumped on it to hopefully stop you from getting in over your head. Now I would love to see you get a Jaguar but get a better one. That one was full of red flags for sure.
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Glad you passed on that one. It had “Future CoPart car” written all over it.