Hi,
I found a 1999 XJ8 with 98,000 mi on it. My wife absolutely loves the car and I was thinking of getting it for her for mother's Day.
How bad are theseo maintain? My last Jaguar experience was an 89 XJ6 and it was a great car. The brakes are fresh on it, and it has an inspection sticker. What things do I need to check on before I commit to a buy? Is there any way to tell if the timing chain tensioners were done? I'm going to try to get down to look at the car tonight or tomorrow. They want $4,000 for it
thank you very much in advance I would love to do this for her but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.

 

You may want to post your question here instead

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xj-xj8-xjr-x308-27/

members of that sub-forum will have the same model you are interested in purchasing. This is the forum for the current model XJ (351).

Best of luck!

 

If the seller claims the tensioners were done I'd ask to see the receipt. If they were done and the car in is good shape then the price is right.

 

Thank you
The car is at a used car dealer, so unless there are receipts in the glove box, it probably won't be easy to prove

 

Your wife absolutely loves that XJ8. IF you don't buy it for her, you'll wish it was your foot that was shot. Happy wife, happy life.

 

The easiest way to check is to remove the passenger side valve cover and look to see if at least the secondary tensioner has been replaced as that's the catastrophic one. Go, test drive it thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly, check that every last switch, dial, knob and lever works in all positions, bring a friend with you who can be your logic check and keep you from letting emotion cloud your judgement. Given the mileage, pay particular attention to the smoothness/delay of the transmission shifts from park to reverse and drive as besides tensioners, the other catastrophic thing you have to catch early is the main pressure valve in the transmission. Then if after all that you are still interested then its probably worth spending a few hundred dollars to take it to an independent mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection, including the tensioners.

But in my experience, given the mileage and age, its going to need quite a lot in the next few years. But that's why you can buy a $60,000 car for only $4,000 cash up front after 20 years depreciation. It's really a $10,000 car, you just pay the rest in small installments. Or if you are like most of us in the X308 subforum, we work it off in DIY labor.

 

I found another with similar miles for $2600, guy has owned it for 12 years and did the tensioners 5000 miles ago, along with tires brakes shocks, etc. I'm probably look at that one Sunday.