Hi all, thinking of giving up on my 1998 x308. (it has coolant lose that no one can find or explain so looking like it might be head gasket). I know someone that is selling a semi low mileage 2005 - price might be pretty good BUT known issues include a leaking rack/pinion, rear wheel bearings and even though there are no issues yet - it has original Air Suspension. Any thoughts on future expense with these issues ? I am rough guessing $600ish for back bearings, if the air suspension eventually goes probably $2,000 for Coil over swap ??? I have No ideas on the leaking rack/pinion ??? I think in the old XJ6s they were a nightmare for labor to get at them ??? I had a friend say they were charged $4,000 for a BMW rack/pinion repair a few years ago.

Any thoughts ? Has anyone done any of these repairs recently themselves or at a shop (Bearings, Rack or Suspension swap) that can provide price info or DIY difficulty ?
I hate to get into a money pit with an x350 because if I was going to have $10,000+ into a jag I would rather go more modern and something along a 2014-2015 XJ8. But at the same time a low mileage x350 under $6,000 is pretty appealing.

 

Hi,

I bought my ‘07 XJR on the way to the scrapyard. it was leaking coolant, every single air spring leaking, destroyed bushes, interior with broken panels, exterior with broken bumpers… It was not economically viable. I paid 3.000€ for it, and it took 8.000€ In parts to leave it ok. I would only recommend this kind of projects to a DIYer with the kind of budget I had.

Regarding your question, I replaced all the air suspension with BC Racing coilovers. I bought them online for 1200€, plus 300€ of homologación here in Spain. I installed myself in a whole day of work (if you’re experienced on the model and you have a proper lift, it doesn’t take more than a morning). Back bearings, in my case were not worn. It was the transmisión bearing that it was loose.

Btw, the steering rack is quite accessible in this model, shouldn’t be that much problematic in terms of labor replace the rack or find the leak… Parts are parts anyway. Nothing to do with the Audi S8 I have… That rack is a nightmare.

Kind regards.

 

Thanks for the reply effradiesel, that type of info helps. I figure this car might be purchased for about $2,000 below value. But the rear bearings will eat into that.- If I can geta year or so with just filling and monitoring rack that would help. I feel better knowing the job might not be a bank breaker. The air shocks have me concerned, seller claims no issues with the 18 months they owned it BUT if the air suspension is the time bomb that plastic tensioners and pressure solenoids are in the first gen 8s then it is not a question of if they will fail But when they will fail. I think the arnott kit is still over $1,600 and If I have to pay labor it sounds like your thinking a shop would be around 4-5 hours.
My last two x308s were purchased cheap, had lots of potential but the cost of the regular jag issues (timing chains, tranny, suspension, head gaskets) was a killer. I would love to purchase a well maintained decent mileage Jag. But in my geography Jags are rare - the ones for sale fall into 3 categories -
#1) Well maintained, reasonable mileage and insanely over priced (these are the 2004-08 jags with 60k-ish mileage and asking prices of over $14,000
#2) Decent Jags with high mileage - these are the 04-08 jags with 175,000+ miles and price tags of $4,500 -$6,000
#3) the crap shoot jags - these are the jags with 80-120k miles, all original suspension and bushings (or cheap ebay coil overs that leave CATS errors on the dash) they can have cosmetic issues with clear coat peeling or dents, saggy headliners ---these can sell for $3,500-$5,500. If you get a good one then great, or like my x308 - you get nothing but constant bills of every jag issue on the forum (or worse, ones no one can answer)

I love my jags and have no issues with basic maintenance - but my family and friends have similar aged BMWs and Mercedes and when we all take our cars in for brake work or suspension work I always come out with a little higher bill and then my jag also has the sagging headliner and clear coat issues their cars don't. Passerby's I think look at my jag more than their cars (from a distance) but man do I wish we could have solved some issues like headliners, radios, paint and cup holders.

 

Well, I don’t know if my experience is going to help. Here in Europe these cars are still quite expensive even with high milleage (V8 models), and my approach was completely different.

In your case, having many units out there to choose already shorted out (supposedly), my first question would be: Is this one the car I want to have? Do I like the spec of the car to work on it and keep it? If you plan to buy a 20 year old car expending little money on it, even more if it’s a little neglected luxury car, is never going to be cheap (in my experience).

My car was on the way to the scrapyard, and I paid 3000€ for it. Suspension arms, air suspension, bumpers, a couple of door panels, exhaust, and the interior headliner were destroyed. The engine and the gearbox were quite healthy despite being 480.000km when I bought it (gearbox was redone at 380.000km, engine was never opened and you don’t even have to refill oil between changes). I spent already 8.000€ just on parts, all the labour was on me. The money spent to leave it nice and usable, was going to be the same despite being a VDP, a super V8 or an XJR, so I had clear I liked this specific unit.

buying one of these cars with a tight budget, in my experience, is a no-go. And if you have available units with low milleage, well maintained and with a nice spec, one of those would be my pick eye-blinded.

when I bought my XJR (advertised as a parts car), it was the only x350/x358 XJR available in Spain. They wanted initially 5.000€ for it, and as I said, it was advertised as a parts car with close to half million kilometers (but only one owner).

Regards.

 

Hello everyone,
I’m new here and wanted to take a moment to say how much I appreciate all of the information that’s been shared in this thread. I recently (2023) became the owner of a 2005 Jaguar XJ8 Vanden Plas with only 40,000 miles, and I’ve already learned so much by reading through the experiences and insights from other owners. I fell into the first category when buying :#1) Well maintained, reasonable mileage and insanely overpriced
This forum has been a tremendous resource in helping me understand the quirks, strengths, and care that these cars deserve. I’m grateful to have found such a knowledgeable and welcoming community, and I look forward to both learning and contributing as I go along.

Best regards,
Rosemary
2005 XJ8 Vanden Plas

 

Hi!

Unless you’re a DIYer as I am, and you want a specific spec or you maybe you want to build a project car (both were my case for the XJR), I think the most clever approach is your approach. Neglected luxury cars are very expensive to short out (my XJR for instance). Before my XJR, when I bought my ‘07 XKR Convertible, I paid a good premium because I bought the very best unit I could find in southern Europe (national, One owner, only jaguar dealer, and 60.000miles). It was a car I wanted to enjoy straight away, because I already had 4 project cars more. I didn’t have in almost 5 years of ownership a single incident more than a window regulator. It is always a pleasure even to look at it, because it is always perfect (The only car I don’t wash myself and the only I bring to the jaguar dealer for maintenance) and I don’t have to worry about anything else than to find a good parking spot in my journeys. This approach is not a warranty against issues, because these are not Toyotas, but you’re buying way fewer tickets to a disgusting prize:

 

You'll never be sorry buying a low mileage well cared for car even at an "insane price." I have two such cars that I can jump into and go about my business and one car I got cheap that I'm almost afraid to drive, always wondering, "I wonder what's going to break next," not a fun way to drive. My cars are a 1987, 2004 and 2010 or I could have spent the same money and bought a brand new Toyota.

 

I went ahead and purchased this jag (actually is an 06 long base). It was against my better judgement, but I am a sucker for the woodgrain. I really thought I was going to love the 350 cup holders, since my x308 has the worst cup holder ever invented. But I can already tell the small size of the openings look like they were designed to hold a dixie cup. Looks like I will be replacing rear wheel bearings, rack/pinion and outer tie rods and a headliner. I know a lot of Jag owners say "luxury cars take money to upkeep". But, as much as I love these cars my lamentation is based on this 06 with 85k has all of those issues, plus a little clear coat peeling. Conversely, my luxury 06 caddy with double the miles has only ever had breaks and a minor electrical issue with the third brake light. In another 10k it will probably need shocks/struts).
On the plus side this 06 jag looks very nice from a distance, it has some hail damage I might address next year if the air shocks are still holding up.

 

Headliner, steering rack, tie rods, rear bearings and headliner? Only??? From a DIYer perspective, that’s a deal for a neglected XJ. The only thing I wouldn’t do by myself is the headliner. In my case I paid a guy who does that for a living, and it only costed me 250€ (I think it is crazy cheap, as the fit and finish is amazing).

Regarding the steering rack, high likely you will have to refurb yours. As far as I know, they are almost “unobtanium” as aftermarket part, and if you buy one from Jaguar, you’re going to pay more than for the whole car.

Regards

 

Mine has Arnott coilovers, gave up quickly on the air suspension as it was failing and the compressor desiccant chamber was FULL of water when I went to rebuild the compressor. Never looked back after the coilovers, car rides great, I don't have to wait two minutes every morning for it to lift, it doesn't get stuck too high on one corner, and I don't get air suspension fault messages. Completely worthwhile throwing away the air system. I installed the struts myself in the driveway. You do have to remove the sway bar links, and unbolt the front upper ball joints out of the upper arms, but nothing that affects alignment gets touched.

I did have cooling system issues, thread is linked in my sig. I've also had the headliner replaced (about 800 bucks) and the driver's seat re-upholstered (VERY worn leather) for about $450. It's a fabulous car, expensive to drive so it's not my daily, but I use it for almost all of my out-of-town travel.

For the OP, I don't think I'd see that car as a "go," but you've already done it. I would STRONGLY recommend not bothering to even try to troubleshoot the air suspension if it goes wonky, just put Arnott's coilovers on it and spring the car with steel the way God intended. Don't skimp on a replacement battery when it needs one, as these are very sensitive to low-voltage conditions, leading to message like CANNOT RELEASE PARKBRAKE or CRUISE NOT AVAILABLE, and you have to go through the reset of pulling the battery cables and touching them together, after which you have to re-train your auto-up auto-down windows. I also could not leave my car for more than 3 days without putting it on a battery maintainer or it wouldn't even start. A new Die-Hard battery and all is well. It's a BIG battery, at least 900 CCA needed in this car.

The one thing I missed about the car is Bluetooth streaming, and the Jagaux device fixed that, although that, too, is not for someone squeamish about taking the car apart, as you have to remove and partially disassemble the factory head unit to get the cables connected internally. (The Jagaux unit basically intercepts the internal CD player's audio path to inject your streaming source. the car thinks it's playing a CD, and there has to be a CD in there spinning!) The Jagaux was the cheapest way to get Bluetooth audio into the car, by far, but I don't know if he is still out there. His email support was beyond excellent when I had questions.

 

Tbh opening the head unit was the easy part IMO... first you have to pull out the center console (at least partially)... but before that you have to open and unplug the rear A/C controls.
I swear unplugging a connector is often where I struggle the most. (But it was the same with my aging Mondeo, unplugging the quad-lock connector is always massive PITA.)

 

The original Jagaux actually had you soldering onto the head unit's system board. Mine didn't work right, would tell me it was paired but would not play. He was willing to step me through troubleshooting, but when he asked me if I had an oscilloscope we kinda hit a wall. He approved an RMA, but return shipping was more than half the original cost, so I tossed it. Later, after he developed the "no-soldering" version that just replaces and tapes existing cables, he sent me one of those gratis, and that's what I'm using. Like I said before, he went out of his way to make me happy with it.

But, yeah, getting the back end of the console disconnected is a pain, and then discovering that the seat heaters don't work after you've put it back together because you forgot to reconnect the switches was rather annoying!

 

😲 OK, I had no clue. Apparently I got the later version. Both the packaging and the support were just awesome. Same when I bought the floating center hub caps from the gentleman.

 

I haven't received the jag yet, probably in the next few days. I am already regretting the decision a bit. I was expecting to do the bearing and rack myself - but the ones I have done were "plug and play" hub assemblies with bearing already in them. Looks like that is not available for these jags - press in bearings only. My uncle has always helped me with anything above oil and break jobs. He is a retired diesel mechanic with a shop and lots of tools - I am more of a woodworker, I have more money tied up in table saws and shapers than I do auto. But he just left town for 4 months so I called some local shops for the bearing and rack job. The most respected shop turned down both jobs saying they didn't have the jag tools and he was worried the rack would need jag programing after install to recalibrate any steering sensors. The other shop recommended jag dealer, home of the $300 oil changes. Actually when I called local dealer for work on my 1998 Jag they told me they can't work on anything older than 2014.

Anyone know if these x350 jags have anything fancy with steering sensors or electronic steering that would need jag dealer reprogramming after a Rack Swap ?

Actually anyone know the part number for the 06 rack ? I have an SNG Baratt part number BUT it doesn't match the part numbers I see online at Ebay or other used parts places, despite all the used places saying the rack fits any x350 from 04-07.

 

I don't know, my approach is that if you do not have the means, tools, skills, and confidence to do literally every single repair on these older-ish (and yes, mid noughties are olderish at this point, especially for Jags), then I'd suggest not getting one. I have 4, all purchased from the auto auction, paid less thatn $4,000 USD for all of them combined. 3 are on the road already. I'd never even have thought of buying any of them if I didn't meet all the requirements I listed there. Even paying premium for a "well taken care of " example doesn't make sense to me because eventually it won't be so low mileage and will need work.

Oh, and you gotta be resourceful and willing to use good-shape used parts. I live on Ebay for most of my vehicles. For instance, if you want a "plug and play" fix for your steering rack. Well, here you go. This is not a bad deal. Sure, it isn't "brand new" but anything aftermarket is going to be terrible quality most likely and even IF you could find NOS factory part, you are gonna spend SO Much money. x350 Steering Rack on Ebay

 

Don't discourage the man! First of all: '..how do you know that you can't play fiddle without trying?' Then, practice makes it perfect!

 

I wasn't discouraging. In order to be discouraging, I would have to assume that he didn't fit those qualifications that I listed. In order to do even your example, you have to have confidence, right? So at a bare minimum you have to have confidence that you can do it. I didn't mean you have confidence that you've done it and you're an expert at it.