Hi all, I posted in the newbie forum but wanted to stick my head up in the XJ side of things and say "hi". Just bought a 2005 XJR with a smidge over 24k on the clock, looking forward to driving it once this darn snow / slush finishes thwarting my plans. Good thing I kept the Jeep...

 

welcome to the group monkey, you'll find activity around this subforum area is not as lively as others, so if you want to participate more often, browse the xf, xk8-xkr, xk or s-type areas. You'll learn alot about the S/C 4.2 you have in your XJR, as it is the powerplant as the S-type R and the XKR (2003-2006). enjoy!

 

Ah, good to know, thanks! I will head over there and see what's what.

 

Welcome, and I'm sure you'll love the XJR. Go get some good winter tires and enjoy the car year-round. I put them on my XJR and she handles great in the snow. Enjoy!

 

Thanks for the vote of support XJRont, what tyres do you use? To be honest, it's not for me that I don't plan on driving in the snow much, it's the rest of the folks on the Jackie Robinson or on Grand Central, I've been hit twice in NYC while driving in snow. Couple that with the amount of gravel and other crap they throw on the roads during a decent snow and I reckon it's safer to take the beater Jeep out and be done with it, but still, I'm curious if you have a recommendation for winter tyres.

 

Here in the UK I did a lot of research before buying the winter tyres and settled for the Nokians and have been really pleased with them, low noise and high comfort together with good snow / cold performance. Enjoy the car !

 

Welcome to the club Monkey!

I rarely drive my XJR in the snow, even though the car did come with a second set of 18 inch wheels with snow treads. I much more enjoy the 20 inch Sepangs and summer driving. I also have my SUV for winter driving, I have the same concerns about sand and salt but even more so in New Hampshire.

 

I've been tempted also to run a winter beater, but I have an '02 SL500 for summer fun and can't really justify another vehicle - besides, the driveway won't allow it. I do have an old '93 Ford Ranger that I use on occasion (I bought it for my sons to drive and the youngest is away at school until April), though it's not the best in snow, even with winters.

Here's what I bought for a winter set-up. I bought dedicated winter wheels as well.

255/40R-19 Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3 XL
19x8.5 Sport Edition WX5 Bright Silver In Stock
315MHz Tire Pressure Sensor

There were not a lot of options for 19" and curiously, the 18" set-ups available were more expensive. I liked the look of the wheels, and though they are Tire Rack's house brand, they seem to be good quality. I hope this helps.

Ken

 

Thanks for the advice all. I had a late night crisis at the office this weekend, drove in, fixed the crisis, came back out about 1am and it had snowed the whole time. I've driven solely 4wd for five years now, so this was a rude reminder on the drive home.

The upside was I was the only person in the rather large car park at the office with a fresh layer of snow begging to be churned up. That part was fun

 

You will love the Jag. Start saving for new air shocks. They will go soon.

 

Always the optimist, it appears. I have an 05; for 7 years it resided in Minnesota. At 50,000 miles, I've had no problems with my air shocks. Not all units will fail.

 

I am a realist. It will happen. Not all units fail but the vast majority in the US do. Just want the man to be prepared for the $1500 bill.

 

Well, of course steel springs fail too, but are generally cheaper to repair because the shock absorber doesn't normally need replacing at the same time. I had a rear coil spring fail on a Rover 75 in 2008. They need to be replaced in pairs, but air shocks can be done singly

 

Jags with the rear wheel drive doesn't perform well in the snow... Ive out-performed a Jag XJ8 in my mothers dodge caravan a few years ago in the snow [before I got my own Jag]... The jag driver boasted some speed and got stuck in front of me, I in a FWD soccer mom, drove off-road to get around the Jag and then proceeded to make the 42mi trip home in freezing snowy weather in DC. needless to say I dont take my cat out on the snowy days, I use my 2 other vehicles

 

with regard to Jags and weather, I ve heard of that as well that if your jag is driven in cold northern weather--the suspension becomes a problem and other problems are more common than that of a Jag driven in warm southern weather... I dont know if it was a myth or not... when I got my cert preowned I checked carfax for many different Jags to make sure mine was driven in warm weather/ in the south...

However i do think H20boy has a point of 7y 50k mi and no susp problem... maybe its a myth after all...

 

Well, for a reasonable price and low miles I knew I was taking the up front bargain for a potentially costly relationship, I'm OK with that. As for snow, given this weekend's forecast I'm just going to pop the kitty cat in the garage for a wee while and dust off the Jeep.

 

What type of rims and what size winter tires do you use?

 

I'm with mynameismonkey. I could never imagine taking my beautiful XJR out into a Minneapolis winter, even on sunny, clear days. There's too much salt and crud on the roads that hang around until April rains. Not to mention the little 1/2" snowfalls that pop up in the middle of the afternoon and cause all traffic hell to break loose on the evening drive home. I have taken this approach for 20 years now with various Porsches, BMWs and now my XJR. Just makes me appreciate it all the more when I take it out of storage in mid-April.

 

It's not quite a myth. From what I have seen and experienced so far, the air suspension is pretty reliable, (remember steel coil springs fail too !). What is a bugaboo is the compressor. This is definitely a short-life component, although there is a chap now making the piston seal so all you DIYers can rebuild your compressors for very little money, (see post on this forum a few weeks back). Even if you swap out, like me, the cost is not huge. I paid £299 for the compressor and 30 minutes labour at a main agent. All OK since and that was 35k miles and I'm now on 66k. Failure of the air springs is reported but is not a large percentage of the circa 15,000 cars made and sold.

Of course, the air springs are expensive so a lot of US owners have swapped them out for coil springs. Less bother in the future, but you lose the CATS (Computer Active Technology Suspension). If you drive everywhere at the very slow USA speeds then you'll no doubt have no bother at all.

 

I have 135,000 KM's om my XJR here in OZ
As you know we are not know for our smooth roads so I'd expect a higher wear rate here

I had one of the front bags go at 110,000km and replaced both front units.
Took the chance to also do all the front end bushings

No issues so far with the rear
I did not do a coil conversion because it renders a lot of the cats useless and i did not want to loose the stability control. I also did not consider the parts replacement too bad price wise. Yes is not cheep but you dont have a cheep car either.
Put it this way id pay the price of the replacement to no have driven a holden all those km's. Maybe thats unfair revise that to a kia

Cheers
35by151