I agree, I knew more about Jags than the guy I bought mine off and he had already made the mistake of taking his issues to Jaguar......so big bucks to fix.
I knew better and my hunch was correct Phew.

04 xj8 vp.......142000....bought it two weeks ago.

Excellent condition.

What I’ve done/ found so far.

Restricted performance, codes showing both banks running lean.Found the plastic hose from the round plastic thing on the LHS of the engine had a big split in it. I repaired it with rubber tape and will probably make my own up to replace it with a length of tube and two jubilee clips, as I ain’t forking out 60 bucks to Jaguar.Also found the air filter was filthy so I changed that along with the fuel filter which was the original and was rusty and clogged. The airbox to throttle body was loose so I reaffixed that and put the air box back together snugger than it was. Codes not reappeared in two days now, I would have had a few by now.

Air suspension. Everything looks origonal and appears to be working, although the car does sit lower on rhs, and the other day when I jacked it up I got the car flying too low warning. I turned car off and back on and watched the nose rise.....I think it needs calibrating, or I may just do the conversion anyway and be done with it.

Master door window switch bank switches were loose and sorta worked.....found breaker near me (Long Island) with half a dozen Jags in it. Got a switch for 50 bucks......gonna be at that place a few times methinks. That’s like me having a yard with a junked Jag on it.

Overhead switch for window blind is loose and needs fiddling with to make it work, everything else is good. breaker did not have one but he will call me when he gets his hands on one. That will be 50 bucks as well.

One code I have gotten is the CAN not talking with something else......that seems to have disappeared after doing the fuel too lean repairs.

I have the lurch, very very mild and very very rare........may be something maybe not, new code reader will find more about that when it turns up. Gonna talk to my tranny guy about doing a bottom end gearbox rebuild.

Anyone else’s car play ‘ home on the range’ or something like that when car is put in reverse.......I found the speaker at the back of car on rhs by the lights.....think someone added it. I’ll junk that cos it’s annoying and fit a white noise generator, being in NY we have a problem with pedestrians walking behind cars that are already moving so they can wave their arms at you in a disgusted fashion as though you just tried to run over their kids.So I need something back there.

When my wipers are on intermittent or if I flash them the wipers get stuck on lhs of windshield, when it rains heavier they don’t do that......this one has me befuddled.......it’s as though the wipers are sticking on something but there is nothing obvious. Gonna strip out the motor and see if it is that before I go any further.

Engine cover screws missing........breakers yard.....

Headlights need a refurb.

Clock bulb not working......

I need new hood struts.....every damn car I’ve bought in the last few years have needed new struts.......

Blower didn’t blow any air but you could feel some heat.....just no blow. And when on high the motor would be like having a jumbo jet sitting in the seat next to me. I read up on here about the insulation thing but couldn’t see anything obvious, so I dropped the motor......tricky job.....and I found a birds nest of leaves, sycamore seeds and black and white hair.........the hair worried me.....then with the hood open I noticed the firewall on the rhs was brown and hairy and the opposite side was black.....the black stuff and the brown stuff had been sucked into the blower motor....gotta check out how that happened and figure a way to stop it......gonna realign the whole firewall with air conditioning silver tape ....that should stop it.

Now I have heat I think I may need to flush the heater core a tad.

Trunk will not open with key fob or internal button, Probable fuse issue......

Hand ( finger) brake thing light not coming on, the red one...it did work but now does not.....possible fuse again.

Gonna strip out gear lever as for some reason I don’t like the way it feels.....that may be just me but I’m gonna check to see if I can find anything odd looking or loose.

I need an alignment check, maybe able to do that myself when code reader turns up.....unless I read the description of the code reader wrongly.

I need one wheel lug....may just replace them all and get locking ones......

My leaper feels loose.....read on here about them falling off.....the ones in the breakers yard felt stiffer than mine, gonna check that out and see if I can do something that will prevent it falling off......

So far that’s all I’ve found in the two weeks of ownership.....I had an xjs and an xj12 when I lived in GB, so I know about Jaguars quirks and from experience I know these cars need more than an oil change and tyre rotation every few thousand miles. They need to have preventative maintenance done.....” if it ain’t broke don’t fix it “ does not play well with Jags and will leave you stranded on a rainy night in a bad part of town.....which for me is 10 mins down the road in ms 13 turf......so whilst I’m going over the car any electrical connection is given a coating of dielectric paste, I did that to all my old Brit bikes back in the day and it seemed to keep the prince of darkness from paying a visit.....gimme a few months and I should have gotten to pretty much all the connectors.

In closing I’d actually forgotten why we love driving these cars......it came back to me about 5 mins after I bought it. I am the third owner, first had it on a lease then his daughter had it, so someone Ike me never owned it which is a good thing......it’s in excellent condition and ‘everything works’ as they say in the ads......in my case I know what does not work.......and most are or have been cheap repairs.Spent around 100 bucks so far , 12 for a fuel filter as opposed to Jags 60 bucks , 30 bucks on an air filter and 50 for the door switch......Jaguar quoted me ‘ could be over a thousand’ for the blower to be sorted and they wanted 60 for the plastic hose.The restricted performance thing “could be around a thousand or maybe more”

The body is great with the odd scuff on the bumpers which my body shop guy can fix sometime in the future.

Car cost me 2800 bucks. Registration and ‘taxes’ were a buck fifty.....wink wink.....so I’m into just over 3 grand for an excelllent car in great condition that purrs like it did on its first day out of the showroom......

Major future projects will be the shock conversion and an exhaust that makes it sound like the v8 it really is......but both those can be done at my leisure.....

I promised my gf that I won’t go any where near throwing a super charger at it.......but I didn’t say anything about not buying an xjr or xkr.....but that’s our little secret ok.

Here’s the birds nest.....there was another chunk this size that I pulled out of the vents....and a ton of dust came out after I’d put it all back together.

Good old Lucas.....without even knowing it they invented the self dimming head lights and intermittent wipers, and the famous fart noise horn.

I well remember the Triumph headlight switch........filled that mother with Vaseline that seemed to do the trick......

That warm beer does knock you on your butt though.......the cold beers and lagers are weaker......unless you go for the industrial strength lagers.