I’m thinking of buying this car. It’s beautiful. It is a 1997 6 cylinder vanden plas. The car has 130k miles and has been sitting for 7 years, inside of a garage, and the owner says they started it periodically. It has definitely been started and driven a short distance recently. Of course I will also drive it before buying. The price is 2000.

My question is what should I do since it has been sitting for so long? Oil change? other fluids? Should the transmission fluid be changed? Anything specific to this car I should be aware of?

I’m relatively handy and can perform most easy fixes, but working on insides of the engine or the transmission is past my current knowledge.

 

2000 is an excellent price , the next year V8 version had engine and transmission problems and Fordized lowering the series value

The inline 6 engine is a truck engine

Definitely drain the fuel

Old fuel will give you problems

On some X300s you can stuff a 1/4 inch X 6 foot hose down the fuel cap and siphon

Fuel filter change , look for O - ring inside the filter fittings , flow arrow points outboard

Never install the battery in backwards , tape with arrow , positive post fwd

Never overtighten the positive battery post bolt , breaks the special nut underneith




It will have the AJ16 engine starting on page 51

jagrepair.com/images/Training Guides/801S - 2000.pdf

Your codes are on page 121

Spark plugs only Champion cheap copper # X . no exotics like platinum , the aft 2 connectors can be crossed , same with O2 sensors

The speakers will probably be dry rotted and can be repaired by a cheap kit


Original Jaguar / Apline control head can be moded to have a input jack for anything you want , 25 wats per 4 channel

The VDP ( premium setup with same control head ) will have a power Amp in the trunk behind the covering





Excellent transmission but old fluid , flush refill method

flush refill power steering fluid , cavitation noise , cut 1 inch off the hoses under the reservoir as old, compressed hose clamp area leaks AND CAN MISSLEAD BY BLOwING EVERyWHERE

The headlight silvering is weak ( and will scrub off ) so they can be swapped with better X308s ( V8 version )

Aged clear coat on wheels will only clean so far , can be stripped



Don't put too strong a soap on chassis clearcoat as can damage , ask me how I know

The color is Y as the color code on the driver door

 

So is it really necessary for the transmission fluid to be changed before starting the car, or would I be safe to drive it about 30 minutes home so I can drop the pan and replace the filter and clean the magnet in a more ideal location?

or should I do it before driving at all?

 

Most of the wear on the transmission fluid is from wear ( hard miles ) and overheat ( off from pink color )

No hurry on transmission fluid drain / fill method if not for many miles yet

It is an excellent transmission unlike the later transmission on the V 8

Keep asking questions

See file linked below