Hey everyone. Just wanted to check in and let everyone know that these suckers can run. This is a '97 XJ6 I'm talking about, and it's still running strong. In fact, it rides smoother now than it did 100,000 miles ago - I just put on a set of Continental Control Contacts after years of Pirellis, and the difference is impressive, especially at freeway speeds.

Thanks to everyone on the forum. I can confidently say that this car would have been retired a long time ago if it weren't for the troubleshooting and research provided here. There was one instance in particular that left my car undriveable that neither I nor my local Jag shop could diagnose, and I got it solved right here. (It was a bad coil that was making the ECM flip-out for some reason).

Thanks!

 

So, its just "run in" then??.

Confidence in the Jaguar, PRICELESS.

 

Congrats and well done! At only half your mileage, I suppose my car is only "warmed up"! You give me hope and encouragement in the fact that I'll still be driving my Jag in eleven years time when it will be 30 years old.


This is a target for me, as we pay crazy annual road tax here in Ireland (€1809.00 p.a.) but when a car reaches its' 30th birthday, it qualifies for "classic tax" at €56.00 per annum.


It's going to cost me a fortune to make the saving, but in the meanwhile, I'm enjoying the ride........................

 

Congrats!
good show..

 

I am quite sure that we'd have a lot fewer old Jags on the road today were it not for the internet....and of course the willingness of Jag owners to share info. Many have remarked that Jag owners seem more eager to help each other than others.

In my early days of Jag ownership, almost 20 years ago, I would've have been lost without help from others.

Congratulations on 300k milestone


Cheers
DD

 

Amen, Doug. Heck, I wouldn't have even seriously considered buying my Jag without the internet and specifically this forum. I'd have missed out on the last almost 4 years of Jag enjoyment.

Congrats to the OP.

 

Ralph,

What a tremendous accomplishment and inspiration, especially to owners who at times have wondered if their Jaguar was ready for the crusher. Thank you for taking the time to report your awesome milestone and enouraging us that our faithful maintenance of these lovely motorcars will be rewarded.

Cheers,

Don

 

When I was in the market for Jags ten years ago, I don't think this forum was up yet, so I relied on the advice of 3 different Jag mechanics. They all said the same thing: '95-97 XJ6. So I've been relying on the good advice of others from day one.

And the other thing is, these cars are so damn pretty, it makes it real easy to continue caring for them. This high-mileage XJ6 is my wife's - and she's already oddly sentimental about cars - and a few years ago I offered to find her a shinier, younger XJ6, but she said no. So with a clear coat paint job, mesh grilles, and a wood shifter, you just can't tell it's age if you didn't know Jags. My XJ6 is quite cherry at 84K miles, and hers looks practically the same.

So we decided that we're gonna run it till it quits, and thankfully (knock on burled elmwood), nothing too serious has come up.

Thanking all of you in advance for whatever comes up next!

 

Great job, Ralph. Mine got done in by a hail storm at about 285,000 miles. Still ran fine. It hurt to give up based on appearance.

 

I really appreciate the fact that you have maintained that car in a condition to achieve that mileage. Just one concern. The magnesium cam cover seems to be the Achilles heal of the XJ6. What have you done to maintain that part? It is not known if the cover deteriorates as a function of time or mileage. Your car may answer that question. Mine at 134,000 was in pretty bad shape when I changed it recently. Be interesting to see what a really high mileage car cover looks like.

Thanks Ralph

 

I've had the cam cover gasket replaced, about 2 years ago at 264K miles. There was a bit of grease building-up around that gasket edge. Also, I've replaced the oil cap a couple times when I noticed some grease around the cap. The second time, I bought the cap from the dealer, thinking the first one was a cheapo aftermarket, but they looked absolutely identical (one being exactly 4x as expensive). But, the parts guy at the dealer gave me a piece of emery cloth to clean up the enamel/paint that was a bit uneven where the cap is seated, and that seems to have done the trick.

I've recently noticed a little bit of grease around the cam cover gasket again. I didn't realize I was supposed to also swap-out the cam cover bolts when I changed the gasket, so maybe that has something to do with it. It's on my list.

So, other than a tiny bit of enamel that flaked-off at the gasket edge, the cam cover looks okay.

 

Nice to know! My 98 is almost at 170,000. Had to put a bit of money into the car to get her back up to speed.
Few minor issues to resolve. Hope it'll keep going like yours.

 

What I was asking about was the deterioration of the cam cover itself. The cover is made of magnesium and will deteriorate due to electrolysis and eventually turn to dust. Did you ever do any refinishing of the cover and have you had any leakage of oil into the spark plug holes. The problem of grease around the base of the cover and cap is new to me.

 

I've never done anything to maintain the finish of the cover other than wiping it clean.

About 50K miles ago, I noticed a little bit of oil in two of the spark plug wells. When I had the cam cover gasket changed at 264K miles, I also replaced all the spark plug seals, and since then, there hasn't been an issue (and I know because I've changed the plugs a few times since then to diagnose other things).

I'm completely unfamiliar with this magnesium electrolyzing to dust issue. Is that a "known issue" for the X300? Both of the covers on my XJ6's seem to be okay.

I just looked up an earlier post of yours re: magnesium covers and you said, "...cam magnesium covers corrode due to electrolysis caused by the magnetic field around the coils in the presence of moisture caused by condensation."

If that's the case, I should also add that both of my XJ6's have lived their entire lives in Southern California, in case that's the critical variable.

 

Magnesium was probably the worse choice for the cam cover. Mag is in an environment of an electrical field and a moist environment which exist in the spark plug wells. even the one I have in there now which was pretty good had a small eaten through hole at the bottom of one of the wells. I filled that with JB weld. The moisture comes from the constant heating and cooling causing condensation in the spark plug wells and under the coil cover. Some members have reported some wells have completely eaten through. My old cover at 130,000 miles was very black in the plug coil area and the plug wells were very black with a lot of electrolysis corrosion. I don't know of anyone that has come up with a positive way to protect the cam cover from corroding. And over time it will become useless. That is why if you find a new one it is very expensive. Someday they will all be dust.

 

Wow, that's some serious miles!!

I had a different beast altogether some years ago, a little Peugeot 309 1.9 GLD, got her from new and managed a little over 196,000 miles in 3 years before she was retired.
It was a company car back in 1991, nowhere near as nice as yours but boy she took some punishment

I'm wondering if you'll be here sharing at 400,000?
Hope so
Good luck


Jim

 

From the little bit of reading I've done on this, there seems to be high humidity involved when it does corrode, such as this from a Mercedes forum:
"In humid tropical climates like in Taiwan, the magnesium covers on all the old M104 cars exhibit astonishing levels of warpage and corrosion."

I don't know how humid is in your part of Texas, but if you plan on keeping it long-term, you may consider calling-up a Jag salvage yard and getting a spare cover.

As you know, many of our X300 brethren are dying premature deaths because of minor collisions and low blue book values, which total them out. Good for parts, bad for old Jags.

Please, everyone, stick the pink donor sticker on your X300 dashboard so they know that your wish is to have its rear axle and center console live-on in another Jag. Mine isn't too Frankensteiny yet, but one day it may be.

 

That's pretty crazy! 196k in 3 years! That's like a never-ending Cannonball Run.

I'm definitely shooting for 400K. Even getting this far has been a nice vindication regarding all the crap I heard from family and friends 10 years ago. I sold my Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, and got two XJ6's, and I heard stuff like, "Jaguar? Why would you do that to yourself?" Ten years later, they still purr and look pretty, and have surprised even me with the ease of maintenance (a lot of that ease is because of this forum, for sure).

 

Wonderful. Congratulations. My 1996 Vandenplas has only 76,000 miles and have a long way to go. It's in great shape and runs awesome. Have a few things like transmission, brake, alignment, tuneup service due. Will get is done. I agree this forum is a savior and being a non techie have learnt a lot just by reading posts and asking questions.

Please post some pics.

 

Congratulations!