OK, I think I may have found a very good prospect 1997 XJR, but I'll need to act pretty quickly (like tomorrow) as I think there are others in the hunt. So I am looking for some quick feedback if possible.

The car has ~41k miles, and I've been told had been garage kept. From the photos it certainly looks to have been well taken care of.

It is at a dealer and was taken as a trade, and they were looking at what needed to be repaired/prepped to resell and the following is what they found:

- Radio plays, but won't change channel (no surprise)
- Small dent on bottom of rear door.
- Small scratch on bottom of passenger rear door.
- Transmission mount worn out
- Valve cover leak
- Rear shock bushings
- Power steering hose leak (pump to rack)
- Battery may be weak (they had to charge it)
- May need new front tires, and an alignment (wear of front tires indicative)


Other than that, I've been told that all the accessories work, no headliner sag, sunroof good. I'm still waiting to hear if the seat/mirror/steering-column memory and wheel swing away is working, but that's not a deal breaker.

Here is a link to high res photos of the car:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vcylt0o5g...YXMPsP8DCUJpva


Please let me know if you see anything that raises alarms or important questions.

The Carfax comes back clean BTW, and I did see the wear on the steering wheel.

Thanks!
Al

 

It looks very nice and the items you've listed for attention so far are either minor or pretty much routine for X300. Being the devil's advocate type, my immediate questions would be:

1. Is there a documented service history?
2. Any previous owner history that you could check?
2. The Kumho tires are of course not original and if the replacement fronts are already worn with the car still at only 41k, it seems a little odd (unless by "worn" you mean edge scrubbed due to misalignment, but not heavily worn in the tread overall).
3. I wouldn't expect a 41k car to show obvious wear to the steering wheel, but then some owners aren't so fussy!
3. The engine mount is probably contaminated by leaking PS fluid which is common assuming it's on the same side as the PS. Could indicate the PS has been leaking for some time, again a little strange for the low mileage?

Others may feel these observations are over cautious, and of course you won't find a totally faultless example anywhere, but I admit to getting very concerned about making hurried decisions and especially with dealers!

 

I can't speak to a service history. It appears to have been a company car, then owned by a single gentleman for many years before being traded in. Clearly it wasn't driven much. The ownership from company car to single owner was in the same small city in Louisiana, so it may be that he owned/drove it the whole time, not really sure.

As far as tires, I would expect that with only 41k miles that the original tires were dead just due to age a few times over *shrug* The front tires are reported to be at about half and a little cupping if I recall.

Regarding the steering wheel, I noticed it in the photos. It looks like it is exactly where someone's wedding ring would rest. Maybe the owner had a nervous habit rubbing his ring there? Not sure. My dad did the same to every steering wheel we had, in a different location, but never the less

The mount is the transmission mount, which I understand is a common wear item on these cars by this age?

Al

 

Sorry Al my mistake, I was thinking engine mount not trans. Haven't experienced any issues with trans. mounts so others may have a more useful view on that.
Hope it turns out to be a good 'un!

 

The original tires were P-Zeros which usually lasted only 10-12k miles. Until fairly recently none of the 255/45x17 choices offered anything resmembling decent treadlife as that's not the priority with performance tires. I was just looking, though, and that appears that to be changing....with a couple manufacturers are selling that size in a design/compound with a good treadlife rating.

I bought my XJR at 30k miles and the second set of tires ...Goodyear Eagle-somethings...was already worn out. I eventually downsized to 225/60x16 just to get a tire that would last. I drive quite a bit and replacing 4 tires every 11 months was getting too expensive.

Back to the car in question....

I wonder why the brake booster is so rusty? Curious.

Cheers
DD

 

Yeah, I noticed that as well and thought to ask about it here, but forgot.

I don't have a good answer for that.

It would concern me more if other components in the engine bay or undercarriage were rusty as well, but the photos seem to show a car with no rust.

I wonder if a small VIN range of XJs were assembled with boosters with little or no paint on the booster body? I agree it is odd.



No other huge "red" flags? I think it is pretty good that we've got some high res photos of the underside and "nooks" and "crannies".

I'm going to call the guy back in about an hour to make a decision. Over 120 views of this post and not a lot of comments, so I take that as a good sign that not much has jumped out as a show stopper.


Al



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I think it is more likely that the original booster went bad and the owner replaced it with a unit from a scrapper. The servo's are a known trouble spot for these cars.

I agree with Doug on the tires, not unusual at all when you consider a heavy high performance car with soft performance tires. That combo will guarantee fast wear out times!

 

Any paint of the jacking point covers? I forgot to look !

Cheers
DD

 

Also, what are all the LED lights for on top of the steering wheel column?

 

Aftermarket alarm/radar detector/gizmo was my assumption. <shrug>

Cheers
DD

 

Ha, shades of the past "Talk me out of this 97XJR" thread

But no, doesn't seem to have any repaint. I think the underside looks pretty clean?

 

Yeah, I plan to ask about that, and that's what I assumed... but not a show stopper.

Given it has three LED light things, I'm thinking it may be, have been, a remote radar detector? There is no additional security/alarm fob with the car other than the Jaguar fobs, so that leans me toward something like a radar detector setup.

I'm sure I'll remove whatever it is and get a new column shroud that isn't peirced with the lights at some point.

 

Verified that the LEDs are for a remote radar detector.

 

The red dot on the spare isn't aligned with the valve stem

 

HA


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Well, wish me luck. I put a deposit on the car, which means I have to get down to Houston, TX next weekend, close the deal and drive it back


.

 

Congrats, hope it goes smoothly.

 

Actually, just verified it is for a front/rear mounted Calibre K40 system. I thought I saw something odd under the rear bumper photo, and now I know what it is

Now, I hope the little control "fob" is hanging around somewhere in the car so I can shut the thing off so it won't be screaming and winking at me constantly




,

 

I don't have photos of every nook and cranny, but take a look at the following three photos and see what you make of them.

It looks like some/many/all of the hoses were replaced in at the latest 2012 (by their label still attached), which I would think is good news.

Can you tell from any of the photos if the infamous lower radiator "ocotopus" is one of the newer looking hoses? Man, that would be a bonus if so

Thanks,
Al


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Man.....Go for it right now. You will not find a better example. All that has been listed is normal. The main thing I see is a perfect interior and an engine cam cover that looks brand new. Every thing else is normal maintenance. But those two cannot be restored easily. The cam cover is exceptional. That is darn important. If you buy it send me a PM and I'll talk to you about the cam cover.