Hi all, I have a 1999. J308 sovereign. 4.0. I currently have the starburst 16" alloy wheels and would like to update them to a nicer alloy. Could anyone recommend and do's and don't's, I.e. Increasing wheel size, also do any other jaguar model wheels fit. Thankyou beforehand for any advice.

 

It depends... are you due for new tires? If not, I'd say stay with the same rim size. If you need new tires, then go 18's if your looking to upgrade.

 

Plenty of options for your car - XK8/R (96-05) & XJR rims (98-02), but depending on rim width you may have to get your rear wings rolled - 8-8.5" is OK.
Jaguar produced some nice wheels for our cars, so stick with oem, aftermarket always end up egg shaped. A2B has raised a good point, if you're in need of new boots why not, if not don't bother as some wheel sets are highly sort after still, the Asteroid model (like minilites) and any BBS sets.

 

Thx for your advice both of you. Are the fittings the same for most of the alloys? Just a little worried about buying the wrong wheels? Any advice on a nice upgrade ? My tyres are almost due so that's why I though now was the time. I presume s type x and type, also new xj are not the same?

 

Fittings are basically same if you don't go extreme.
18x8J or 18x8.5J with 245 or 255 wide tires look perfect on our cars.

Then you will need wheels with a PCD of 5x120.65, which was used by Jaguar until ~2003 on their XJ and XK models.
Later (x350) XJ's, X type and S type wheels will not fit.

Finally, you will need to check the offset (ET).
Most Jaguar wheels came with an ET of ~33-35, which will be ok for your car.

Aftermarket wheels offset might vary though, and results in a calculation game depending wheel size, width and ET.
There are nice little programs on the net to check all that though.

You might need chrome capped lugnuts, but I think the Starburst already came with them.

 

There are certain BMW wheels that have almost the same PCD, literally a couple of mm out so they can be persuaded to fit Jaguar with minimal trouble. But I agree with Sean, it's best to stick with OEM wheels as after market ones often go bad quickly. I have XKR wheels on my XJ8, just had them refurbished at a place local to me and it was worth every penny.

But as Eric says, check if you'll need to change wheel nuts as not all wheels used the same ones.

 

Thx guys that's exactly the info I needed. I want to stick with jaguar wheels and not aftermarket or BMW wheels etc. So maybe slightly newer xj wheels or xkr sound nice. Will start looking. Thx again for all your help and happy motoring