Picked her up tonight, saved from certain demise. I never thought there would be a day when a racing green XJR could be had for $1500!

 

Year? Mileage? Source of threatened demise?

regards

david

 

How is everyone finding these cheap BRG XJRs?!?!? I've been looking for months and I can't find one within 500 miles of me. Nice find, and good on you for saving a rare one from death!

 

That's crazy money. It even has wheels included at that price!

Graham

 

Please supply more on this story, i.e. year, miles, body condition & mechanical condition etc.
Sounds like you picked up a real bargain!

 

Patience+Craigslist= sub-$2000 XJ's, usually with a transmission or engine issue. Greatest value on the road.

 

So the story goes like this; ad on craigslist "1998 XJR, $2500 and the lady's phone #" one blurry picture of the front end and no other information. I called as soon as I saw the ad and set up a time to go look at it. Drove to look at the car (kind of a bad part of town). Saw right away the r/r tyre was flat and rotors rusty. She came outside and said we need jumper cables (I brought a battery anticipating this). At this point I made a note of the doglegs being rusty. I put the battery in and we opened the hood to reveal a broken off coolant bypass hose at the radiator plugged with a twig. She pointed out the recently replaced supercharger tensioner pulley (installed incorrectly). She advised when they replaced that they broke the hose and that was it for her. She brought it home and surrendered it as a loss. I started it up to find a mild exhaust leak but no evidence of washed nikasil cylinders. Fired right up, no tensioner noise, smooth as silk. The only fault light on was the transmission fault message. Fortunately I brought a Genrad and was able to pull codes (p0730, p0731, ratio death codes). I told her that the trans was more than likely smoked but hard to say for sure. On to the negation portion I asked her bottom line, she came back with $2k and I came in at $1,300. We settled on $1500. She was very sweet and as honest as she could be not knowing cars very well. So I take the car to a gas station, clear the codes, air up the tire, check the oil and set the coolant level. I say a hail Mary and begin the 20 mile drive home with the expansion tank cap loose. I note some suspension noise and rear end sway but the car is surprisingly nice. After an uneventful drive home I decide to juice it near my house to find it still pulls HARD. Next part of the story for whoever is still following...
I drive the car into work this AM to shake it down properly. I put it up in the air to find the rust is mostly isolated to the doglegs. Has red Konis in front (noisy). R/R trunnion bearing is gone (literally), hence the sway. Cam covers are leaking. I noticed through the inspection cover a shiny new torque convertor which reminded me the codes never returned. Undertray is missing as expected, tires are bald as expected. The audio system is out to lunch, havent messed with that at all yet. I looked the VIN up to see service history and found all the recalls were done. Pulled the air filter and found no evidence at all of blowby and the oil looks relatively clean. The interior will clean up nicely and the headliner has amazingly not fallen yet. The car has 170,000 miles which if it was in any worse condition would be it's death sentence but I have too much of a soft spot for racing green 308Rs. It's a project car that needs lots of love. After it's refurb I'd like to see it wearing some chrome asteroids. That or I buy the set of BBS Milans my buddy is thinking about selling.

 

Great story!!! Good luck with the resto -- photos?

 

Congrats on the purchase!

She is lucky to find you too!

Can't wait to follow your progress.

Stewart

 

Nice find.

 

Great story, I love those finds!

 

I'm thinking about doing all the upper bright work mat black and the blades body color like the S-Type and X-Type sport packs were. Has anyone done this? I will take more pictures when I have a few free minutes.

 

Great deal!

 

picked up in uk a nice red xj8 with 133k miles,engine light on and intermittant restricted performance.
took a gamble that most things can be fixed.
won the car on ebay for the huge sum of £920.00

both of the above have been fixed,so far for less than £100 quid,but found today it will need a new battery.

you can find some crackers for silly money.

 

Been slowly picking away at this project. Wish there was an easier way to post pictures of the progress. As of now, I cut out the rotted out exhaust center section flexpipes and welded in new ones, replaced the r/r trunnion bearings, took some of the interior out for repair/replacement (previous owner was heavy smoker, going to take some serious cleaning). I just took it to my body guy today to have the dogleg and quarter panel rust repaired. I pulled off the exterior door belt moldings to give it a cleaner look (same way they did the 100s). I'm leaning toward a set of black chrome asteroids but haven't decided for sure yet. I want to see how the body turns out before I go too crazy with it, plus I picked up an 04 Vanden Plas that has kept me distracted as well.

 

Here are a few pictures of my project! Welcome to my nightmare!