A couple years back I bought a '97 XK8 coupe off the Dallas Craigslist for $4500. Once I sorted out the issues, it became my daily driver, but My son has been pressuring me to LS swap it and the trans is acting up so I have decided to start that process.




Then last week I come across a 41K mile BRG '98 XJ8 on craigslist for $2950. I try to ignore it but the price dropped to $2,550 and I couldn't resist, so now I have another great Jaguar:




Making a list of parts/repairs it needs and parts to buy. Got to do the tensioners, shocks/shockmounts and get rid of a few trouble codes. The XK8 motor trans will give me lots of spare parts. I have a set of 18X8 silver pentas I got at the Junkyard for $150 that will look good. Most of the spare parts I have been collecting from the junkyard for my XK8 have come from XJ8's/XJR's so I'm sure they will fit.

Then I need to buff out the paint like I did on the XK8 and it should be heck of a daily driver.

 

Score !

 

Nice, I just bought mine off of craigslist for $3500. I'm making it my daily driver. It also has a few codes to sort out but for now it runs like a top. I waxed it out but it could use a good buffing.

 

The XK8 barely made it home when I bought it. A block away from buying it, I'm thinking "I KNEW I should have test drove it, first and I probably could have got another $1000 off the price". Wheel bearing howl, multiple clunks from both the front and the back, no brakes... my son was on my bumper in the 5.0 with the flashers on by the last few miles.

Other than the clunking left front shock, the wallowing and longish braking, The XJ made the 65 miles back home from BFE Texas like a trooper. I kept waiting for my son to blow by me in the 5.0 @ 90 mph, but he ended up minutes behind, this time.

 

I like the looks of your XK8. I initially was looking for a BMW, had one as a teenager growing up and wanted another one. Luckily for me the guy who I bought my XJ8 from put BMW in the add so it popped up when i did a BMW search on craigslist. I'm in love with mine.

 

Nice! My dad recently bought two XJR's. One we are brining back up to snuff. The other is a parts car for both of us. Surprising how cheap these cars, even compared to other euro cars of the time.

 

Tensioners and un-reliable transmissions have put many in the bone yard and caused prices to drop. I have a 2001 that's cosmetically in great shape, and no codes to sort out, but it over-heats and the tranny doesn't drop into first right a way so I'll either have to sell it cheap as a parts car or junk it. Not worth repairing since you can get a good one like you guys did for under 3 grand. What a shame.

 

A 2001 can live on with a LS swap from jag specialties, so at least unlike some cars it still has value to a hot rodder as a roller.

A 2001 Lincoln, BMW or Audi or similar 4drs don't have any value as a roller in the same boat and have a worse fate awaiting them. I come across many newer 7 and 5 series BMW's in the junkyard that look like they could drive out...but that will never happen.

I'll probably have to put $2,000 into my XJ to make a look and drive like I want it, so a $2,500 car ($2,921 with tax, title, license plates and inspection) is really a nice $5,000 car. If someone offered me $6K for it when I'm done, I probably wouldn't sell it. Its worth more to me as a nice daily driver I can confidently put another 60K nearly worry free miles on for about $.10/mile fixed costs and about $.27/mile total cost that will eat up long stretches of highway.

If someone offered me $10K for my XK8, I wouldn't sell it and may never sell it for any price, because it is beautiful and I love it. It would like selling a kid.

20 year old jags are really mechanics cars. If you don't have a garage, tools and free time, you have to have money. As the bad cars get parted out/crushed and good ones get into the hands of mechanics that appreciate them, the values will go back up.

This pattern has repeated on lots of cars in the past, some more unreliable than Jags.

 

If the transmission is just starting to "act up", its most likely a worn pressure regulator in the valve body. If you quit driving it till you get it fixed before the A-drum actually pops, then its less than $1000 in parts/fluids and a few hours work.

 

This one just popped up on craigslist near me for $6500 so I think we both got good deals. And it doesn't say anything about the tensioners being replaced.

https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/...541588224.html

 

I bought the XK8 for the specific purpose of doing an LS1/T56 manual transmission swap, so even if it was $200 to fix the transmission, I will let the guy who buys mine for $350 worry about that.

The 12,000 nearly trouble free miles I got out of the original motor/trans were a lucky bonus, but they were never going to stay in the car.

 

I'd be surprised if they got anywhere near $6500 for that one. A 2001 with 135,000 miles might fetch $2000-$2500 in Northern CA, like this one...

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto...542123656.html

 

Speaking of Craigslist striking again......

https://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/ct...541772932.html

Not just a chevy engine swap, but a Jaguar grafted to an entire chevy truck.

 

If I lived in Houston or New Orleans, that would be my Jag of choice.

 

My Repair parts are still arriving, but until the hood shocks show up i'm limited to about two minutes under the hood, using the back of my head/shoulders as a prop rod.

I pulled the engine cover trim plates off the top of the motor to get the engine Number. It appears to be 9801591947 so I ordered the early version valve cover gaskets.

Found a comfy little mouse house under the intake manifold and they snacked through the left bank knock sensor wires, so it looks like i'll be soldering a patch into those. The other wires/hoses in the valley look intact.

I'm guessing that was at least one of reasons for the "check engine" light.

Next weekend I'll do the Shock mounts and swap the ABS wheel sensors, then pull the valve covers and put in new tensioners.

 

I did buy my 1998 XJ8 off of Craigs List. It takes some luck, but I got a good one ($3,500) with 85K miles with all the records showing no money was spared by the previous owner who happened to be a rather world famous person in information technology, so money was not an issue for him. It honestly looks and feels like a new car. I bought a BMW 740 IL (the E32 12 cylinder) on CL about 2 years ago which I dumped a lot of time and money on ending up with a still troublesome piece of crap which I sold for far less than I had in it. Karma.

 

Did you buy the black parts car that was on the Dallas Craigslist?

 

There is currently a running, high mile, Black '02 XJR on the Dallas CL for $2500. From the picture I can't see if it has Brembos, but if it did...


I'll just keep telling myself "it doesn't have Brembos"

 

Ok, so...once I only owe $2500, I can break even when I sell mine.. lol.

 

There was a black x308 XJR for parts on the Dallas craigslist for $1000. It looked pretty clean. I dont have the room or I would've been up there with my exursion and trailer.