I wanted to post a short message to all the other Jaguar (especially the other XJ8) owners. I've just purchased a 1998 XJ8 with 85,000 miles and she has been well taken care of. For her first 70,000 she was maintained at a Jaguar dealship, always garaged, driven only on weekends and never in inclement weather. For the next 15,000 over 2 years she was used to commute locally and again was well maintained by a caring associate of the original owner. She's a beauty. I've always love the 90's Jag look and hope to cherish this cat for a long time.
I don't know much about these cars so I am looking forward to this forum being a great help to me. In my youth I worked on some my own vehicles,
(my beloved 1969 DS21 Pallas, my 1955 Buick Roadmaster and my BSA Lightning) but that is years in the past and at this point I'm hoping to correctly diagnose problems, fix the small ones myself and farm out the big ones (fingers crossed) if I have any to experienced mechanics.

Thank you all in advance for your knowledge and experience with XJ8's.

Stuart in Ct. aka (chefstu)

 

Hi Stuart:

Welcome to the forum and to the 'club'. The car looks and sounds nice. Read up on the typical faults and take care of them, and the car should serve you well for years. Hopefully, you were able to get a maintenance history with the vehicle. If the plastic timing tensioners haven't been replaced, that will be your first order of business.

Cheers!
Scott

 

Welcome!

The X308 is beautiful, one of the best body designs ever and they say the last one with Sir William's style included.

Vector

 

The plastic timing tensioners have been replaced. But I have a couple other issues.
1. I have a constant Trunk Open message.
2. I have an intermittent ABS and Stability Control warning light which goes away after the car is shut off.
Any thoughts?

 

For #2, the easiest thing to start with is to clean the ABS wheel sensors. If that doesn't fix it, then there are other potential causes that you can look up here on the forum, all the way up to the ABS module.

Good luck with your new XJ - she looks like a great find.

 

Stuart, if you can get your head round to understanding how a 1969 Citreon DS21 Pallas worked, an undoubtedly beautiful car, but designed by Martians and built by the French, then with the help of the JTIS and this forum your X308 wont be much harder to keep on the road than your 1955 Buick.

 

Hi Stuart,

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on acquiring such a nice low-mileage X308!

You'll find lots of helpful information here and plenty of other owners willing to help.

Enjoy your beautiful Jag!

Cheers,

Don

 

My Thanks to All so far for the encouragement,

BTW Andrew, your assessment is correct, but my head isn't what it used to be.

Best,
Stuart

 

That's a very pretty car. The trunk open might be due to broken wires in the right boot hinge. That's a very common problem - I had it, but for me it was just the boot lights out and that also caused other security issues. The ABS fault may be due to the solder issue on the joints of the ABS module - another common issue. I had this one too. I fixed it myself for nothing. Lot's of write ups on this in the archives. Welcome and cheers !

 

You Tube has a lot of good instructional videos on brake, transmissions, ABS.
Auto Enginuity makes a good OBD2 reader if you add the Jag enhancement.
(Not cheap $500, but if you do most of your own work, you will save $$$).
Ebay is a great source of parts. They are cheap and plentiful.
NEVER let the engine get hot. Tow it home if you break a serpentine belt since
that drives the water pump. Great cars, but they need love and attention to thrive.

 

Welcome Stuart - Beautiful car!