Did the XJs go to metal before the S-Types did? I've heard to avoid pre 2003 S-Types for this reason, but see people suggesting 2002 XJs for the same reason. I've been thinking about a 2006 VDP, but an immaculately clean 2002 VDP came up for 1/3 the money and that at least quells my air suspension fears. The 2002 has 85k miles and new brakes and tires.

 

Not meant to be insulting, but you are looking at a vehicle that will probably need some replacement work, either up front or at least ongoing. If you are capable of doing this work yourself, these cars are a pretty good deal. The tensioner upgrade is a days work and a little over $200 for parts, not a show stopper. The procedure has been covered many times on the forum.

 

I'm aware of that, I just wondered why that was the going line on the site.

 

Torrid
Here is information about the tensioners from forum member Sparkenzap about his 2002 and 2003 XJ vehicles:

"If I paid to get the work done on my wife's car, it still would have been much less money than the budget I gave you. But we have been extremely lucky, AND I believe the MY 02 and MY 03 cars have some of the problems sorted.

Jim:
Although I have no proof, I have been watching the forum and I believe that the later model cars have less transmission woes than the early ones. I may prophetically change the servo regulator piston on the transmission one day, but, so far, no issues. The cars built after August 2001 have the Gen III tensioners, and just as importantly, I think, the Morse style primary chain."

I have 2001 XJ8 that the broken/cracked secondary tensioners caused it to jump one tooth and caused the vehicle to run on only 4 cylinders (July 2010 almost 92,000 miles).

I ended up with replacing all the primary & secondary timing chains/tensioners/blade guides.

Jim Lombardi

 

Well I just found a 1998 XJR with less than 70k miles that recently had the tensioners replaced along with the complete rest of the timing replacement. I hadn't planned to buy a car that old but with new tires and brakes in addition to all the rest of the documented service, if I hear back that the car is still available I may be taking a long drive to pick it up this weekend.

 

you still have to know which tensioners were used.

there have been cars where the dealer replaced the tensioner with the second gen plastic pieces because that's what the parts book said.