Hello everyone,
I just picked up my new to me, 1998 xj8 Vanden Plas.
it was sat for 6 years had 85000 miles on it. It's a driving project. Pretty clean.. needs new front and rear bushings for shocks.. any advise things to do things to check.

 

From my experience:
Plastic thermostat tower and hard plastic hoses to coolant reservoir will break if you look at them. Replace now, not too expensive.
My orange bushings and hats were shot all around. I replaced including shocks. In hindsight, didn't have to do shocks.
If your high mount stop lamp is still there, be very carefully when cleaning around it so it doesn't disintegrate.

 

Welcome to the forum. You can find a section at the top of the x308 forum page titled “stickys”. You’ll find some helpful links there including common repairs. The suspension parts you need are available from Rockauto.com or Partsgeek for a decent price.

 

The more accomplished veterans here may suggest you check to see if the original plastic secondary and primary timing chain tensioners have been replaced with newer, metal ones, and whether the main pressure valve in the transmission has been upgraded. There’s a lot of info on those issues here.

 

I do not believe that the time chain tensioners have been done or the transmission item that was mentioned. Is either one something that an okay home diy could do.

 

Have noticed a lot of oil on transmission pan under car. Like I said it had sat for 6 yrs. The person I got it off just added an external fuel pump because the original was bad and he did not want to have to pull tank to do it.

 

Both are beyond my limited capabilities. If you are good at wrenching, my guess is both are doable. Read the stickies and search posts about these. Both can be fatal to either the transmission or engine if not caught in time. The tensioner issue was addressed for engines built past 8/2001. My particular car is a 7/2002 build.