Greetings! Long time reader, first time poster. I decided it was finally time for me to buy a nice car, and decided I wanted a Jaguar. First, I bought a 2000S-Type, but it had issues; I ended up selling it a week after I bought it for basically the same price I paid for it + the repairs I had done to make it driveable. What I really wanted, though, was an XJ8, and by luck I found this 2001 XJ8 with 29,500 original miles on it! 😲 It is in absolutely pristine condition, albeit a few minor issues (the paint on the top of the passenger's side door is a bit worn, the antenna is broken off, and some interior plastic has degraded to the point that it disintegrates when you try to remove it), but it's basically perfect. It drives like a brand-new car; I had my mechanic check it out (I trust him, he's very good and very fair), and he told me that if I hadn't already bought it, he'd recommend I buy it immediately. The seller initially wanted $14,000 (which is way over book value), but I talked him down to $7,000 cash (which is all I was willing to spend), and he finally agreed. 🤗

To save space, I've only uploaded one photo here, and the rest on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmBodKsu


Anyway, there are a few things I'd like to fix/do, and while I'm going to search the forum for posts about these, maybe you guys can help point me in the right direction.

1. First things first, there is a "check rear light" error code being displayed; maybe it's the third brake light? (See #6 below) I already checked all the rear bulbs, and everything is working correctly.
2. The airbag light is also on; not sure why, but from my reading, it could be related to the fact that the driver's seatbelt doesn't return correctly? I have to manually feed it back into the column to get it to go in all the way when I take the seatbelt off.
3. I want to convert the headlights & fog lights to LEDs. I've come across a lot of LED bulbs, but I'm not sure which is the best (easiest to install?) to go with. 🤔
4. This XJ8 has the stock stereo, not the premium one; the 2000S-Type had the Premium stereo, and it just "sounded better", to me. I'd really like to get the bits to upgrade the stock radio to the premium version.
5. I've already looked at a TON of posts about installing an aftermarket head unit to replace the stereo; the issue is that there is apparently only a single DIN aftermarket plastic surround, and I really want a double-DIN. 😢 Or, alternately, trying to get the factory stereo from a newer XJ8 model (one that uses a large touch screen) and replacing everything with that. Cost prohibitive, maybe?
6. Finally (for now), the third brake light has detached from the rear window, and when I tried to reattach it, it cracked into several pieces. Seems like most of the ones I'm finding on eBay are in the same condition, but a new one is like ~$200. And I can't really figure out how to get the old one detached from the wire running down. 🤦*♂️

Anyway, that's all for now. 😎

 

Congrats on the purchase -- looks like a good one.
Couple things I can offer.... First, regarding the "Check Rear Lights" issue I have the same warning with my car. In my case, I have replaced my tail/brake lights with LEDs so they fool the car into thinking the brake lights are out. I have resistors to splice into the wires, just haven't gotten around to it. Second, on a related subject I upgraded the headlights and foglights to LED. I got mine from superbrightleds.com and can highly recommend their quality. The fogs were a direct plug & play. The H7s for the headlights were not, due to the way the factory bulbs mount in the housings. I ended up modifying the stock housings by shortening the height of the ring the lights fit in, then used epoxy to secure the mounting piece that comes with the lights. Each housing took about a half hour to do both lights, plus overnight for epoxy curing. Once that was done, the lights are very secure and very bright. Going back to halogens is not an option due to the modifications, so this is not for the faint of heart....
I also replaced the little 194 pilot light in the high beam housing with an LED, mostly to match the bright white color of the headlights. If you do this, be aware that the pilots will remain lit (dimly) for up to an hour after shutting the car off. Not a problem, they're just picking up residual voltage in the system after the car is shut off. It does look odd to see a pair of eyes looking back at you from the driveway, though....
-Steve-

 

Hi
TheRealMoleman
Thanks for sharing your car with us.
Looks great and such low mileage,well done.
Hope it gives you much enjoyment every time you use it.
Take care
Andy

 

Looks a treat, stay active here & I'm sure anything you need to know about these gems can & will be answered !


PS :

I have a double din head unit installed in mine as do others here so it's entirely possible.

 

Congrats on the purchase, beautiful car.

You will not regret that price if the car is as good as you mention it is, it will be paid back double by having less issues.
Still, low or high mileage, add a check on the camshaft chain tensioners and checking / replacing coolant hoses and the thermostat + thermostat tower to your list.

On the brake lights, the third one is no part of the earning system.
If it only comes up every now and then, it might indicate a deteriorating battery.
If every time on, it is easy to check all bulbs, then be sure all contacts are clean, and everything fits tight.
Also check the brake / rear light bulbs extra careful, there have been instances where they melted inside over each other, still functioning, but causing the message.
Finally, if it is all excluded, you might have a faulty module.

On the headlight conversion, you can buy aftermarket bulb holders for a BMW E38 very cheap.
They are intended for HID, but I am sure they can be a better base for the LED conversion without butchering the original ones.

 

Before you go spending any money at all on a stereo head unit, you need to pull all the door panels and inspect/replace/repair the speakers. At this age, just like all the interior plastics, the foam around the speaker cones are deteriorated. If the car were up in Canada, they might have survived, but if its been in Tampa for 18 summers, I'd be shocked if they are not completely toast. Mine in Texas were toast by about five years ago. If you fix or replace all the speakers, you may find that you like the way it sounds. I believe there's some posts on here about speaker repair kits and suggestions on aftermarket replacements.