Hi everyone,

I found a 1999 XJR for sale near my house. It have 156,000 miles on with some issues. The sunroof doesn't work, headlight busted, traction control light on and it needs new tires. What kind of issues should I be looking for with a vehicle with this many miles? The oil looked ok. The owner stated he changed the tranny fluid himself about 1,000 miles ago along with the spark plugs. The car appears to run smooth with the exception of the tranny which seems to shift slow. Not sure if it is just me though since I had an American Muscle car for many years with a shift kit in it which made it shift very hard.

Any help would be appreciated. I am thinking of taking it to a dealership for a look over before I buy it.

He is asking 4500 OBO

Here is the link:

http://rochester.craigslist.org/cto/1864122063.html

I can supply the Vin if needed.

Thanks

 

Good grief, walk away. I'm sure you can find a better Jag than that one for the same money.

 

thats a lot of mileage for one of these cars. at that many miles the transmission is probably on its way out (rebuild the one you have possibly for around $3000) you can probably get yourself a headlight for $500, the traction control could be a whole range of issues but its probably not cheap.

basically the 4500 asking price seems nice but it would probably end up costing you $5000 to fix all of that stuff, and you are still sitting with 150,000+ miles. my advice would be to wait a while and buy a later model 2001-2003 with less than 100,000 miles for around $10,000-$12,000, you wouldn't need to get anything fixed.

if you are willing to live with those issues, $4500 is a steal for a car like that!

 

Ditto!

 

are you handy with spanners? if not I'm inclined to agree with others...

Ask the seller if the timing chain tensioners have been replaced with alloy ones and later waterpump, if not they'll need doing. Ask what type of trans oil used and how he went about the service, there's the correct way, and all others are gearbox killers. If it shifts slow to you, try another XJR and compare the two, slow shifts usually means it needs more fluid, and its critical level in these Mercedes boxes.
It's also a Nikasil engine, meaning that cheap fuel kills them, but that type of gas was banned (high sulphur content) so if it has strong compression on each cylinder, it'll outlast a steel liner engine.
If you do go to a main agent, this is what I would ask be checked first.
then see if they have any service records and look for the above mentioned faults rectified....
Sunroof could be a fuse, or motor, or wiring.
Headlamp can be bought for 30-50 on eBay


I'm personally not scared of higher mileage Jag's, but that's because 've worked on Jaguar's all my life...got a 285k car sat in the path, but its an 2001 with all issues ironed out before it left the factory and a perfect Jaguar dealer service record.

 

That is what I thought.

He did say the previous owner changed the timing chain tensioners. Not sure about the water pump. I am going to have the Jag dealer check it over and run the VIN to see if it has been serviced at his location.

I only plan on driving the car 2 thousand miles or so a year just like my 1998 Trans AM I sold last year. So hopefully I can get several years out of it. Besides the Jag dealer told me he has a handful of XJR's with similar mileage that he services that are still going strong.

On a side note, I was really surprised at it's acceleration. I was expecting it to be an absolute dog compared to my 500 + wheel hp Trans AM (10.55 at 128 mph in the 1/4) but it was faster than I thought it would be.

I am getting it checked out Thursday so i will check back in to give an update regardless if I buy it.

 

Cool, I'm looking forward to your findings.