Hi all,

I took the plunge and actually bought a 2003 XJ Sport. The car had a leaking t-stat tower, broken plastic studs on the trunk lid trim piece, a couple small and insignificant seeming oil leaks, and needs a couple tires and an alignment.

As far as the coolant goes, I've replaced the t-stat tower with an aluminum tower, replaced the t-stat, replaced the water pump and crossover, and replaced a couple hose clamps. Vacuumed evaced the system after draining and found a couple more leaking clamps. Eliminated all leaks and it held 15 psi for a day and 23 in/hg for a day. I think the cooling system is pretty well sealed now. Flushed the system out with water and have refilled with a "long-life" coolant.

I removed the broken plastic "studs" from the trunk trim/moulding and threaded some small screws into the spots that had stubs of the studs left and used standard nuts and washers from the back side (as before, but metal). I used cage nuts on the middle area that has the tabs and used wide panhead screws from the back side. It looks like it should and I also won't be lifting the trunk lid by the plastic moulding, but by the bottom of the lid.

I bought a large jug of 5w40 oil and a filter and will be changing the 5 year old oil. No leaks from the cam cover gaskets.There is a small leak around the lower oil pan and drain plug, which doesn't look like timing covers. More like this: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...er-leak-88200/

The under body and frame and subframes and suspension all look to be in pretty good shape, considering this is a rust belt car. I don't think this thing was driven in the winter or salt. There is one area of concern, which are the rear lower subframe spacers, which appear to be made of aluminum. How critical are these? If one of these disintegrates, will the lower subframe collapse? It's # 12 in the photo.






The front left tire has some inner wear. I don't see or feel any abnormal wiggles or wobbles in the front end. I'm thinking an alignment should take care of that. I have a slight pulse in the front at higher speeds, but I found that the tire that is worn also has no wheel weights on the wheel, so it's obviously out of balance. I've literally never balanced an alloy wheel that came out perfect without adding weight, and I've never had a wheel that needed sticky weights be anywhere near close.

I think I've gotten a crash course in owning and maintaining an X308 in a matter of a few weeks. Hopefully I can spend more time with the rubber on the road than with the rubber in the air. Fingers crossed. Pics to come.

 

Tere is a Jaguar part company out of Ohio by the name of Welch something

If you have the part # put in their search box

Motorcarman ( Bob ) has some shortcuts that my apply to your target item to replace