Indeed I doubt the 90+ mph extended sessions on the turnpike would've been as smooth lol.

 

So how the tires doing? So much talk before the purchase, not a thing afterwards

 

You must've missed this lol.

But yes they've been stellar, I encountered some moderate snow & accumulation on my return journey & they were unflappable.

 

Hello everyone, first time poster here.

I just purchased a 2003 XJR down in North Carolina; then drove it back home to Winnipeg in the middle of Canada. It was a nearly 3000km trip. The car itself was fairly cheap and has issues which reflect the price. Rear shocks are shot (w/ CATS), door locks are not functioning well, failed clear coat on the roof, valve cover and pan leaks, and it was in a minor front end accident - of which the previous owner did a so so repair. In Canada, it's nearly impossible to get a rust free version at that price point, so that's what honed me in on this car. And it had the colours I wanted - black/black. The car has 140k kms and the previous owner had it for 10 years.

I'm a full on DIYer, so I'll be tackling all the issues. The first will be the rear shocks - $$ GULP! The front seem okay, but the upper bushings are creating that orange debris on the mounts, so those'll be done too.

I've been lurking here while I researched the purchase, really happy this resource is here.

 

Took it to a shop for an alignment and suspension inspection, to try and solve my nagging pulling issue. This one actually knows what they're talking about with these generation Jags, so I was hoping they'd find something the other shops and I had missed. Nope, still pulls. Last thing to try is to reshim the output shafts to try and solve the rear camber, but that's not likely to solve it. The car was in an accident at some point before I got it, so it's possible the pulling is caused by frame misalignment. No way to know that without putting it on a jig... *sigh*

 

Did you measure your ride height on all 4 corners?
When one of my shocks started to get bad, one side dropped 1 cm, causing alignment differences and some other stuff.
As you know, shocks DO influence ride height on our cars, and my car actually started pulling to the left after I replaced the shocks (before an other alignment).
Just a thought.

 

On my quest to improve the visual backdrop of my Pentas I've noticed the wheel hubs/spindles themselves are the discolored/corroded looking pieces & not my rotors. Being I just had the wheel bearings replaced, I gather there's not a lot I can do that makes financial sense as I'm not tossing that repair out for the sake of cosmetics ?!

 

Congrats on the new car.
If budget it really tight for a while, you can consider to convert the shocks to non-CATS, they do around a 100 USD for each.
You can then disconnect the module and all is reversible on the next replacement.
By the way, those rear donuts do start to loose some powder due to aging.
But I have never seen really bad ones, the surface area is much larger than the fronts (which really kind of collapse).

 

Thanks for the heads up on the shocks. I had thought about just using the regular shocks - I had already bought the regular Bilsteins for the back not knowing that the car had the CATS system. I'm just in the process of trying to return them but if they can work, I'd totally just throw them in.

Couple questions about doing that:
Does doing that throw the car's computer into warning message craziness if I start just disconnecting stuff that's supposed to be there?
Do you know of a thread where this is discussed?

Really appreciate the suggestion!! Thanks.

 

The module for the CATS is a stand alone, located in the right footwell (US passenger), hidden behind the glove box.
You can just pull the plug out of the module, bit tight but doable.
​However, disconnecting CATS shocks put them in their default hard mode, and I am not sure how the car will handle if you only replace the rear for standard (sport??) shocks.

 

I replaced two tires and an Asteroid wheel plus had to have 2nd Asteroid repaired. All thanks to a Pennsylvania pothole big enough to surface a submarine in. The benefits of living in the state with highest fuel tax in the USA plus toll roads.

 

You guys are scaring off potential owners by treating completion of a 1,000 mile trip, without breakdowns or incident, as a major accomplishment . It is not, and should not be, a big deal. I have made numerous cross country treks in my XJR and if I had to drive 3,000 miles in the morning I would simply check the oil and tire pressure first. Now a 1970's British car would be another story.

Some years back I was considering a Porsche 928. I saw many similar posts on the Porsche forums and thought, "OMG, are these cars so unreliable that making a 1,000 mile trip" is treated like a moon launch?".

 

To clarify a lot of us are fanatics for preventative maintenance (maybe unnecessary at times) to have as close to an as new experience as possible. Many of the postings are about necessary upgrades to make sure your X308 is as reliable as it should be (timing chain tensioners, water pumps, etc.). Once fixed your X308s should be as trouble free as any car on the road.

The only struggle I have had is getting the notoriously finicky ride as smooth as I would like with new shocks, bushings, bearings, tires etc. But bushings and shocks are normal wear and tear items for a 20 year old car.

I also have taken XJRs and XJ8s on both long trips and daily driver duty for 7 years and logged over 100K total with no breakdowns. These cars are solid but Jalops are always going to find something to tinker with.

 

Not an accomplishment in my case more so a rare & anticipated event.

 

King Charles, could you post a photo of this circumstance with your Penta wheels? I'm curious to see the issue, since I'm getting ready for new front wheel bearings.

 

It's nothing major but when the sun hits it just right I can see the discolored hubs & calipers through the Penta openings, I've ordered some nice caliper covers, but there's no way I'm going to buy new hubs & bearings after just having the bearings replaced 6 weeks ago. I'll try & get a pic when the weather breaks.

 

Why not a quick clean up (wire brush) and a light coat of paint on the hub?
I have seen more people doing that before.

 

May be worth a shot.

I've taken to washing/detailing my car myself these days, it's the blessing & the curse as I know it's done right, but I also see every single imperfection that I'd otherwise miss lol.

Just got through doing it now, feeling all proud as I look @ her, then I hop in, chest full of warm & fuzzy machismo, the damn overhead console drops in to keep me humble lol.

 

I haven't measured all 4 corners to compare to the factory specs yet. I did do new shocks all around within the past few months, as well as new rear spring donuts (the old ones were much better than I expected, just beginning to apple-core). The rear shocks made a noticeable difference in ride quality, and they affected the ride height for sure. I don't think I have the numbers, but I did a before/after measurement and they caused about 1-2cm difference in ride height from the old shocks.

 

Seriously that overhead console is a piece of engineering execution I've yet to grasp, the bane of my existence lol. It falls about every 2 months usually as I'm basking in the glow of my sense of accomplishment.


My son's latest hobby is creating personalized crystal LED lit USB drives, I had him make me a green lit Jaguar 32 GB zip. Call me pedantic but the blue lit one I have in my head unit now irks me lol. This should do nicely w/ the green motif. Although my son needs to work on centering his text better. Below is a pic of it lit in my laptop, I'll snap one in the head unit soon. Actually a quality piece of work if I do say so myself.




Quick snapshot of in the head unit




Edit :

To add insult to injury, after struggling w/ my overhead console to finally get it secure, I hop in the car this evening only to be greeted by darkness ?! I forgot to plug the console back in lol.